Relationships between status judgments, identification, and counterproductive behavior

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships among perceived external prestige (PEP), perceived internal respect (PIR), organizational and work-group identification (OID and WID), and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered from a cement firm's employees, using longitudinal research. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were employed. Findings – PEP and top management respect were positively related to organizational identification (OID), and the latter negatively related to organizational deviance; perceived co-workers and supervisor respect was positively related to WID, and the latter negatively related to interpersonal deviance; and identification foci mediated the relationship between status judgments and CWB. Research limitations/implications – The sample was based on one organization, limiting the results’ generalizability, and interactive relationships between WID and OID were not considered. The findings’ implications suggest that organizations need specific strategies for reducing deviant organizational behavior and deviant interpersonal behavior, and for fostering identification of their members. Originality/value – The study shows that employees’ evaluations of prestige and respect are important predictors of their identification with their organization and work group. It is the first study to investigate the relationship between social identification foci and deviant work behaviors as a negative outcome of identification. It developed a new scale to assess employees’ perception of internal respect; it supports operationalizing PIR as a multifoci construct. It has also answered the call for longitudinal research as opposed to cross-sectional research.