1. Productive and Counterproductive Employee Behavior INP3004
Dr. Victoria L. Pace

2. Today We will look at Productive Behavior Task Performance
Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB)
Today

3. Task performance is the most critical part of performance in organizations
Usually well-defined, relative to other types of performance and behaviors that we’ll discuss today
Universally accepted as required parts of the job (in-role)
Task Performance

4. Personal Predictors of Task Performance
These are the qualities of the person on which interview and selection procedures should focus
May also be trainable, but not always
Include:
Ability
Motivation
Personality characteristics (especially Conscientiousness)
Other useful characteristics that are specific to the job or organization
Personal Predictors of Task Performance

5. Environmental Conditions and Task Performance
Environmental conditions that can affect work performance include such things as
Job characteristics (remember Hackman & Oldham’s model?)
Incentives (but employees must have the ability needed and desire to earn these)
Design of technology, tools, office equipment, etc. (Human Factors is a field that studies the interaction of people and their environments, particularly when doing tasks)
Organizational constraints (poor coordination, ineffective supervisory practices, out-of-date technology, inaccurate information, etc.)
Environmental Conditions and Task Performance

6. As with contextual performance, Organizational Citizenship Behavior is essentially helping at work. This can be done in a variety of ways. Borman & Motowidlo (1997) outlined 5 dimensions of contextual performance:
Persisting with enthusiasm and extra effort as necessary to complete own task activities successfully
Volunteering to carry out task activities that are not formally part of one’s own job
Helping and cooperating with others
Following organizational rules and procedures
Endorsing, supporting, and defending organizational objectives
Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB): A Type of Prosocial (Helping) Behavior

7. Organizational Citizenship Behavior
Why do we help?
Selfless motives (Altruism)– Helping may not be in our best interests or it may, but that isn’t a primary concern. “Do the right thing”
Genuine support for the organization or individuals in it
Reaction to feelings of empathy
“Selfish” motives
Gaining acknowledgement and praise from others
Getting ahead at work
Feeling better about yourself (pride, satisfaction, self-esteem, avoiding guilt and anxiety related to ours and others’ disapproval)

8. Counterproductive Work Behavior includes such things as
Forms of Withdrawal: Lateness, Absence, Turnover
Withholding effort and/or information
Interpersonal Aggression (bullying, gossiping, incivility), Sabotage, Theft
Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB): Subtle and More Obvious Forms of Aggression

9. Counterproductive Work Behavior
What motivates employee withdrawal and aggression?
Need for well-being
Need for self-esteem
Need to uphold norm of justice
We will look at these on the next few slides
Counterproductive Work Behavior

10. Lack of Well-Being Frustration
They’re holding you back from your goal or introducing barriers to goal attainment
Frustration can lead to aggression against those considered at fault, but also those not associated with the frustrating event. (Encounter rude customers at work get annoyed with your roommate)
Environmental Stressors
Heat, smoke, noise
Lack of Well-Being
Hostile attribution bias (Nasby, Hayden, & DePaulo, 1979)

11. Lack of Well-Being Personality factors
Negative Affectivity, Trait Anger and Trait Anxiety have been positively linked to CWB
Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability have displayed negative relationships to CWB
Catharsis
Reduction of negative arousal/Tension reduction
“Letting off steam” or “venting”
More effective strategies– humor, letting it go (forgiveness)
Lack of Well-Being

12. Threat to Self-Esteem, Violation of Norms
They’re engaging in physical or verbal abuse toward you or those you care about
How we interpret the other’s motives (intentional, directed at us) influences our response; some people exhibit hostile attribution bias (aggressive people are more likely to think of others as having hostile intent)
Retaliation can also occur due to embarrassment, shame
Norms
“That’s not how we do things”
Justice: “It’s not right/fair”; Desire to even the score
Enforcing social rules and understandings
Threat to Self-Esteem, Violation of Norms

13. Summary Today, topics included Task Performance OCB CWB
Next lecture, we cover
Leadership and Power in Organizations (Chapter 13)
Don’t forget!
This week, your group must wrap up the Service Learning Project and submit your presentation (choose one group member to submit it per group) in preparation for the class to view and rate the presentations and for later product delivery to our client service organization
Summary