What Happens to Bad Actors in Organizations? A Review of Actor-Centric Outcomes of Negative Behavior

Abstract

Negative workplace behavior has received substantial research attention over the past several decades. Although we have learned a lot about the consequences of negative behavior for its victims and third-party observers, a less understood but equally important research question pertains to the consequences for bad actors: How does engaging in negative behavior impact one’s thoughts, feelings, and subsequent behaviors? Moreover, do organizational members experience costs or benefits from engaging in negative acts? We address these questions with an integrative review of empirical findings on various actor-centric consequences of a wide range of negative behaviors. We organize these findings into five dominant theoretical perspectives: affective, psychological-needs, relational, psychological-resources, and cognitive-dissonance perspectives. For each perspective, we provide an overview of the theoretical arguments, summarize findings of relevant studies underlying it, and discuss observed patterns and contradictory findings. By doing so, we provide a very tentative answer to our initial questions, contending that engaging in negative acts is a two-edged sword for actors and its costs seem to slightly prevail over its benefits. Nevertheless, we make this preliminary conclusion based upon an incomplete knowledge base. In order to further our understanding of actor-centric outcomes of negative behavior, we also identify several important research gaps and needed future research directions.

Current Approaches, Typologies and Predictors of Deviant Work Behaviors: A Scoping Review of Reviews

“…In conclusion, these studies show that the broad construct of CWB has complex interconnections which position it as an aspect of job performance and, at the same time, as an overarching construct subsuming unethical behaviors. The actorcentric perspective reviewed by Zhong and Robinson (2021) extends the conceptual domain of CWB. 2020) define CWB unit-level as "unintentionally and intentionally harmful behaviors perpetrated by the unit (e.g., team, department, and organization).…”

“…Finally, although great attention has always been deserved to the victim of the deviant action, an interesting and recent perspective concerns the consequences that the deviant behavior has on the actor performing the action. Zhong and Robinson (2021) reviewed 110 articles that examined the consequences of DWB on an actor’s thoughts, feelings and subsequent behaviors. Five dominant theoretical perspectives are used by these authors to organize the actor-centric consequences of bad behaviors: affective, psychological needs, relational, psychological resources and cognitive dissonance perspectives.…”

“…Considering the wide variety of constructs in literature related to DWB and CWB ( Zhong and Robinson, 2021 ), our interest in comprehensive models, and the fact that, according to Sackett (2002) , CWB and DWB are two top level constructs, we limited our search to reviews published after 2010 which included these two constructs, and their variations (e.g., deviance, deviant; behavior/s, behavior/s; work, workplace/s) in the title, abstract or keywords. This search was combined with the terms ‘review’ or ‘typol*’ in the title, abstract or keywords.…”

“…Considering that the domain of deviant work behavior comprehends a very large and heterogeneous literature (a recent review identified 91 terms addressing negative, deviant or counterproductive behaviors – Zhong and Robinson, 2021 ), we decided to conduct a review of reviews. In the following sections, we briefly describe the main models on the broad DWB and CWB constructs to highlight the debate about the various types of deviant behaviors and the dimensions, or categories, used to classify them.…”

Employee Social Network Strategies: Implications for Firm Strategies and Performance in Future Organizations

“…The article is motivated by a cross-disciplinary approach of organizational behavior literature and strategic management literature to examine how employee negative behavior operates through relational and governance structures within the firm to reshape and redirect firm strategies. For instance, Zhong and Robinson (2021) research findings indicate that misbehaving or negative behavior has the potential to incur employee resource gains and positive results such gaining control over others, that in turn could decrease organizational performance.…”