Employee personality, justice perceptions, and the prediction of workplace deviance

We examined the relative and incremental prediction of workplace deviance (i.e., intentional acts that harm the organization or its employees) offered by personality and organizational justice perceptions in a sample of 464 employees working in a large retail organization. We found that personality - including a sixth factor called Honesty-Humility, and its facet of trait Fairness - accounted for incremental variance in deviance criteria beyond justice perceptions. We found little support for the reverse. From a practical standpoint, these findings suggest that organizations may benefit from personality-related interventions (e.g., screening job applicants for relevant traits) more so than from justice-related interventions (e.g., organizational changes involving policies and procedures) in order to reduce workplace deviance. From a research perspective, our findings highlight the advantages of considering traits beyond the Big Five (e.g., Honesty-Humility) for maximizing the prediction and understanding of deviant behaviors at work.     

Organizational citizenship behavior and workplace deviance: the role of affect and cognitions

To investigate the role of affect and cognitions in predicting organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and workplace deviance behavior (WDB), data were collected from 149 registered nurses and their coworkers. Job affect was associated more strongly than were job cognitions with OCB directed at individuals, whereas job cognitions correlated more strongly than did job affect with OCB directed at the organization. With respect to WDB, job cognitions played a more important role in prediction when job affect was represented by 2 general mood variables (positive and negative affect). When discrete emotions were used to represent job affect, however, job affect played as important a role as job cognition variables, strongly suggesting the importance of considering discrete emotions in job affect research.     

Hardy personality: a potential link with organizational citizenship behavior

Hardiness is a personality construct which is assumed to protect the individual from stress-induced illness. Although widely accepted, hardiness has shown only modest relations with the development of illness. Examining the components of hardiness indicates apparent consistency with organizational citizenship behaviors such as obedience, participation, and loyalty. This study investigated the potential relations between hardiness and organizational citizenship behavior, using Kobasa's Personal Views Survey, and Van Dyne, Graham, and Diensch's citizenship measure. Subjects were 129 unionized employees whose mean age was 37 yr.; 58% were men. Correlations and regressions indicated that scores for total hardiness and its components of commitment and control were linked to citizenship behaviors. Differential relationhips were identified between hardiness and citizenship behavior for individuals with high versus low scores on hardy personality. Hardiness appears to have a positive association with organizational effectiveness through its link to citizenship behavior and consequently may have more implications for organizational behavior than for health.     

Why people harm the organization and its members: Relationships among personality,organizational commitment,and workplace deviance

Based on the five-factor model of personality traits and social exchange theory, this study examines the relationships of personality traits, organizational commitment, and two target-based factors of workplace deviance (organizational deviance and interpersonal deviance), using a sample of 113 South Korean employees. By the use of path-analysis, we first found that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability were meaningfully related to organizational commitment. In addition, both the effect of Conscientiousness on organizational deviance and the effect of Agreeableness on interpersonal deviance were partially mediated by organizational commitment. In sum, results clearly show that the personality traits of Conscientiousness (impersonal) and Agreeableness (interpersonal) function differently in predicting workplace deviance.     

Mood and organizational citizenship behavior: the effects of positive affect on employee organizational citizenship behavior intentions

This study, involving 139 employees from a variety of industries, organizations, and positions in Singapore, measured the effects of mood on the intentions of employees to contribute actions that are organizationally desirable but are not part of their formal job requirements (organizational citizenship behavior). After effects of established patterns of historical organizational citizenship behavior, demographic characteristics, and employee positive and negative affectivity had been controlled, stepwise regression analysis revealed that the amount of positive affect currently experienced by an employee significantly influenced the employee's intention to perform specific acts of organizational citizenship.     

Entitlement and conscientiousness in the prediction of organizational deviance

Responding to Wu and LeBreton’s (2011) call for further study, this paper examines dispositional predictors of organizational deviance. In a sample of 428 participants, self-report data were collected anonymously. Using hierarchical regression, the dispositional variables of entitlement and conscientiousness were similarly strong and statistically significant predictors of organizational deviance. The total variance explained in deviance by these variables and some demographic variables was .31. Additionally, the specificity matching principle suggests that narrow band traits like entitlement are better at predicting narrowly measured behaviors like deviance than are broad band traits like conscientiousness. Using dominance analysis, entitlement was a stronger predictor of organizational deviance than is conscientiousness.     

Altruistic organizational citizenship behavior: context, disposition, and age

The authors proposed employee age as moderating the structural stability of altruistic organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) with regard to the influence of context-relevant attitudes and dispositional variables. Analyses of peer ratings of altruistic OCB in a sample of 96 U.S. nurses showed that the contextual variables of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and trust in management were germane for the younger participants. The dispositional variable of moral judgment was a unique predictor of altruistic OCB among the older participants.     

The joint effects of personality and workplace social exchange relationships in predicting task performance and citizenship performance

This field study examines the joint effects of social exchange relationships at work (leader-member exchange and team-member exchange) and employee personality (conscientiousness and agreeableness) in predicting task performance and citizenship performance. Consistent with trait activation theory, matched data on 230 employees, their coworkers, and their supervisors demonstrated interactions in which high quality social exchange relationships weakened the positive relationships between personality and performance. Results demonstrate the benefits of consonant predictions in which predictors and outcomes are matched on the basis of specific targets. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.     

Crossnational deviance in the workplace: Diverging impact of organizational commitment in Canada and Belgium

Using a self-report questionnaire from the aggressor's point of view, this study contrasted employees' frustration, perception of procedural justice, organizational commitment, and their relationships to interpersonal deviance in Canada and Belgium. Significant main effects were found in both countries for frustration and procedural justice on psychological and physical violence. Moreover, hierarchical regression analyses revealed significant interactions of country by normative and continuance commitment in interpersonal deviance, indicating the unique patterns relationships in Canada and Belgium. Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions was used to discuss the results.     

Loving yourself abundantly: relationship of the narcissistic personality to self- and other perceptions of workplace deviance, leadership, and task and contextual performance

The authors report results from 2 studies assessing the extent to which narcissism is related to self- and other ratings of leadership, workplace deviance, and task and contextual performance. Study 1 results revealed that narcissism was related to enhanced self-ratings of leadership, even when controlling for the Big Five traits. Study 2 results also revealed that narcissism was related to enhanced leadership self-perceptions; indeed, whereas narcissism was significantly positively correlated with self-ratings of leadership, it was significantly negatively related to other ratings of leadership. Study 2 also revealed that narcissism was related to more favorable self-ratings of workplace deviance and contextual performance compared to other (supervisor) ratings. Finally, as hypothesized, narcissism was more strongly negatively related to contextual performance than to task performance.     

Taking a person-centered approach to personality: A latent-profile analysis of the HEXACO model of personality

Our study applies a person-centered approach to the HEXACO model of personality using latent profile analysis (LPA). While the traditional variable-centered approach assumes that the relations among variables within a population are homogenous, the person-centered approach identifies subgroups within samples that have similar scores on several variables of interest, in this case, the six factors of personality. Data from two independent samples were collected at a large North American university. The results of LPA revealed five distinct and interpretable profiles that replicated and were found to be consistent across both samples. We discuss how our findings attest to the meaningfulness of personality profiles, and suggest additional ways in which a person-centered approach might be applied in personality research.     

Interactive effects of personality and perceptions of the work situation on workplace deviance

Previous research on workplace deviance has examined the relationship of either personality or employees' situational perceptions with deviant behavior. In this study, the authors focused on the joint relationship of personality and perceptions of the work situation with deviant behavior. Using 4 samples of employees and multiple operationalizations of the core constructs, the authors found support for the hypothesis that positive perceptions of the work situation are negatively related to workplace deviance. In addition, consistent with hypotheses, the personality traits of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness moderated this relationship. Specifically, the relationship between perceptions of the developmental environment and organizational deviance was stronger for employees low in conscientiousness or emotional stability, and the relationship between perceived organizational support and interpersonal deviance was stronger for employees low in agreeableness.     

Relationships between in-role performance and individual values, commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior among Israeli teachers

This study examines the relationship between (1) individual values, (2) organizational and occupational commitment, and (3) organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and in-role performance in a sample of 192 teachers employed in 10 secular Jewish schools (response rate of 64%). The results showed that individual values were related to all commitment forms examined here, but contrary to expectations, there was no clear distinction between values that represent conservation and self-transcendence and values that represent openness to change and self-enhancement in terms of their relationship either to commitment or to behavioral outcomes. Likewise, there was no clear distinction between the three dimensions of commitment (affective, continuance, and normative) or two commitment foci (organizational and occupational) in terms of their relationships to different values. Unsurprisingly, the findings showed a strong effect of commitment on OCB and in-role performance. The findings show that both individual values and commitment are concepts that can increase our understanding of employees' behavior in the workplace. We conclude by emphasizing the need for further research on the relationship between values, commitment, and performance and by suggesting some directions for such research.     

Beneath the Surface: Uncovering the relationship between extraversion and organizational citizenship behavior through a facet approach

To date, an empirical link between the broad factor extraversion and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has not been found. We propose that a facet conceptualization of extraversion including surgency, sociability and positive emotions predict an individual's level of citizenship behaviors in opposing ways, thus masking the predictive ability of a broad factor of extraversion. In study one, we establish the foundation for predictive differences by documenting differential relationships between the facets of extraversion and the type of organizational cultures potential job applicants are attracted to. In study two, analysis of peer rated OCB from 117 individuals working in various organizations supports the superior predictive ability of the facets over that of the broad factor.     

Relationships among burnout, job involvement, and organizational citizenship behavior

R. Cropanzano, D. E. Rupp, and Z. S. Byrne (2003) found that emotional exhaustion (i.e., 1 dimension of burnout) negatively affects organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The authors extended this research by investigating relationships among 3 dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment) and OCB. They also affirmed the mediating effect of job involvement on these relationships. Data were collected from 296 paired samples of service employees and their supervisors from 12 hotels and restaurants in Taiwan. Findings demonstrated that emotional exhaustion and diminished personal accomplishment were related negatively to OCB, whereas depersonalization had no independent effect on OCB. Job involvement mediated the relationships among emotional exhaustion, diminished personal accomplishment, and OCB.     

Citizenship and withdrawal in the workplace: relationship between organizational citizenship behavior, intention to leave current job and intention to leave the organization

This study investigates the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and employee intention to leave the organization and current job using a sample of French employees. A survey was sent to 1,200 alumni of a business school in France. Participation in the study was voluntary. The participants were 355 working adults with French citizenship. This paper provides several interesting findings. While no relationship was found between altruism and intention to leave both the organization and the current job, sportsmanship, civic virtue and helping others emerged as the strongest predictors of intention to leave the organization and intention to leave the current job. Results are discussed.     

Prefrontal cognitive ability, intelligence, Big Five personality, and the prediction of advanced academic and workplace performance

Studies 1 and 2 assessed performance on a battery of dorsolateral prefrontal cognitive ability (D-PFCA) tests, personality, psychometric intelligence, and academic performance (AP) in 2 undergraduate samples. In Studies 1 and 2, AP was correlated with D-PFCA (r=.37, p<.01, and r=.33, p<.01, respectively), IQ (r=.24, p<.05, and r=.38, p<.01, respectively), and Conscientiousness (r=.26, p<.05, and r=.37, p<.01, respectively). D-PFCA remained significant in regression analyses controlling for intelligence (or g) and personality. Studies 3 and 4 assessed D-PFCA, personality, and workplace performance among (a) managerial-administrative workers and (b) factory floor workers at a manufacturing company. Prefrontal cognitive ability correlated with supervisor ratings of manager performance at values of r ranging from .42 to .57 (ps<.001), depending on experience, and with factory floor performance at pr=.21 (p=.02), after controlling for experience, age, and education. Conscientiousness correlated with factory floor performance at r=.23.     

The five-factor model of personality traits and organizational citizenship behaviors: a meta-analysis

Using meta-analytic tests based on 87 statistically independent samples, we investigated the relationships between the five-factor model (FFM) of personality traits and organizational citizenship behaviors in both the aggregate and specific forms, including individual-directed, organization-directed, and change-oriented citizenship. We found that Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Openness/Intellect have incremental validity for citizenship over and above Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, 2 well-established FFM predictors of citizenship. In addition, FFM personality traits predict citizenship over and above job satisfaction. Finally, we compared the effect sizes obtained in the current meta-analysis with the comparable effect sizes predicting task performance from previous meta-analyses. As a result, we found that Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Extraversion have similar magnitudes of relationships with citizenship and task performance, whereas Openness and Agreeableness have stronger relationships with citizenship than with task performance. This lends some support to the idea that personality traits are (slightly) more important determinants of citizenship than of task performance. We conclude with proposed directions for future research on the relationships between FFM personality traits and specific forms of citizenship, based on the current findings.     

Interpersonal deviance, organizational deviance, and their common correlates: a review and meta-analysis

Interpersonal deviance (ID) and organizational deviance (OD) are highly correlated (R. S. Dalal, 2005). This, together with other empirical and theoretical evidence, calls into question the separability of ID and OD. As a further investigation into their separability, relationships among ID, OD, and their common correlates were meta-analyzed. ID and OD were highly correlated (rho = .62) but had differential relationships with key Big Five variables and organizational citizenship behaviors, which lends support to the separability of ID and OD. Whether the R. J. Bennett and S. L. Robinson (2000) instrument was used moderated some relationships. ID and OD exhibited their strongest (negative) relationships with organizational citizenship, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability. Correlations with organizational justice were small to moderate, and correlations with demographic variables were generally negligible.