The severity and prevalence of deviant employee activity within supermarkets

Expert ratings were used in this study to derive severity indices for a variety of types of counterproductive employee behavior. Deviant behaviors rated as most severe included taking cash, merchandise or equipment from the employer without permission and engaging in drug use on the job. Coming to work hungover from alcohol was rated as the least severe behavior. The prevalence of severe theft and counterproductivity was then explored using the admissions of a supermarket employee sample. A variety of admissions of severe counterproductive behavior were obtained, which were grouped under the five general categories of theft, theft support, time theft, counterproductivity, and other types of deviance. Major findings revealed that 35% of supermarket employees admitted to engaging in severe theft of company cash or property within the previous six months.     

When feeling poorly at work does not mean acting poorly at work: The moderating role of work-related emotional intelligence

It is important, both theoretically and for applied reasons, to understand who is likely to engage in counterproductive work behaviors. It is known that such behaviors are more likely to be exhibited by unhappy employees (i.e., those high in job negative affect), but this should be particularly true for individuals low in work-related emotional intelligence. The current study (N = 91) examined moderation-related hypotheses of this type in relation to five counterproductive work behaviors—abuse, sabotage, theft, withdrawal, and production deviance—among a sample of employees working at least 20 h per week. These behaviors varied positively by job negative affect and negatively by work-related emotional intelligence. In addition, the two predictors interacted for all five outcomes such that the highest levels of counterproductive work behavior were observed among employees who were high in job negative affect and low in emotional intelligence. The discussion focuses on implications for understanding counterproductive work behaviors and on the value of assessing work-related emotional intelligence as an ability that differs by employees.     

An Empirical Examination of Overt and Covert Integrity Tests

This study investigated the relationship between overt and covert integrity tests. Undergraduate college students completed both an overt and covert integrity test, a personality test, a survey about counter-productive behavior, and a survey about attitudes toward tests. Both the overt and covert integrity tests were predictive of self reports of theft admissions and counterproductive behaviors. While different personality constructs were related to each integrity test, hierarchical regression indicated the personality subtests predicted additional variance for both the overt and covert integrity tests. Differential effects for integrity test type on test-taking attitudes were also found.     

An empirical approach to determining employee deviance base rates

A four-stage survey mailing process was used to determine the incidence, amount, and types of employee deviance occurring within the fast food restaurants and supermarket stores. Employees from 341 fast food restaurants and from 234 supermarkets completed and returned anonymous questionnaires which asked them to indicate the types of on-the-job theft and counterproductive behaviors in which they have engaged. The results showed that many employees from both industries admitted to costly theft and other counterproductive work practices. The most common types of employee deviance were practices related to the theft of company cash and property, time theft, and general counterproductivity. Specifically, for fast food units, 62 percent of respondents admitted to some type of cash or property theft; for supermarket stores, 43 percent admitted to some type of cash or property theft. Implications of these findings to the measurement of base rates of employee deviance are discussed.Presented at the 97th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association at New Orleans, August 1989.Gratitude is extended to Dr. William Terris for his helpful contributions, and to Michael Boye, M.A. for his assistance in the data analyses and report preparations. The assistance of Dr. Jane Halpert and the DePaul University Center for Industrial and Organizational Psychology is gratefully acknowledged.     

Counterproductive sustainability behaviors and their relationship to personality traits

This article introduces the concept of ‘counterproductive sustainability behaviors’ (CSB) as a novel expression of counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). It presents a short measure of CSB that applies the construct of counterproductivity to employee behaviors in the environmental sustainability domain. Personality assessments were administered to three independent samples—employed students, experienced employees, and job applicants—to investigate the relationship between personality and CSB (self-reports and other-rated), and to compare results to those obtained in the prediction of traditional CWB.     

Cross-cultural validity of integrity assessments for lower-level and higher-level jobs

This research brief examines the cross-cultural validity of two multi-dimensional integrity assessments, one for lower-level jobs and one for higher-level jobs. Job applicants for a global company completed the assessments as a part of the hiring process in three countries: the United States, South Africa, and Mexico. U.S. applicants tended to score higher (i.e., higher integrity) on these assessments and make fewer admissions of counterproductive work behaviors than applicants from South Africa and Mexico. The overall scores for these assessments (and most of the individual scales) were correlated significantly with, for each country separately and globally, three composites of self-reported counterproductive work behavior criterion measures (Theft, Counterproductivity, and Overall Risky Behavior). Construct validity evidence was examined with a measure of Collusion Avoidance (tolerance for colluding with external organized criminals). Overall, the results of this research highlight the importance of including an integrity assessment in the hiring processes for lower-level and higher-level (i.e., professional and managerial) jobs globally. Integrity assessments appear to have practical value in countries with higher prevalence of crime and corruption. The results also bolster previous research indicating that integrity assessments are valid outside of the U.S. context in which they were initially developed over 60 years ago.     

RECONSIDERING THE DISPOSITIONAL BASIS OF COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIOR: THE ROLE OF ABERRANT PERSONALITY

Interest in the study of aberrant behaviors has coincided with widely publicized scandals involving unethical behaviors of individuals in organizations. Consequently, the literature in the organizational sciences has been increasingly focused on counterproductive and deviant behaviors such as aggression, sabotage, or theft and how individual differences can predict such behaviors. As such, research linking personality to counterproductive work behaviors has grown substantially over the last 10 years. However, the majority of this research has relied on traditional personality traits as the dispositional antecedents of such counterproductive behaviors (e.g., the global traits comprising the five factor model). A different yet possibly fruitful framework with which to examine the link between individual differences and counterproductive work behaviors is through the use of aberrant personality traits. The importance of focusing attention on aberrant traits in relation to counterproductive work behaviors is highlighted through a review of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, followed by a variety of research hypotheses designed to spur future research in these and related areas.     

Retaliating against Customer Interpersonal Injustice in a Singaporean Context: Moderating Roles of Self‐Efficacy and Social Support

Few studies have examined the relationship between customer injustice and employees' retaliatory counterproductive behaviors toward customers, and those that have done so have been conducted in a Western setting. We extend these studies by examining the relationship in a Singaporean context where retaliatory behaviors by employees might be culturally constrained. While the previously established positive relationship between customer injustice and counterproductive behaviors was not replicated using peer‐reported data from employees across two hotels in Singapore, we found that individuals' self‐efficacy and perceived social support moderated it. Specifically, the injustice‐to‐counterproductive behaviors relationship was positive for individuals with high self‐efficacy, and for those who perceived high levels of supervisor social support. The findings offer insights into when Singaporean employees and, potentially, employees from other Confucian Asian societies will retaliate against customer injustice, and provide practical implications of how managers can help employees cope with customer injustice.     

The Impact of Personality and Team Context on the Relationship Between Workplace Injustice and Counterproductive Work Behavior

This study ascertains whether the impact of workplace injustice on counterproductive work behavior is moderated by personality and team context. A sample of 131 public-service employees completed a questionnaire that assessed the extent to which they receive distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Furthermore, team commitment, coworker satisfaction, and Big Five personality traits were assessed. Finally, respondents estimated the frequency with which they and their colleagues engage in counterproductive behaviors. Procedural, distributive, and interactional injustice all provoked counterproductive behaviors. The effect of justice on these destructive acts diminished when team commitment was elevated, coworker satisfaction was limited, agreeableness was pronounced, and neuroticism was reduced. The findings confirm that vulnerability amplifies the impact of injustice, but interdependence can diminish this effect.     

Association between just world beliefs and perceptions of counterproductive workplace behaviors

320 adults rated 48 counterproductive workplace behaviors (CWBs) on a 9-point scale, from petty to serious offense, and also completed the Just World Beliefs scale. Ratings of the seriousness of the CWBs indicated considerable variability in perceptions, with theft and physical violence rated most strongly. A factor analysis yielded five interpretable factors. Older participants were more likely to rate as more serious all counterproductive workplace behaviors.     

Employee satisfaction and theft: testing climate perceptions as a mediator

Employee theft of both property and time is an expensive and pervasive problem for American organizations. One antecedent of theft behaviors is employee dissatisfaction, but not all dissatisfied employees engage in withdrawal or theft behaviors. The authors tested a model of theft behavior by using an organization's climate for theft as an explanatory mechanism. They found that dissatisfaction influenced employee theft behaviors through the intermediary influence of employees' individual perceptions of the organization's climate for theft. The authors encourage organizations to pay attention to such climate elements and take action to alter employee perceptions if they reflect permissive attitudes toward theft.     

Team identification more than organizational identification predicts counterproductive work behavior and organizational citizenship behavior and mediates influences of communication climate and perceived external prestige

Organizational identification has been linked to both positive behavior and negative behavior at work. Based on theory and research that suggest that for many organizational behaviors, team identification may be a more important influence than organizational identification, we advance a research model proposing that team identification, more than organizational identification, predicts counterproductive work behavior and organizational citizenship behavior and is the more important mediator of the influence of communication climate (CC) and perceived external prestige (PEP) on these outcomes. This research model was tested in a survey of N = 300 employees of four Italian organizations from different sectors. Results show that team identification, but not organizational identification, predicts counterproductive behavior and citizenship behavior and mediates the influence of CC and PEP. To enhance team identification for sustaining positive voluntary behavior at work, two possible strategies could be considered: improving perceived external prestige and promoting a good communication climate.     

Family interference with work and its relationship with organizational citizenship and counterproductive work behaviors

Most employed adults must manage both work and family responsibilities. Consequently, many employees also experience conflict between their roles, which often leads to compromised performance in one or both domains. We examined family interference with work (FIW) as a potential drain on resources leading to increased counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) and decreased organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) in three samples with a multi‐measure, time‐lagged design. Results demonstrated that employees who experience FIW display higher levels of CWB and lower levels of OCB, especially for organizationally targeted behaviors.     

Personal use of work computers: distraction versus destruction.

To explore definitions, frequencies, and motivation for personal use of work computers, we analyzed 329 employees' responses to an online survey, which asked participants to self-report frequencies for 41 computer behaviors at work. This sample (65% female, 74% European ethnicity, mean age of 36 years) was formed by soliciting participants through Internet Usenet groups, emails, and listservs. Results support a distinction between computer use that is counterproductive and that which is merely not productive. Nonproductive Computer Use occurred more when employees were younger (r = -0.31, p < 0.01), had Internet access at work longer (r = +0.16, p < 0.01), and had faster Internet connections at work than at home (r = +0.14, p < 0.01). Counterproductive Computer Use occurred more when Internet access was newer (r = -0.16, p < 0.01) and employees knew others who had been warned about misuse (r = +0.11, p < 0.05). While most employees who engaged in computer counterproductivity also engaged in computer nonproductivity, the inverse was uncommon, suggesting the need to distinguish between the two when establishing computer policies and Internet accessibility.     

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN OVERT AND PERSONALITY-BASED INTEGRITY TESTS

Overt and personality-based integrity tests are used for the same purposes, but the relationship between the two kinds of measures is unclear. Moreover, although the construct validity of personality-based integrity measures is well understood, the psychological meaning of overt integrity measures is unclear. A sample of applicants ( N = 2,168) for driver, warehouse, and clerical jobs completed an overt integrity test (Reid Report), a personality-based integrity test (Employee Reliability Index) and a measure of normal personality (Hogan Personality Inventory). A principal components analysis of the intercorrelations between the overt and the personality-based integrity item responses revealed four themes: (a) punitive attitudes, (b) admissions of illegal drug use, (c) reliability, and (d) theft admissions. A model testing for a general conscientiousness factor provided a good fit for the overt and personality-based integrity test variables, although item overlap between the two test types was minimal. Finally, the punitive attitudes and theft admissions components of the Reid item pool are most closely related to the Big Five personality factors of conscientiousness and emotional stability; the Reid component of illegal drug use was unrelated to personality measures.     

RELATIONSHIP OF PERSONALITY TRAITS AND COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIORS: THE MEDIATING EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION

This study used path analysis to test a model that posits that relevant personality traits will have both direct relationships with counterproductive work behaviors (CPBs) and indirect relationships to CPBs through the mediating effects of job satisfaction. Based on a sample ( n = 141) of customer service employees, results generally supported the hypothesized model for both boss- and self-rated CPBs. Agreeableness had a direct relationship with interpersonal counterproductive work behaviors (CPB-I); Conscientiousness had a direct relationship with organizational counterproductive work behaviors (CPB-O); and, job satisfaction had a direct relationship to both CPB-I and CPB-O. In addition, job satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between Agreeableness and both CPB-O and CPB-I. Overall, results show that personality traits differentially predict CPBs and that employees' attitudes about their jobs explain, in part, these personality–behavior associations.     

Pre-employment integrity testing across multiple industries

Despite the robust meta-analytic data available, very little comparative research exists on validities of integrity measures within specific industries. Among a sample of 2456 Israeli job applicants, integrity scores were found to be significantly correlated with self-reported counterproductive work behaviors across eight different industries, with no evidence of adverse impact by gender, age, or national origin. These results are believed to be of practical importance to the diverse organizations administering integrity tests.     

Predicting the counterproductive employee in a child-to-adult prospective study

The present research tested the relations between a battery of background factors and counterproductive work behaviors in a 23-year longitudinal study of young adults (N = 930). Background information, such as diagnosed adolescent conduct disorder, criminal conviction records, intelligence, and personality traits, was assessed before participants entered the labor force. These background factors were combined with work conditions at age 26 to predict counterproductive work behaviors at age 26. The results showed that people diagnosed with childhood conduct disorder were more prone to commit counterproductive work behaviors in young adulthood and that these associations were partially mediated by personality traits measured at age 18. Contrary to expectations, criminal convictions that occurred prior to entering the workforce were unrelated to counterproductive work behaviors. Job conditions and personality traits had independent effects on counterproductive work behaviors, above and beyond background factors.     

Wage Theft Among Latino Day Laborers in Post-Katrina New Orleans: Comparing Contractors with Other Employers

This study examines the nature of wage theft among Latino day laborers who participated in post-Katrina construction work. It addresses three important issues: (a) Is wage theft more prevalent in circumstances where there is very little enforcement of labor law? (b) Are professional contractors more likely to commit wage theft than other employers such as homeowners and small businesses? And (c) Do contractors and non-contractors who commit wage theft vary in the reasons given to justify their crime? Through survey interviews with 304 Latino day laborers conducted at four procurement sites across the city, respondents indicate that 78 % were victims of wage theft over the previous year (2008). Comparisons of wage theft across multiple studies expose the need for the development of a common conceptualization of a rate of wage theft and the benefit of using similar sampling frames to facilitate cross-comparison. Analysis reveals that there was no significant variation in the incidence of wage theft by employer type. Contractors and non-contractors did not differ significantly in the average dollar amount of wage theft, in the number of days worked before wage theft was committed, or in the hourly wage promised to employees. Contractors were, however, much more likely to justify wage theft by citing lack of funds than non-contractors.