When workers are unhappy with their treatment at work, they tend to lash out. One recent research article on the topic of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) considered its relationship to interpersonal justice.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
The researchers (Yang & Diefendorff, 2009) found that when employees feel mistreated by their supervisors, they are likely to engage in CWBs of an interpersonal nature, such as by being mean to coworkers. On the other hand, when employees feel that their job roles are ambiguous or they feel mistreated by customers, they are more likely to engage in CWBs targeting the organization, such as by taking extra-long breaks.
These reactions are partially or fully due to negative feelings that these people or experiences invoke. A personal tendency toward negative emotions (called high negative affect) exacerbates the relationship. However, high levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness mitigate the connection.
THE BOTTOM LINE
As with any research that studies CWB with a self-report survey measure, these results should be taken cautiously. In fact, of the 23 counterproductive work behaviors (13 organizational CWBs and 10 interpersonal CWBs) that employees could report each day, the average worker only reported engaging in an average of .55 organizational CWBs and .36 interpersonal CWBs each day. That’s awfully low, but not unexpected. From a more practical standpoint, knowing that the connection exists when the reported outcomes are so low means that this phenomenon truly merits attention. Make sure that your workers feel that they are being treated justly—it could be a small investment that pays off big.
Yang, J., & Diefendorff, J. M. (2009). The relations of daily counterproductive workplace behavior with emotions, situational antecedents, and personality moderators: A diary study in Hong Kong. Personnel Psychology, 62, 259-295.
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