A dark side of land revenue management and counterproductive work behavior: does organizational injustice add fuel to fire?

Purpose This study empirically and theoretically aims to explore the consequences of top management’s dark personality traits (DPT) on organizational injustice, e.g. organizational procedural justice (OPJ), organizational interactional justice (OIJ) and organizational distributive justice (ODJ) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Design/methodology/approach A study was conducted to examine the influence of DPT on CWB among the contractual employees of the land revenue department, Pakistan. The quantitative method was employed using a convenient sampling approach. A designed survey questionnaire was distributed among 1,240 land revenue officials in 13 districts of Pakistan. Findings The results supported that dark DPT directly, significantly and positively affects CWB. In addition, DPT, except for psychopathy (PSY), significantly and negatively affects OPJ, OIJ and ODJ. Meanwhile, OIJ and OPJ strengthen the negative relationship between CWB and Machiavellianism and narcissism (NAR); however, PSY failed directly to affect OPJ, OIP and ODJ indirectly failed to capture CWB. Practical implications Top management/government should pay attention to fair dealings among the contractual employees. Consequently, they would prefer to do well in the workplace. Particularly, top management should avoid practicing DPT, which has ultimate results in CWB. Social implications Public managers should avoid DPT because they are not compatible with public needs. Managers with DPT negatively affect their employees' productivity behaviors. Therefore, managers should focus on positive personality traits to enhance employees' productivity via organizational justice. Originality/value This study is unique in the land revenue department of Pakistan, where unfair dealings are being practiced among contractual employees. Surprisingly, CWB is the ultimate consequence of both DPT and top management's dishonest dealings (e.g. organizational injustices).