Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management

Moderated mediation model of relationship between perceived organizational

justice and counterproductive work behavior
Mingzheng Wu, Xiaoling Sun, Delin Zhang, Ci Wang,
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JCHRM
7,2
64
Received 19 October 2014
Accepted 18 October 2016
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Journal of Chinese Human
Resource Management
Vol. 7 No. 2, 2016
pp. 64-81
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2040-8005
DOI 10.1108/JCHRM-07-2016-0016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-8005.htm
Moderated mediation model of
relationship between perceived
organizational justice and
counterproductive work behavior
Mingzheng Wu
Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, China
Xiaoling Sun
Department of Psychology, Hangzhou Normal University,
Hangzhou, China
Delin Zhang
Department of Anesthesiology, the First Affiliated Hospital,
School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, and
Ci Wang
Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, China
Abstract
Purpose – This study aimed to develop a moderated mediation model to explain the relationship
between perceived organizational justice and the counterproductive work behavior (CWB) of Chinese
public servants. In this model, the authors assumed that job burnout mediates the relationship between
perceived organizational justice and CWB and that moral identity moderates the relationship between
job burnout and CWB.
Design/methodology/approach – A total of 210 public servants in China participated in this study,
and their characteristics were measured by self-report tools. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses
were used to test the moderated mediation model.
Findings – Analysis of the data demonstrated that perceived organizational justice, job burnout and
moral identity influenced CWB. Moral identity moderated the relationship between job burnout and
CWB, such that individuals with low moral identity are more likely to engage in CWB. Moreover, job
burnout mediated the effect of perceived organizational justice on CWB, and the mediating effect of job
burnout was moderated by moral identity. The indirect effect of perceived organizational justice on
CWB through job burnout was significant among individuals with low moral identity but not among
individuals with high moral identity.
Research limitations/implications – The findings highlight the self-regulatory function of moral
identity in preventing CWB.
The study was supported by the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of
Education of China (Grant No. 10YJCXLX047, 14YJC190016), the Philosophy and Social Science
Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China (Grant No. 11JCJY03YB), Hangzhou Social and Scientific
Program (Grant No. B13JY04), and the Interdisciplinary Research Seed Foundation for the
Excellent Youth Scholars of Zhejiang University (Grant No. JCZZ-2013011).
 Practical implications – The study offers several significant suggestions to reduce CWB in Chinese Moderated
public sector administration, such as by improving organizational justice perception, recruiting and
selecting individuals with reference to their moral identity and monitoring employees’ job burnout
mediation
regularly. model
Originality/value – The authors developed and verified a moderated mediated model on the
relationship between perceived organizational justice and CWB. The study revealed that job burnout
has a mediating effect on the perceived organizational justice–CWB relation, providing important
insights into the processes through which perceived organizational justice affects CWB. 65
Keywords Counterproductive work behavior, Job burnout, Moral identity,
Perceived organizational justice
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) has been defined broadly as employee
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behavior that intends to harm the organization or its members (Robinson and Bennett,
1995; Jacobs et al., 2013). Robinson and Bennett (1995) identified two primary types of
CWB. CWB directed to the organization (CWB-O) consists of behavior such as theft,
fraud, sabotage, intentionally working slowly and wasting resources. CWB directed to
individuals in the organizations (CWB-I) consists of behavior such as verbal assault and
aggression. Research investigating the causes and correlations of CWB in organizations
has increased dramatically, aiming to develop effective intervention strategies to
change these factors and, thereby, reduce CWB. Perceived organizational justice
influences the frequency of employees’ engagement in CWB (Aquino et al., 1999).
Scholars have devoted substantial effort to exploring the psychological mechanisms
through which this influence occurs, such as negative emotion (Spector and Fox, 2002;
Jacobs et al., 2013), trust (Aryee et al., 2002), work–family conflict (Judge and Colquitt,
2004) and moral courage (Hannah et al., 2013). In the present article, according to
resource conservation theory (Hobfoll, 2001; Wright and Hobfoll, 2004), we propose that
job burnout might also serve as the mediating mechanism in the relationship between
perceived organizational justice and CWB. Low organizational justice creates a
disturbing and hostile work atmosphere and reduces individuals’ perceived capacity to
work. If employees work in this atmosphere for a long time, they become susceptible to
job burnout and therefore engage in CWB to prevent the further loss of resources
(Hobfoll, 2001; Bolton et al., 2012).
Although many studies have focused primarily on identifying the risk factors of
CWB and its psychological mechanism, little attention has been devoted to the role of
self-regulatory processes in mitigating the negative effect of these risk factors on CWB.
In consideration of the theory and research on moral identity (Aquino and Reed, 2002;
Aquino et al., 2009), we further propose that moral identity would be one of the potential
factors which can alleviate the effect of job burnout following low organizational justice
on CWB. As a moral self-regulative mechanism, moral identity can facilitate moral
behavior and inhibit immoral behavior (Aquino and Reed, 2002). We predict that moral
identity moderates the effect of job burnout on CWB. Engaging in CWB, such as
retaliation, revenge and sabotage, may threaten the moral self-concept of individuals
with high moral identity and therefore reduce their intention to implement CWB
(Reynolds and Ceranic, 2007). Individuals with high moral identity who experience job
burnout in the face of low organizational justice might leave the organization or engage
 JCHRM in constructive resistance but not in destructive behavior such as CWB (Greenbaum
7,2 et al., 2013).
Based on these arguments and previous findings, we developed a moderated
mediation model to explain the psychological mechanisms underlying the relationship
between perceived organizational justice and CWB. In our model, we assumed that job
burnout mediates the influence of perceived organizational justice on CWB and that
66 moral identity moderates the effect of job burnout on CWB. Our model might contribute
to CWB and moral identity literature by examining how moral identity moderates the
mediating effect of job burnout on the relationship between perceived organizational
justice and CWB. Previous studies on CWB have been conducted in private or
semi-public sectors, and few studies have examined issues related to CWB in the public
sectors, restricting the generality of CWB-related theories and findings. We tested our
model in the Chinese public sector.
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2. Theoretical background and hypotheses

2.1 Perceived organizational justice and counterproductive work behavior
Organizational justice refers to employees’ perceptions of fairness within their
organization (Greenberg, 1987). Most studies have focused on the relation between low
organizational justice and CWB based on social exchange theory, which posits that
employees reciprocate unfair and unjust treatment by the organization in the form of
CWB (Andrews and Kacmar, 2001). When employees perceive organizational
procedures to be unfair, they punish those responsible for the inequity to restore justice
(Aquino et al., 2006; Skarlicki and Folger, 1997). However, from the perspective of the
deontic model of justice, fairness is a moral virtue and should be considered an end in
itself. Organizational injustice can be seen as moral transgression because it violates the
norms of moral and social conduct and thus engenders negative moral emotions and
reactions (Folger and Skarlicki, 2005). These negative moral emotions might serve as the
impetus to CWB as a form of punishment to restore moral social order (O’Reilly and
Aquino, 2011).
Spector et al. (Spector and Fox, 2002; Fox and Spector, 1999) proposed the job stress/
emotion/CWB model, which emphasizes the central role of negative emotions in CWB.
According to this model, organizational injustice always evokes negative emotions and
thus facilitates employees’ engagement in CWB to reduce their negative emotions. For
instance, Jacobs et al. (2013) investigated the relation between justice perceptions of
performance appraisal and CWB among 332 police officers. They found that justice
perceptions of performance appraisal influence CWB and that this effect is mediated by
negative emotions (e.g. frustration, anger and anxiety). Furthermore, some studies have
examined the effect of specific negative emotion, such as anger, on CWB. Anger is often
seen as the emotional response to behavior that violates individuals’ fairness, rights and
autonomy (Horberg et al., 20011). Angry individuals always engage in CWB, such as by
condemning and punishing others, lessening their tolerance of others’ behavior and
engaging in aggressive behavior (Goldberg et al., 1999).
Based on these findings, we hypothesized that:
H1. A negative relationship exists between employees’ perception of organizational
justice and their counterproductive work behavior.
 2.2 Perceived organizational justice and job burnout Moderated
Generally, organizational injustice produces far-reaching effects on employees. For mediation
example, distributive injustice reduces employees’ salary, special awards and the
opportunity to gain promotion and may thus reduce employees’ sense of personal
model
accomplishment. Informational injustice within the organization might affect the ability
of employees to attain their work goals and thereby make employees susceptible to
emotional exhaustion. Organizational injustice might also decrease employees’ 67
confidence that they will receive necessary and sufficient support from the organization
at work. Therefore, low perceived organizational justice is one main driver of job
burnout.
Employees with low organizational justice perception show a high level of burnout
(Bakker et al., 2000; Schaufeli et al., 1996). For example, Lambert et al. (2010) examined
the relationship between perceived organizational justice and burnout in a sample of
correctional staff and found an inverse relationship between distributive and procedural
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justice and burnout. By contrast, employees who perceive their supervisors to be fair
and supportive are not susceptible to burnout (Leiter and Harvie, 1998). In general, most
studies on the relationship between perceived organizational justice and job burnout
have been conducted at the individual level. Moliner et al. (2005) found that this relation
also exists at the work unit level. Furthermore, low organizational justice harms
employees’ job engagement, such as by decreasing persistence, effort and task
performance and may thus result in job burnout (Seo et al., 2004; Staw and Barsade,
1993).
Various types of organizational justice may have different roles in the occurrence of
components of job burnout. Organizational justice has at least four types, namely,
distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice
(Colquitt, 2001; Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001). Moliner et al. (2005) examined justice
constructs and job burnout and found that procedural justice is critical in predicting job
burnout, whereas the influence of distributive and interpersonal justice is merely
secondary. Li and Shi (2003) examined the relation between procedural and distributive
justice and job burnout in a sample of 524 Chinese employees. They found that both
procedural and distributive justice influences job burnout, but procedural justice is the
main risk factor of emotional exhaustion and distributive justice is the main risk factor
of depersonalization. Based on these arguments, we developed the following hypothesis:
H2. A negative relationship exists between employees’ perception of organizational
justice and their job burnout.

2.3 Job burnout and counterproductive work behavior

Although various work-related outcomes of job burnout have been explored, such as
dissatisfaction, absenteeism, intention to leave and turnover and decreased organization
commitment, the influence of job burnout on CWB has been inadequately examined
(Maslach and Leiter, 2008). Few empirical studies have revealed the detrimental effects
of job burnout on CWB. For example, Jones (1981a, 1981b) found that staff experiencing
burnout are likely to engage in theft and take unauthorized work breaks. Cropanzano
et al. (2003) also found that CWB is related to job tension, somatic tension, fatigue and
burnout.
According to resource conservation theory (Hobfoll, 2001; Wright and Hobfoll, 2004),
when employees feel that they lack sufficient resources to complete their jobs or their
 JCHRM efforts fail to give them their expected results, they become emotionally exhausted.
7,2 Emotional exhaustion lowers employees’ commitment to their organization and
ultimately leads to CWB (Mulki et al., 2006). Bolton et al. (2012) found that emotional
exhaustion can influence CWB through depersonalization (i.e. emotional detachment
from one’s work, customers or co-workers) and organizational dis identification (i.e.
emotional detachment from the organization as a whole).
68 In addition to emotional exhaustion, some studies have explored depersonalization
and reduced personal accomplishment in CWB. Liang and Hsieh (2007) examined the
relationship between burnout and CWB in a sample of 303 Taiwanese flight attendants
and found that depersonalization is significantly predictive of CWB, but emotional
exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment are not. Thus, we developed the
following hypothesis to examine the relationship between job burnout and CWB:
H3a. A positive relationship exists between employees’ job burnout and their
counterproductive work behavior.
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In H2 and H3a, we assumed that employees’ perception of organizational justice

influences their job burnout, which then affects their CWB. Thus, job burnout must play
a mediating role in the effect of employees’ perception of organizational justice on CWB.
Accordingly, we hypothesized the following:
H3b. Job burnout mediates the relationship between employees’ perception of
organizational justice and their counterproductive work behavior.

2.4 Moderating role of moral identity

The experiences and events wherein we were treated unfairly at work are easy to recall,
but our responses to unfairness are different (Masterson, 2001; Bobocel, 2013). Some
people respond to organizational injustice destructively by CWB, but others do not.
Based on the theory and research on moral identity, we proposed that whether people
engage in CWB as a response to low perceived organizational justice depends on their
moral identity.
Moral identity is the moral component of individuals’ social identities and the
powerful source of moral motivation that regulates moral behavior (Blasi, 1990; Hardy
and Carlo, 2005). Moral identity has been conceptualized as the cognitive schema a
person holds about his or her moral characteristics, the importance of which to the
overall self-concept of the person varies (Lapsley and Lasky, 2001; Aquino and Reed,
2002). For people with moral identity, their schemas are “chronically available, readily
primed and easily activated for processing social information” (Lapsley and Lasky,
2001, p. 347). Therefore, moral identity is a self-regulatory mechanism that motivates
individuals to behave in a moral manner to maintain their self-consistency (Blasi, 2004).
Thus, moral identity is a motivator of moral behavior (Shao et al., 2008; Winterich et al.,
2013). Moral identity is also negatively related to unethical behavior at the individual
(Greenbaum et al., 2013) and unit levels (Mayer et al., 2012). Reynolds and Ceranic (2007)
found that employees’ moral identity is negatively associated with their CWB, which
includes not reporting others’ violations of company policies and rules or calling in sick
to take a day off. Moreover, moral identity can reduce unethical pro-organizational
behavior, although such behavior benefits the organization (Matherne and Litchfield,
2012). Generally, organizational injustices are mainly committed by superiors within the
organization. The moral identity of leaders facilitates their moral behavior and therefore
 decreases CWB among their followers. Compared with leaders with low moral identity, Moderated
those with high moral identity promote procedural justice at work to enhance mediation
employees’ perception of organizational justice (Brebels et al., 2011). The moral identity model
of leaders also influences their leadership and the ethical behavior of their followers.
Leaders with high moral identity adopt ethical leadership, which decreases the
possibility of unit unethical behavior and unit relationship conflict (Mayer et al., 2012).
Therefore, for employees with high moral identity, engaging in CWB negatively 69
influences their perceptions of self-worth and threatens their moral self-concept and
thus curbs their CWB.
Individuals with high moral identity are not prone to mechanisms of moral
disengagement to justify their unethical behavior (Bandura et al., 1996; Detert et al.,
2008). After acting immorally, people morally disengage, such as restructuring their
action to be less harmful to reduce their distress and the threat to their moral
self-concept. Moral disengagement is one critical dispositional driver of unethical
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organizational behavior (Moore et al., 2012). Some CWBs, such as cheating, theft and
sabotage, are always considered morally unacceptable and questionable by the
society and organization because they violate social norms and moral self-standards
(Kidwell and Kochanowski, 2005). For instance, when individuals are made aware of
their CWB and informed that their CWB is counter-normative and undesirable, they
experience a high level of moral guilt (Ilies et al., 2013). Thus, individuals with high
moral identity have difficulty construing CWB as morally acceptable and are
therefore less inclined to engage in CWB.
Moral identity also mitigates the negative effect of organizational injustice on CWB.
For example, customer service representatives with high moral identity show a lower
level of sabotage directed toward the customer as a response to interpersonal injustice
than those representatives with low moral identity (Skarlicki et al., 2008). Employees
with high moral identity do not engage in CWB as a form of retribution to supervisors
because of their abuse of customers (Greenbaum et al., 2013).
Thus, we predict that among employees who experience burnout from low
organizational justice, those with high moral identity are less likely to engage in CWB
than those with low moral identity. We hypothesized the following:
H4a. A negative relationship exists between employees’ moral identity and their
counterproductive work behavior.
H4b. Moral identity moderates the relationship between job burnout and
counterproductive work behavior such that the relationship is weaker for
individuals with high moral identity than for individuals with low moral
identity.
In H3b, we assume that job burnout mediates the effect of employees’ perception of
organizational justice on their CWB. In H4b, we predict a relationship between job
burnout and CWB. Taken together, H3b and H4b constitute a moderated mediation
model as follows:
H4c. Moral identity moderates the strength of the mediated relationship between
employees’ perception of organizational justice and counterproductive work
behavior through job burnout, such that the mediated relationship is weaker
 JCHRM among individuals with high moral identity than among individuals with low
7,2 moral identity.

3. Method
3.1 Sample and data collection
70 We collected data from 213 full-time employees of the public sector in East China.
These employees participated in our study voluntarily and anonymously and did
not receive anything in return for their participation. A total of 210 respondents
returned the surveys – a response rate of 98.6 per cent. Of the 210 individuals, 123
(58.6 per cent) were women and 87 (41.4 per cent) were men. The average age was
28.70 years (SD ⫽ 5.90), and the average tenure was 6.29 years (SD ⫽ 9.02).
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3.2 Measures
All variables were assessed on five-point Likert-type scales ranging from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). All items were averaged to form measures, with high
numbers indicating more of the construct, unless otherwise noted.
3.2.1 Perceived organizational justice. Perceived organizational justice was measured
by Colquitt’s (2001) four-dimensional perceived organizational justice measure. Seven
items assessed procedural justice (e.g. “In my organization, procedures are based on
accurate information”), four items assessed distributive justice (e.g. “The outcomes that
I receive reflect the effort I have put into my work”), four items assessed interpersonal
justice (e.g. “My supervisor treats me with respect”) and five items assessed
informational justice (e.g. “My supervisor explained the procedures thoroughly”).
3.2.2 Job burnout. Job burnout was measured with the Chinese version of the 15-item
Maslach Burnout Inventory (Li and Shi, 2003). Li and Shi (2003) translated the Maslach
Burnout Inventory General Survey (Maslach et al., 1996) into Chinese and validated this
scale in Chinese culture. In this inventory, five items assessed emotional exhaustion (e.g.
“I feel burned out from my work”), four items assessed depersonalization (e.g. “I doubt
the significance of my work”) and six items assessed reduced personal accomplishment
(e.g. “In my opinion, I am good at my job”).
3.2.3 Moral identity. Moral identity was measured by Aquino and Reed’s (2002)
five-item internalization subscale of moral identity. A sample item is “It would make me
feel good to be a person who has these characteristics”.
3.2.4 Counterproductive work behavior. CWB was measured by Bennett and
Robinson’s (2000) workplace deviance scale; 12 items assessed CWB directed against
the organization (CWB-O; e.g. “taken an additional or a longer break than is acceptable
at your workplace”), and seven items assessed CWB directed against individuals within
the organization (CWB-I; e.g. “acted rudely toward someone at work”).
3.2.5 Control variables. To test our hypothesis, gender (measured by a dummy
variable, 0 means male, 1 means female) and organizational tenure (measured as the
participant’s number of years working in the organization) were considered in the
analysis. Males are likely to engage in CWB (Samnani et al., 2014). As for organizational
tenure, employees with short tenure are likely to engage in CWB, such as theft and
tardiness (Lau et al., 2003; Robinson and O’Leary-Kelly, 1998).
 4. Results Moderated
4.1 Bivariate analyses mediation
The means, standard deviations and zero-order correlations for all variables are shown model
in Table I. Perceived organizational justice was negatively related to job burnout (r ⫽
⫺0.36, p ⬍ 0.001) and CWB (r ⫽ ⫺0.17, p ⬍ 0.05). Moral identity was negatively related
to CWB (r ⫽ ⫺0.16, p ⬍ 0.05), whereas job burnout was positively associated with CWB
(r ⫽ 0.30, p ⬍ 0.001). These correlations supported H1, H2, H3a and H4a preliminarily. 71

4.2 Test of mediation

H3b proposed that job burnout mediates the relationship of perceived organizational
justice with CWB. We followed the procedures from Baron and Kenny (1986) to test this
hypothesis. The regression results are reported in Table II. Perceived organizational
justice was negatively related to job burnout (␤ ⫽ ⫺0.36, t ⫽ ⫺5.55, p ⬍ 0.001) and CWB
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(␤ ⫽ ⫺0.17, t ⫽ ⫺2.46, p ⬍ 0.05), supporting H2 and H3a. Further, after job burnout was
accounted for, the effect of job burnout on CWB was significant (␤ ⫽ 0.27, t ⫽ 3.81, p ⬍
0.001), but the effect of perceived organizational justice on CWB became non-significant
(␤ ⫽ ⫺0.07, t ⫽ ⫺0.91, p ⬎ 0.05), suggesting complete mediation. To further assess the
significance of the mediation, we applied Sobel’s (1982) test for indirect effects
(MacKinnon et al., 2002). Sobel’s test confirmed H3b: job burnout does mediate the effect
of perceived organizational justice on CWB (Sobel’s test ⫽ 3.319, p ⬍ 0.001).

Variables M SD 1 2 3 4 5
a
1. Gender 0.60 0.49 –
2. Organizational tenure 6.22 5.88 0.01 –
3. POJ 3.48 0.52 ⫺0.11 0.17* 0.90
4. Moral identity 4.18 0.56 0.05 ⫺0.01 ⫺0.13 0.82
5. Job burnout 2.45 0.51 0.11 ⫺0.04 ⫺0.36*** ⫺0.12 0.79
6. CWB 1.56 0.43 ⫺0.15* ⫺0.21** ⫺0.17* ⫺0.16* 0.30*** 0.91
Table I.
Notes: Dummy coded: 0 ⫽ male and 1⫽ female; POJ ⫽ perceived organizational justice; CWB ⫽ Descriptive statistics
a

counterproductive work behavior; internal reliability coefficients (alphas) appear in italic along the and bivariate
diagonal; *p ⬍ 0.05; **p ⬍ 0.01; ***p ⬍ 0.001; two-tailed; N ⫽ 210 correlations

CWB
Variables Job burnout Step 1 Step 2

POJ ⫺0.36*** ⫺0.17* ⫺0.07

Job burnout 0.27***
R2 1.03 0.03 0.09
F 30.78*** 6.30* 10.24***

Notes: The tabled values are standardized regression weights; POJ ⫽ perceived organizational Table II.
justice; CWB ⫽ counterproductive work behavior; * p ⬍ 0.05; **p ⬍ 0.01; *** p ⬍ 0.001; two-tailed; Regression results
N ⫽ 210 for testing mediation
 JCHRM 4.3 Test of moderation
7,2 Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to test H4b. In all analyses, we entered the
control variables of gender and organizational tenure. In line with suggestions from
Aiken and West (1991), we also mean-centered job burnout and moral identity to avoid
multi-collinearity with their product terms and calculated the interaction term by using
these mean-centered variables. In the first model, gender and organizational tenure were
72 included as control variables. In the second model, we included the main effects for job
burnout and moral identity. In the final model, the interaction between job burnout and
moral identity was added.
Table III reports the regression results. Consistent with H3a and H4a, CWB was
positively correlated with job burnout (␤ ⫽ 0.28, t ⫽ 4.15, p ⬍ 0.001) and negatively
correlated with moral identity (␤ ⫽ ⫺0.14, t ⫽ ⫺2.02, p ⬍ 0.05). The relationship
between job burnout and CWB was moderated by moral identity (␤ ⫽ ⫺0.15, t ⫽
⫺2.26, p ⬍ 0.05), supporting H4b. To probe into the nature of this interaction, we
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computed the relation between job burnout and CWB at high (⫹ 1 SD) and low
(⫺ 1 SD) levels of moral identity (Aiken and West, 1991). Simple slope analyses
revealed that job burnout was positively correlated with CWB among individuals
with low moral identity (␤ ⫽ 0.45, t ⫽ 4.48, p ⬍ 0.001) but not among individuals
with high moral identity (␤ ⫽ 0.15, t ⫽ 1.79, p ⬎ 0.05).

4.4 Test of moderated mediation

Preacher et al.’s (2007) moderated mediated macro was used to examine H4c. Table IV
shows that the interaction of job burnout and moral identity predicted CWB (B ⫽ ⫺0.04,
t ⫽ ⫺2.15, p ⬍ 0.05) and the effect of perceived organizational justice on CWB dropped
to non-significance (B ⫽ ⫺0.05, t ⫽ ⫺0.91, p ⬎ 0.05), suggesting that the indirect effect
of perceived organizational justice on CWB through job burnout was moderated by
moral identity.
We also examined the conditional indirect effect of perceived organizational justice
on CWB through job burnout at three values of moral identity, namely, the mean and one
standard deviation above and below the mean. The conditional indirect effects were
significantly different from zero when the moral identity values were the mean and
mean – 1SD, but not at mean ⫹ 1 SD, implying that perceived organizational justice
indirectly affected CWB through job burnout when the level of moral identity was low to
moderate but not when it was high. Thus, H4c was further supported.

Variables Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Gender ⫺0.14* ⫺0.16* ⫺0.17**

Organizational tenure ⫺0.20** ⫺0.20** ⫺0.19**
Job burnout (JB) 0.28*** 0.30***
Moral identity (MI) ⫺0.14* ⫺0.11
JB ⫻ MI ⫺0.15*
R2 0.07 0.17 0.19
⊿R2 0.07 0.10 0.02
Table III. F 6.73*** 9.56*** 8.83***
Regression results
for testing Notes: The tabled values are standardized regression weights; * p ⬍ 0.05; ** p ⬍ 0.01; *** p ⬍ 0.001;
moderation two-tailed; N ⫽ 210
 Predictor B SE t P
Moderated
mediation
Job burnout model
Constant 54.07 3.38 15.99 0.000
POJ ⫺0.25 0.05 ⫺5.27 0.000
CWB
Constant ⫺11.32 20.71 ⫺0.54 0.585
POJ ⫺0.05 0.06 ⫺0.91 0.362
73
Job burnout (JB) 1.38 0.52 2.63 0.009
Moral identity (MI) 1.14 0.66 1.73 0.080
JB ⫻ MI ⫺0.04 0.02 ⫺2.15 0.033
Moral identity Indirect effect SE Z p
Conditional indirect effect at MI ⫽ M ⫾ 1 SD
⫺1 SD (3.62) ⫺0.11 0.04 ⫺2.57 0.010
M (4.18) ⫺0.07 0.03 ⫺2.50 0.012 Table IV.
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⫹1 SD (4.75) ⫺0.03 0.03 ⫺1.39 0.164 Regression results

for conditional
Notes: POJ ⫽ perceived organizational justice; CWB ⫽ counterproductive work behavior; N ⫽ 210 indirect effect

5. Discussion
This study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the mediating and
moderating processes through which perceived organizational justice influences CWB. We
proposed a moderated mediation model, which assumed the mediating role of job burnout in
the perceived organizational justice–job burnout relation and the moderating role of moral
identity in the job burnout–CWB relation. We found that job burnout fully mediated the
effect of perceived organizational justice and CWB, and moral identity moderated the effect
of job burnout on CWB. Moreover, consistent with our hypothesized moderated mediation
model, the mediating effect of job burnout was moderated by moral identity. Our research
provided evidence that perception of organizational justice was negatively linked to
employees’ job burnout, which in turn was positively linked to a low level of CWB. Our
findings illustrated that the relationship between perceived organizational justice and CWB
is indeed complex and not straightforward as assumed.

5.1 Theoretical implications

Our findings highlight the critical role of moral identity as moral motivation in the
occurrence of CWB. An increasing number of studies in organizational behavior and
business ethics have emphasized the role of moral reasoning in motivating unethical
behavior within organizational contexts. However, moral reasoning is only weakly or
moderately related to unethical behavior (Blasi, 1980; Rest et al., 1999). Thus, unethical
work behavior might be the result not only of poor moral judgment but also of a lack of
moral motivation (Aquino and Reed, 2002). Our study found that individuals with high
moral identity were unlikely to engage in CWB, empirically supporting the
self-regulatory function of moral identity in inhibiting CWB. Our study further revealed
that moral identity can mitigate the influence of job burnout following low
organizational justice on CWB. Few empirical studies have examined this possibility.
Considering the negative consequences of job burnout to CWB, our findings provide
theoretical guidance on developing effective intervening strategies to reduce CWB.
 JCHRM The present study replicated prior findings that low perceived organizational justice
7,2 causes stress-related problems, such as job burnout and CWB (Judge and Colquitt, 2004).
Moreover, the present study extended these findings by demonstrating that job burnout
mediates the effect of low perceived organizational justice on CWB. Our study provides new
insight into the role of emotion in the relationship between low perceived organizational
justice and CWB. As noted earlier, previous studies such as the job stress/emotion/CWB
74 model (Fox and Spector, 1999) and the deontic model of justice (Folger and Skarlicki, 2005)
emphasize the mediating role of negative emotion in the relationship between low perceived
organizational justice and CWB. In this study, we found that low perceived organizational
justice might lead to employees’ job burnout, which influences their CWB. This finding
revealed another possible explanation: low perceived organizational justice may result in
employees’ emotional exhaustion, given that emotional exhaustion is the core component of
job burnout (Kristensen et al., 2005). This possible explanation is supported by the studies
which identified emotional exhaustion as an antecedent of CWB (Mulki et al., 2006; Bolton
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et al., 2012). We speculate that the job stress/emotion/CWB model (Spector and Jex, 1998; Fox
and Spector, 1999) the deontic model of justice (Folger and Skarlicki, 2005) provides a
comprehensive theoretical framework for better analyzing the short-term effect of low
perceived organizational justice on CWB in that low organizational justice evokes
employees’ negative emotion and makes them likely to engage in CWB. If employees are
treated unfairly for a long time, they experience burnout. Our model provides a possible
theoretical framework for analyzing the long-term effect of low perceived organizational
justice on CWB and sheds light on the processes through which employees’ justice
perception are linked to work-related outcomes.
The overwhelming majority of studies on the effect of perceived organizational justice
and work-related outcomes has been conducted in individualistic Western settings. Whether
this effect can be generalized to culturally divergent regions, such as collectivistic East Asia,
is open to question. Morris and Leung (2000) suggested that the principles that determine
peoples’ perceptions of organizational justice and the consequences of perceived
organizational justice are similar across cultures. A meta-analysis based on 22 studies found
that in East Asia, employees’ organizational justice perception is significantly associated
with affective organizational commitment, job satisfaction, trust and low employee turnover
intentions, similar to findings from North America (Li and Cropanzano, 2009). Consistent
with previous studies, our study found that employees’ perception of organizational justice
influences their job burnout and CWB, further providing cross-cultural evidence on the role
of perceived organizational justice in work-related outcomes. In addition, this study was
conducted in the public sector and not in the private or semi-public sector. Similar findings
on the consequences of perceived organizational justice will enrich organizational justice
literature extensively.

5.2 Practical implications

The results of this study have some implications for practice. First, we suggest that
public sector administrators should exert effort to improve the perception of
organizational justice to reduce CWB. For example, training managers and supervisors
to behave fairly might increase employees’ perception of organizational justice (Liao and
Rupp, 2005; Cohen-Charash and Mueller, 2007). Public sector administrators should also
focus on creating an organizational justice climate in the workplace. Employees’
perceptions of overall organizational justice influences whether they cope with a specific
 unfair event constructively or destructively. In the face of specific unfairness, employees Moderated
who perceive that their organization is generally just and fair exhibit constructive mediation
responses (e.g. forgiveness) and avoid defensive responses (e.g. revenge) (Bobocel, 2013;
Whiteside and Barclay, 2013). Moreover, when employees are treated unfairly, the
model
public sector should provide organizational remedies, such as instrumental and punitive
remedies to restore their employees’ perception of organizational justice (Reb et al., 2006)
and decrease the possibility of their engagement in retaliation (Ohbuchi et al., 1989). 75
Second, the public sector may recruit and select individuals on the basis of their levels
of moral identity to reduce their engagement in CWB. Although organizational injustice
is inevitable, its detrimental influences can be avoided. Moral identity can alleviate the
negative effect of job burnout on CWB (Skarlicki et al., 2008; Greenbaum et al., 2013). In
the selection procedure, the moral identity scale (Reed and Aquino, 2002) and other
related measures, such as integrity or honesty tests (Ones and Viswesvaran, 2001) and
the moral disengagement scale (Bandura et al., 1996; Moore et al., 2012), can be adopted
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to assess candidates’ level of moral identity. For present employees, strategies to

promote their moral identity should be considered.
Third, the public sector should monitor job burnout among employees. Employees’ job
burnout after unfairness may result in their CWB. Thus, their CWB can be reduced by
decreasing their job burnout. The public sector can regularly assess the level of job burnout,
as well as job stressors, job satisfaction and life satisfaction and use them as a reference for
HR practices. For employees experiencing severe burnout, some burnout intervention
programs, such as cognitive restructuring exercises (Van Dierendonck et al., 1998) and
cognitive– behavioral treatment (De Vente et al., 2008), can be adopted to help them recover.
Finally, employees should be informed about their CWB. To reduce CWB, employees
should realize that they have engaged in CWB. Some CWBs, such as leaving early or
gossiping, might not be viewed as CWBs by employees. When individuals are made
aware of their CWB and informed that their CWB is counter-normative and undesirable,
guilt will motivate them to take positive discretionary action, such as organizational
citizenship behavior, to compensate for their CWB and thereby restore their moral
self-concept (Ilies et al., 2013). This potential intervention may be highly effective for
individuals with high moral identity.

5.3 Limitations and future research directions

Similar to most research, this study has a few limitations. First, the cross-sectional design
prevents inference of the direction of causality from the theoretical arguments in this
research. Ruling out alternative explanations is also difficult in cross-sectional design. In our
model, we hypothesized that employees with chronic burnout engage in CWB. Another
possibility is that employees who engage in CWB are punished by their organization and, as
a result, experience burnout. Future research can clarify these causal linkages and rule out
alternative explanations by experimental and longitudinal research.
Second, we cannot be certain that these findings, which are based on data solely obtained
from the public sector in Eastern China, can be generalized to other organizational settings.
Huge differences exist in the work nature and environment between the public and private
sectors (Lowe et al., 1996). In China, job characteristics in the public sector also differ
substantially from those in the private or semi-public sector. The Chinese public sector
generally adopts a lifetime employment system. Public sector employees can stay in their
jobs until retirement (in general, 60 years old) unless they want to leave voluntarily or have
 JCHRM to leave because of serious mistakes. High job security, wages and social status also reduce
7,2 their turnover intention. Their promotion and corresponding salary are generally related not
to their job performance but to the appreciation of their superiors. One potential
disadvantage of this compensation system is that it reduces their job accomplishment.
Compared with employees in the private or semi-public sector, they lack sufficient resources
to cope with low organizational justice. Such inadequacy may make them susceptible to
76 burnout and feelings of frustration and consequently result in CWB. The special work
nature and work environment of the Chinese public sector may explain our finding that job
burnout fully mediates the effect of perceived organizational justice and CWB. Therefore,
future research should investigate the effect of perceived organizational justice on CWB in
both the public and private sectors.
Finally, we were dependent on self-reports to assess the participants’ levels of justice
perception and CWB. Self-reports accurately assess CWB (Penney and Spector, 2005).
However, organizational justice and CWB are sensitive topics in Chinese organizational
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contexts. Considering the prevailing “face” culture in Chinese society, the Chinese are prone
to socially desirable responses and are reluctant to admit that they perform CWB or
underreport the actual frequency of their CWB out of a fear of being identified and punished.
We suggest that the researcher use a non-self-report measure (Stewart et al., 2009) or
behavioral observation combined with a self-report measure to assess CWB in Chinese
organizational settings.

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Further reading
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Bakker, A.B., Van Der Zee, K.I., Lewig, K.A. and Dollard, M.F. (2006), “The relationship between
the big five personality factors and burnout: a study among volunteer counselors”, The
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burnout”, Acta Psychologica Sinica, Vol. 35 No. 5, pp. 677-684.
Folger, R., Cropanzano, R. and Goldman, B. (2005), “What is the relationship between justice and
morality?”, in Greenberg, J. and Colquitt, J. (Eds), Handbook of Organizational Justice,
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About the authors

Mingzheng Wu is an Associate Professor in Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences
at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. His research areas include moral decision-making and
behavioural ethics.
Xiaoling Sun is an Assistant Professor in Department of Psychology, Hangzhou Normal
University (Cangqian Campus), Hangzhou, China. Her research interest is self-regulation and
self-control. Xiaoling Sun is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: psysun@163.com
Delin Zhang is an Associate Professor in Department of Anesthesiology, the First Affiliated
Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. His research interest is
medical ethics.
Ci Wang is an Assistant Professor in Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences at
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. His research interest is moral cognition.

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