RESEARCH REPORT Beware of Those Left Behind: Counterproductive Work Behaviors Among Nonpromoted Employees and the Moderating Effect of Integrity Saul Fine, Judith Goldenberg, and Yair Noam Israel Defense Forces, Tel Hashomer, Israel Promotion decisions focus primarily on the successes of those selected, with surprisingly little attention given to the outcomes of those rejected. Negative emotional reactions among rejected candidates, for example, may motivate retaliations against the organization in the form of counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Indeed, in a sample of 568 military officer training candidates, we found a greater incidence of CWB among rejected versus accepted candidates, which peaked within 6 months after promotion decisions were made (d = .44) and gradually decreased thereafter. We also found that overt integrity moderated the relationship between promotion decisions and CWB, whereby rejected candidates with high levels of integrity engaged in less CWB than did rejected candidates with low integrity. Practical implications for mitigating CWB in cases of nonpromotion and considerations for more accurately evaluating the utility of promotion decisions are discussed. Keywords: counterproductive work behaviors, promotion, selection, integrity, military Although more than a century of research has supported the utility of personnel assessment and selection processes (Ryan & Ployhart, 2014), they are, by their very nature, centered on the behavioral outcomes of the candidates selected. As such, these processes virtually ignore the behaviors of another significant group of individuals—rejected candidates. Certainly, in most pre- employment selection scenarios, rejected candidates never enter the organization, making their subsequent behaviors entirely the- oretical. In other selection scenarios, however, such as in the case of employee promotions, rejected candidates may remain em- ployed in the organization, where their future behaviors are still extremely pertinent. And yet, the behaviors of nonpromoted em- ployees have been greatly understudied (Hausknecht, Day, & Thomas, 2004). The lack of research on this topic is somewhat surprising, given the prevalence of structured promotion selection procedures and their potential organizational impact. In military organizations, for example, officer training candidates are routinely assessed using batteries of psychological assessments at officer selection centers (OSCs), and rejected candidates are then summarily returned to their units, expected to resume their original duties as usual (Jones, 1991; Rumsey, 2012). Such expectations may be presumptuous, however, when considering the negative emotional effects of being rejected—a decision that invariably curtails candidates’ future career opportunities in the organization (Truxillo, Steiner, & Gil- liland, 2004). Accordingly, the emotional reactions of some dis- gruntled employees for being rejected may understandably influ- ence the quality of their future job performance and perhaps even lead to counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), which are, by definition, damaging to the organization and/or its members (Rob- inson & Bennett, 1995). The purpose of the present study, there- fore, was to examine the incidence of CWB among nonpromoted employees. Still, the relationship between nonpromotion and CWB may be more complex, given that an individual’s decision to engage in CWB is generally dependent not only upon situational stressors, such as a negative promotion decision, but on personal dispositions as well, such as integrity (Sackett & Devore, 2001). High integrity (and its related constructs) has been shown to inhibit the engage- ment in CWB following a variety of situational stressors and perceived injustice, whereas low integrity can elicit such behav- ioral reactions (Bowling & Eschleman, 2010; Fine, Horowitz, Weigler, & Basis, 2010; Zhou, Meier, & Spector, 2014) but has yet to be studied with respect to nonpromotion. Indeed, understanding the degree to which integrity may inhibit or elicit CWB may help organizations better manage the potential outcomes of negative promotion decisions. In light of this, the present study also inves- tigated the degree to which integrity may moderate the relationship between nonpromotion and CWB. Nonpromotion as an Antecedent of CWB In preemployment selection, rejected applicants have been shown to perceive greater organizational injustice (i.e., the belief This article was published Online First August 18, 2016. Saul Fine, Judith Goldenberg, and Yair Noam, Israel Defense Forces, Tel Hashomer, Israel. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 31st Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, in Anaheim, California in April 2016. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Judith Goldenberg, Selection System Development Branch, Behavioral Science Center, Israel Defense Forces, Military Post 01172, Tel Hashomer, Israel 52621. E-mail: judyg@zahav.net.il This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Journal of Applied Psychology © 2016 American Psychological Association 2016, Vol. 101, No. 12, 1721–1729 0021-9010/16/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000156 1721