Counterproductive work behavior among white-collar employees: A study from Turkey

Abstract

The current study was designed to evaluate the magnitude and types of counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) among a group of white-collar employees from different firms. A total of 766 employees voluntarily participated in our study. We focused especially on employees' perceptions of their work environment and on their affective responses to those perceptions. Data were dependent on self-reporting and privacy, and anonymity measures were taken into account. The five different instruments used to evaluate job satisfaction were, organizational constraints, interpersonal conflict, quantitative workload and CWB. We found a high degree of job satisfaction, a minimal quantitative workload and a limited exhibition of CWBs among our sample. Organizational constraints were found to be the most strongly correlated to exhibited CWBs, followed by interpersonal conflict and quantitative workload. Job satisfaction had a diminishing effect on CWBs. Among the five dimensions of CWBs, abuse and withdrawal were found to be the most important. The most frequently reported CWB was 'came to work late without permission.' Except for income we found no statistically significant relationship between demographic characteristics and the exhibition of CWBs. We concluded that by abolishing pre-existing organizational constraints there may be a reduction in CWBs.