A Longitudinal Investigation of Emotions and Counterproductive Work Behaviors

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bauer J ; Spector PE
• Description:
  Objective: Studies have established relationships between counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), behaviors that harm the organization, and negative emotions (e.g. Cohen-Charash & Mueller, 2007). Almost all CWB studies have been cross-sectional; the need for more longitudinal studies has been noted (e.g. Dalal et al, 2009). The goal of the current study was to investigate the relationships among specific negative emotions and specific types of CWB while using a longitudinal design. Methods: Data were collected from 228 preschool teachers in Germany. The participants were instructed to complete two surveys, each completed after work on a Friday with a one-week time lag. The emotions of interest were hostility, fear, guilt, and sadness. The CWB facets of interest were production deviance, withdrawal, sabotage, theft, and abuse. Results: Each time 2 CWB facet was regressed onto each time 1 emotion while controlling for the corresponding time 1 CWB facet. Then, each time 2 emotion was regressed onto time 1 CWB facet individually while controlling for the corresponding time 1 emotion. All emotions predicted an increase in future reports of production deviance and abuse. However, CWB facets did not predict future reports of negative emotions. Conclusion: The results provide evidence that emotions from a previous week can predict displays of CWB during the next work week. However, previous displays of CWB did not appear to predict emotions over the following work week. These results are congruent with models that identify negative emotions as a precursor to CWB (i.e. Berkowitz, 1998), but they do not support the reverse. Both methodological and theoretical explanations for these findings are discussed. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Behavior Men Occupational Health Safety Women Workplace
• Keywords:
  Aggression Author Keywords: Emotions Counterproductive Behavior Emotional Stress Humans Longitudinal Work Environment Workers
• Publisher:
  University of South Florida (USF)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20063804
• Citation:
  Sunshine ERC Research Poster Session/USF Health Research Day, February 23-24, 2012, Tampa, Florida. Tampa, FL: University of South Florida (USF), 2012 Feb; :7
• Contact Point Address:
  Jeremy Bauer, Psychology Program, University of South Florida, College of Arts and Sciences
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  Sunshine Education and Research Center, University of South Florida
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Sunshine ERC Research Poster Session/USF Health Research Day, February 23-24, 2012, Tampa, Florida
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7c2eea2f65a85550ccb50e37a3adf88d6ee975249d129d285506d3859378bb66718e20c16b43018e22edbcec53043e3388dcc43b4fd4ee9c14b51c20c7fa0f93
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/222357/cdc_222357_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 81.97 KB ]