Counterproductive behaviour at work: an investigation into reduction strategies

Abstract

The present study examined the interrelation of personality characteristics, organizational justice, organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), and counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). An anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted, with 1,662 participants representing a wide variety of jobs across heterogeneous organizations in Thailand. Statistical analysis indicated that CWB can be predicted by the following personality characteristics; conscientiousness, agreeableness, self-esteem, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Moderation analysis discovered that the association between personality characteristics and CWB is moderated by three factors; distributive justice, interactional justice, and OCB. Structural Equation Modelling was adopted in order to examine the efficacy of the identified moderators, and revealed that interactional justice has the strongest moderating effect, followed by distributive justice and finally OCB. Implications of the findings to organizational management and personnel practitioners are discussed accordingly, including; that the occurrence of CWB could be reduced through the implementation of organizational justice enhancement policies; and that the prevalence of OCB atmosphere at work could also help alleviate the impact of personality characteristics on CWB.

Counterproductive Work Behaviors: a Socio-Demographic Characteristic-Based Study among Employees in the Nigerian Maritime Sector

“…As earlier noted, CWBs embrace a multiplicity of behaviors such as absenteeism, dissemination of destructive reports, disruption, stealing, sexual harassment, or uncooperative attitude among others (Chang & Smithikrai, 2010). The diversity of these detrimental acts can be categorized into fi ve main classes, namely: abuse, production deviation, sabotage, theft, and withdrawal (Spector et al, 2006).…”

“…(Spector & Fox, 2005). CWBs at the organizational level relate to deviant behaviors, such as calling in sick when one is not, withdrawal efforts, long hours of break, cyberloafi ng, misuse/damage of the employer's assets, stealing, sabotage, etc., which affect the organization (Chang & Smithikrai, 2010).…”

Organizational citizenship behavior, identification, psychological contract and leadership frames

“…OCB is generally defined as behavior that goes beyond the formal requirements of the job and is beneficial to the organization (Chang & Smithikrai, 2010). Examples of OCB may include assisting colleagues with their tasks, devoting time to assist new entrants to the organization, defending their F o r P e e r R e v i e w 6 organizational reputation, or even voluntary salary-cut to support the organizations.…”

“…Christ et al, 2003;Organ, 1988;Strobel et al, 2013). It is suggested that OCB acts as a 'behavioral catalyst', promoting commitment (Bogler and Somech, 2004;Chang and Smithikrai, 2010), reducing absenteeism (Cohen and Keren, 2010) and enhancing skill development (Dalal, 2005), which in turn leads to higher productivity and efficiency (e.g. Carpenter, Berry, and Houston, 2014; Somech and Ron, 2007;Spence, Ferris, Brown, and Heller, 2011).…”

Levels of Management and Economic Performance of Companies

“…STEFAN TOKARSKI KRZYSZTOF TOKARSKI JOANNA SIKORA When making a balance of economic data quantifying the results of the surveyed companies were divided into four quartiles 6 -compartments assigned to specifi c revenues. The study included companies representing: state ownership of the Treasury, private ownership and foreign ownership 7 .…”