Counterproductive behaviors at work: what they are, and their characteristics.

A summary of the main types of counterproductive behaviors at work.

Although it is logical to think that all employees will always act in the best interests of the company, this is not always the case.

Let's find out what counterproductive behaviors at work consist ofWhat characterizes this type of behavior, what are the contexts in which it occurs and who are the people most likely to commit it.

What are counterproductive behaviors at work?

The counterproductive behaviors in the work are those behaviors that some employees behaviors that some employees perform, consciously and deliberately, and that clash frontally with the interests of the company.This behavior can be an isolated event or a constant one that can result in serious damage or loss at some level. This behavior can be an isolated event or a constant one that can result in very serious figures in terms of repair costs for the damage caused.

Depending on the type of behavior and the intensity of the sabotage carried out by the employee, the company may have to face an economic contingency, either directly, because it has to replace or repair the elements that have been damaged by the behavior of the employee in question, or indirectly, because it has ceased to generate a certain amount of wealth. Both cases involve a loss that generates damage to the company.

Y it is not only a question of losses at the economic levelThe fact of having employees who deliberately boycott the company's actions is a clear stain on the brand, and more resources must be allocated to recover the brand image that existed prior to such calamitous acts.

Another detriment that such actions can lead to is the loss of valuable team members. It is possible that the employees who have engaged in counterproductive behavior at work were previously highly efficient people who brought great value to the company. and contributed great value to the company through their remarkable work. The reasons that could lead to such a radical change of attitude will be explored below.

Lastly, another of the negative effects that can be caused by counterproductive behavior at work are the legal repercussions, since if the company manages to prove that one of its employees carried out actions with the aim of harming the company, it is most likely that they will choose to sue and take him to court, so that the justice system can impose the corresponding sanction. But this scenario is just one more setback for the company that could have been avoided.

Types of counterproductive behavior in the workplace

These behaviors can be categorized into different types, depending on their nature. Let's take a closer look at them.

1. Theft

The first of the types of counterproductive work behaviors we have already anticipated is theft. Obviously, there are degrees, since this category ranges from the theft of a pen or other office supplies to stealing cash directly from the cash register.. The damage caused to the company will depend on the value of what was stolen, but it should not be forgotten that ultimately, stealing is stealing, and any action of this kind is reprehensible.

To give us an idea, according to research, employee theft causes losses of $40,000,000 to U.S. companies every year. This is a not inconsiderable figure and gives us a better perspective to understand the scope of this type of problem.

2. Sabotage

The second type of counterproductive behavior at work is sabotage. This behavior involves deliberately damaging or destroying company equipment, or interfering to make processes less efficient in some way.. Returning to the subject of ethics, sometimes the people who carry out these actions consider that they are totally justified.

In order to understand this better, let's take an example. Let us imagine an office worker who deliberately drops his coffee on the computer and causes an irreparable breakdown. At first we would think that his behavior is only intended to do harm, but his reasoning could be that the computer was already very old, was constantly faulty and his superior did not provide him with a new one.

So, ethically, the person would think that his behavior would not be sabotage as such, since he needed a working computer to be able to work without problems and thus be more efficient. The reality is that the company has incurred an unexpected cost due to the deliberate action of the employeeThis would fall under the category of counterproductive behavior at work.

Sabotage should not be taken lightly. In conjunction with theft and other types of company fraud by internal personnel, it is estimated that these behaviors generate 10% to 20% of the total number of annual company bankruptcies in the United States, so they are factors to be taken into account, and companies should establish measures and awareness programs to prevent them from occurring, as far as possible.

3. Substance use

The next item on the list refers to the consumption of toxic substances, such as alcohol and drugs, during or before working hours, provided that the effects are located within the individual's working time. This is an invisible problem, but a very serious one for some companies..

This type of behavior can generate losses of about 30 million dollars a year in the US companies as a whole, since it leads to an accumulation of loss of efficiency of workers that ends up having an impact on the processes of the organization and therefore also on its results (and its profits).

4. Downtime

The last of the types of counterproductive behaviors at work is the one that has to do with inactivity at work. that has to do with inactivity within the workday, either in the form of absenteeismThis can take the form of unjustified absenteeism from the workplace, longer and more abundant breaks than the company rules or even the performance of other tasks unrelated to the company during working time, such as surfing web pages for personal purposes or constantly checking the cell phone.

This is work time in which the employee is not performing the activity that he/she should be doing in principle and which therefore means a significant decrease in the employee's productivity, making it increasingly difficult to achieve the set goals.

Profile of the transgressor

It is vital for companies to be clear about the profile of the worker who may have counterproductive behavior at work and thus be able to anticipate these malicious actions, thus avoiding the terrible repercussions that we have known in the previous point. It does not always have to meet the same characteristics, but there are some qualities that tend to be repeated among these individuals.

The first factor that usually appears is the lack of empathy.It is understood that workers who try to boycott their own workplace generally have a low level of empathy, since they fail to understand the company's needs and do not identify them as their own, despite being part of it. On the contrary, they act against the company's interests, which, in the end, would also be detrimental to themselves.

However, research shows that these people do not always have a low level of empathy - far from it. In some cases, employees who engage in counterproductive behavior at work have a high level of empathy. So how can this be explained? Another factor comes into play here, which is ethics, and that is a very personal thing.

The point is, in the person's eyes, the actions he or she is taking may be perfectly ethical.. If your moral code or your way of perceiving reality makes you understand that your counterproductive behaviors at work are actually fully justified behaviors, you will have no ethical problem in performing them, because it will not be a clash of beliefs.

This ethical justification may be real, because we believe that the actions are not harmful, or that they pursue a greater good, or it may even be constructed, as a form of self-regulation by the individual. In that case, what he will do will be to adapt his beliefs to the behavior performed, so that a discrepancy does not occur that would lead to discomfort. This is precisely what is known as cognitive dissonance.

Finally, there is an important factor that should never be forgotten: boredom, or lack of motivation. Some behaviors, such as those we have seen in relation to idle time, excessive use of the personal telephone, etc., are simply due to the fact that the worker is very unmotivated in front of his task and constantly seeks to avoid it through this type of actions.

Bibliographical references:

• Bruursema, K., Kessler, S.R., Spector, P.E. (2011). Bored employees misbehaving: The relationship between boredom and counterproductive work behavior. Work & Stress. Taylor & Francis.
• Fox, S., Spector, P.E., Goh, A., Bruursema, K., Kessler, S.R. (2012). The deviant citizen: Measuring potential positive relations between counterproductive work behaviour and organizational citizenship behaviour. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Wiley Online Library.
• Omar, A., Vaamonde, J.D., Uribe, H. (2012). Counterproductive work behaviors: design and validation of a scale. Diversitas: Perspectives in Psychology.