Questionable prospective effects between job demands, job resources, and workplace misconduct: A reevaluation of a meta-analytic panel analysis by Luan et al. (2026)

<p>Based on cross-lagged effects in meta-analytic panel analyses, Luan et al. concluded reciprocal prospective influences between workplace misconduct, job resources, and job demands. However, cross-lagged effects may be spurious rather than due to genuine influence. Here, we fitted alternative models to the same meta-analytic data and found discrepant increasing and decreasing effects between the constructs. Meta-analytic aggregations of these discrepant effects did not differ significantly from zero. Hence, the findings by Luan et al. may have been spurious and their conclusions premature. We recommend, in line with multiverse methodology, researchers to fit alternative models to data and to base conclusions on an aggregation of findings.</p>