Counterproductive work behavior and job satisfaction: A surprisingly rocky relationship

Counterproductive work behavior is detrimental to the organization or to coworkers. It includes both breaking rules or laws, as well as social norms. Many authors show a negative relationship between this behavior and work satisfaction, surmising that the lack thereof – and the ensuing desire to ‘get back’ at the employer – are the seeds of workplace deviance. A study carried out in Polish organizations found this relationship to be less clear. The study concerned work satisfaction and counterproductive behavior, organizational justice, stress at work and propensity for aggressive behavior. A cluster analysis identified a group of individuals in whom relatively high levels of job satisfaction are nevertheless accompanied by proclivity for counterproductive behavior. The configuration of results suggests that this group resorts to counterproductive behavior because of an inability to balance difficulties at work with personal inclinations. The implications of these results for personal management is discussed in the conclusions.