Recent research shows the powerful impact of counterproductive behavior in teams. This study explores how team characteristics combine to influence bad behavior in groups. It builds upon recent work in organizational justice by exploring the relationship between overall justice climate and work groups’ deviant and political behavior. Findings suggest that the structure of the work itself, in the form of functional dependence, moderates this relationship. Specifically, it is argued that the relationship between injustice climate and deviant and political behavior will be strongest when functional dependence between employees is low. Results from a sample of 539 employees and 113 supervisors in 113 work units support the hypotheses.
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