Off the clock and off the hook?

Abstract

Management research has focused increasing attention on employee deviance and its potential harm on the organization and its members. Until recently, however, this research has ignored how employee deviance outside of work can affect the employee and the organization as a whole, and how off-duty misconduct can manifest in counterproductive work behavior (CWB). A recent study (Kennedy et al., 2013) introduced this new construct, off-duty deviance (ODD). Using two independent samples, the present study advances this emerging area by developing a measure of ODD and using this measure to investigate whether and under what circumstances deviance away from work will manifest in deviance at work. Structural equation modeling results show that those who engage in deviance away from work are much more likely to engage in counterproductive workplace behavior. Moderation analyses demonstrate that perceiving organizational policies to be fair reduces the likelihood that off-duty misconduct will manifest in CWB. Implications for consideration of ODD in selection contexts and organizational policy as well as future research directions are discussed.