Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the moral licensing effect of other in-group members’
organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on focal employees’ organizational deviance through moral selfconcept. This paper also examines the moderating role of in-group identification in the mediated relationship.
Design/methodology/approach – The multilevel path analysis and bootstrapping technique are employed
to analyze the findings of a sample of 340 employees in 56 workgroups in Vietnam.
Findings – The results demonstrate that moral self-concept mediates the positive relationship between other
in-group members’ OCB and focal employees’ organizational deviance. Furthermore, the findings indicate that
in-group identification strengthens the indirect effect of other in-group members’ OCB on focal employees’
organizational deviance via moral self-concept.
Practical implications – The findings suggest that managers should be aware of the potential negative
consequences of OCB and the drawbacks of in-group identification in group contexts. In addition, practitioners
should proactively prevent other in-group members’ OCB from resulting in employees’ organizational deviance.
Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the moral licensing effect of OCB on organizational
deviance through the moral self-concept mechanism and the moderating role of in-group identification in this
mediated relationship.
Keywords Moral licensing effect, Organizational citizenship behavior, Organizational deviance, In-group
identification, Moral self-concept, Multilevel path analysis
Paper type Research paper