“Bad Behavior” in Organizations: A Review and Typology for Future Research

Abstract

In recent years, organizational scholars have increasingly focused on various forms of bad behavior in the workplace. Notable examples of these behaviors include deviance, aggression, antisocial behavior, and violence. Unfortunately, as this body of work has grown, so too has a proliferation of concepts, constructs, and definitions. This article reviews the literature regarding the general set of concepts and constructs relating to bad behavior in organizations. The authors identify both areas of uniqueness as well as areas of overlap among these various concepts and constructs. They also propose a typology to guide future theory development and empirical research.

A Systematic Review on the Deviant Workplace Behavior

“…Eminent research scholars Robinson and Bennett [12] defined deviance workplace behavior (DWB) as "a voluntary behavior engaged by employee that is contrary to the significant organizational norms and it is considered as a threat to the well-being of an organization and/ or its members". Earlier researchers have given different expressions to the term deviance workplace behavior such as counterproductive workplace behavior [13] antisocial behavior organizational misbehavior, workplace sabotage [14], worker resistance, dysfunctional behaviour [15] and non-complaint behavior (Puffer) among others, "Bad Behavior" in Organizations [15]. According to Greenberg, "antisocial behavior" that is defined as "any behavior that brings harm or is intended to bring harm to the organization and its employees or its stakeholders" In the words of Robinson and Morrison, [16] "workplace deviance" that is defined as "voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms and in so doing, threatens the well-being of the organization and/its members".…”

“…Deviant workplace behaviors (DWB) of employees are directly harmful to the organization or to other employees in the organization [17] that can range from relatively minor to very serious [18]. Griffin and Lopez [15] noted that all individuals who enter to working organizations have the potential to exhibit this destructive behavior that categories, minor and major deviance. The first, minor, production deviance [12], working slow intentionally, avails excessive breaks [8], gossiping on non-work topics with coworkers during official working hours, late arrival at workplace and leave office early, day dreaming while on job [8], and involved in cyber loafing [19].…”

Affective mechanisms linking dysfunctional behavior to performance in work teams: A moderated mediation study.

“…According to Griffin and Lopez (2005), bad employee behavior refers to any form of intentional act that has the potential to adversely affect organizations and their employees. In other words, bad behavior reflects employee conduct that an organization would otherwise prefer not to have displayed by its employees.…”

A Typology of Employee Explanations of Misbehaviour: An Analysis of Unfair Dismissal Cases

“…Through the unobtrusive investigation of publicly available records detailing accounts of employee misbehaviour (Griffin and Lopez, 2005) this study overcomes the challenge faced by many deviance researchers -measuring beyond the level of the employee's intention to misbehave (Vardi and Weitz, 2004). This study also alleviated the need for participants to predict or alter their behaviour or responses due to the presence of a researcher or survey instrument.…”