Organizational Frustration and Aggressive Behaviors

Abstract

This study, conducted in a large public agency and a large private transportation company in the U.S., found strong relationships between organizational characteristics and frustration. Role ambiguity, role conflict, work constraints, and warmth and support predicted the level of frustration experienced by employees. In turn, frustration predicted supervisor-and self-reported aggression. Frustration also predicted self-reported criterion behaviors such as withdrawal, aggression turned inward, and abandonment of goal. Frustration mediated the relationships between organizational characteristics and the criteria. In the study we developed two scales: (1) a self-report scale of behavioral reactions to frustration, and (2) the Workplace Aggressive Behaviors Scale, a guideline to increase supervisors' ability to judge the seriousness of aggressive behaviors in the work environment.

Work locus of control as a moderator of the relationship between work stressors and counterproductive work behavior.

“…Specifically, to the extent that employees felt a lack of control over their work situation (external WLOC), the more likely they were to engage in CWB. This is in line with previous findings regarding general LOC (e.g., Heacox, 1996; Perlow & Latham, 1993) and WLOC (e.g., Fox & Spector, 1999) as they relate to CWB. This also provides support for Wallhagen et als' (1994) assertion that externals tend to engage in less adaptive behaviors than internals.…”

“…For example, Fox and Spector (1999) demonstrated that an external WLOC was positively associated with both experienced frustration and CWB (i.e., work frustration–aggression model). In addition, general LOC has been found to be linked to aggression against others (Heacox, 1996) and client abuse among direct-care workers (Perlow & Latham, 1993). In each of these studies, externals demonstrated greater levels of CWB than internals.…”

Does ethnic conflict impede or enable employee innovation behavior?

“…For instance, at the organizational level, obstacles to innovation include entrenched policies, procedures, and an adherence to the status quo (Amabile et al, 1996). In Dougherty and Hardy's (1996) study on problems with sustained product innovation, respondents expressed their frustration with management and with difficulty obtaining resources within the organizational political structure, Organizational frustration encompasses situational impediments that block goals and performance (Heacox and Sorenson, 2004;Spector, 1978).…”

“…Organizations by their very nature produce frustration (Spector, 1978). The basic idea of organizational frustration is twofold: one is that there are organizational or situational factors associated with constraint that contribute to individual frustration with the organization and, two, that individual reaction to frustration can take the form of withdrawal behavior, altered task performance, and abandonment of goal (Heacox and Sorenson, 2004). Besides task performance, the work on frustration has been concerned with aggression (Spector, 1978;Storms and Spector, 1987).…”

“…Organizational frustration (α=.88). Employee frustration with the work organization stems from situational factors in the immediate work environment associated with constraint and the blockage of goals or performance (O'Connor et al, 1982;Peters et al, 1980;Heacox and Sorenson, 2004;Spector, 1975). We used an 11-item scale based on Spector (1975) that includes items relevant to the potential constraint of employee innovation behavior such as "I feel blocked in my efforts to be creative", "There are a lot of petty and unreasonable rules at work" and "I find that every time I try to do something at work I run into obstacles".…”