Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Productive and Counterproductive Behavior

Productive Behavior
 Abilityand performance
 Motivation and performance
 Personal characteristics and performance
◦ Big Five: Small correlations, largest with conscientiousness
◦ Locus of Control: Opposite results depending on criterion
 Internals better on tasks requiring initiative
 Externals better on routine tasks
◦ Age and performance: No relation
 Job characteristics: Very small relationship
 Incentive systems: Effective
 Design of technology: Effective
 Productive Behavior: Job Performance
Relations between Personal characteristics
and Job performance

◦ Ability & motivation > Job performance

◦ Locus of Control > Performance

◦ Age and performance

Point to remember: good performance requires both

ability (personal) & motivation (environment)
Environmental:Job Characteristics Theory
Productive Behavior:
Task/Job Performance
Relationsbetween Environmental
Conditions and Job performance
◦ Job characteristics
◦ Incentive systems

◦ How much motivating a job is likely to be?

◦ MPS =Skill variety+ Task significance+ Task Identity X Autonomy X Feedback

◦ * MPS= Motivation potential Score

Incentives and Job Performance:
Brainstorming
What could be the possible organizational
constraints that prevent good job
performance?
Organizational constraints
Physical environment
Supervisory practice
Lack of needed tools, equipments
 Time availability

Higher level of constraints > lower level of

job performance
Model of CWB
Counterproductive Work Behavior,
CWB
CWB is any intentional unacceptable
behaviour that has the potential to have
negative consequences to an organisation
and their employees within the organisation.
Counterproductive Work Behavior, CWB:
Withdrawal
 Absence
◦ Why do people remain absent at work?
◦ Absence culture
◦ Absence policies
 Lateness
◦ Job dissatisfaction
◦ Long commutes
◦ Work-family conflict, e.g., having young children
 Turnover
◦ Job dissatisfaction
◦ Availability of alternative employment
Model of Turnover
2 minutes brainstorming
What causes CWB?
Think about any past experiences of
CWB you have experienced or observed.
Causes of CWB
 Person
◦ Certain types of people more likely to engage in these behaviors.
◦ Delinquent personality:
 Alienated
 Hostility to rules
 Poor impulse control
 Social insensitivity
◦ Integrity tests used to screen them.
 Situation
◦ Situations that are stressful
◦ Situations that induce negative emotions such as anger
◦ Situations that allow for little employee control
◦ Culture that encourages CWB
◦ Injustice: CWB to even the score
Contributory factors of CWB
Personality
Breach of psychological contract
Unfair reward allocation
Performance evaluations from the supervisor
perspective
Counterproductive Work Behavior: Aggression,
Mistreatment, Sabotage & Theft
 Intentionalbehavior that harms the organization or
organization members
◦ Aggression (physical and verbal)
◦ Sabotage
◦ Theft
◦ Withdrawal
 Directed at organization vs. people
◦ Coworkers
◦ Subordinates
◦ Supervisors
◦ Clients/Customers
Typology of counterproductive
behaviors 
♦ The first dimension – minor deviance
vs. major deviance
The second dimension – interpersonal
deviance vs. organizational deviance 
Typology of counterproductive
behaviors 
Organizational
Minor Minor and organizational Major and harmful for the Major
deviance organization deviance

Minor and interpersonal Major and interpersonal

deviance deviance

Interpersonal
CWB
How to reduce the given CWB factors?
CWB
Possible remedy:
Personality-based integrity tests
Clearly expressed psychological contract
Unbiased reward systems
360° feedback