Productive_and_Counter-Productive

Productive and Counterproductive Behaviors Chastity Meeks PSY/428 September 12, 2011 Dr. Pearl Smith Productive and Counterproductive Behaviors In today’s society we have many issues that affect how an organization will be able to use to become successful. Productive behaviors are considered the best behavior an employee can attain while a counterproductive behavior is a liability on the success of the organization. Productive Behavior and Job Performance According to Jex & Britt (2008), productive behavior can be defined as employee behavior that contributes to the goals and objectives of the organizations. Productive behaviors can help the company increase their profits and productivity. Job performance can affect how employers compensate the employee, it affects the ways goals set for the company, and it can also affect the way the company hire new employees. According to Campbell’s (1990, 1994), there are six performance dimensions that must be performed within a given occupational position. Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) recently has been shown to enhance organizational performance (Jex & Britt, 2008). Technical knowledge resources, external communication and managerial attitudes toward change are the most general predictors of innovation (Jex & Britt, 2008). Counterproductive Behavior and Job Performance Because the majority of employees behave in ways that contribute positive to the organizations but not always the case in organizations. Counterproductive behavior can be defined as behavior that explicitly runs counter to the goals of an organization (Jex & Britt, 2008). Since there is an underlying cause for counterproductive behaviors the previous definition makes no assumption about the cause or motives (Schat & Kelloway, 2005). There are many different forms of counterproductive behaviors that can affect the organization in a negative way or have a negative outcome. Job performance, absenteeism, turnover, and accidents are some of the causes of counterproductive behaviors; while more recently researchers have found that theft, violence, substance abuse and sexual harassment are other forms of counterproductive behaviors (Jex & Britt, 2008). While these behaviors can cause the company to lose such things like profits, customers, and good employees they have to have a counter plan that will help to lessen the impact of the counterproductive behaviors. Counterproductive behaviors can be detected when the employers complete a job performance on each employee. Attribution theory suggests that people make use of several pieces of information when determining the causes of another person’s behavior (Kelly, 1973). To avoid counterproductive behaviors in an organization an employer should use a process of selection that should include how they hire employees. By using the selection error this will allow the employer to obtain employee’s that have proven that they are capable of doing the job that they are being hired to perform (Jex & Britt, 2008). By having adequate socialization and training of the employees will help the organization to weed out ineffective behaviors (Jex & Britt, 2008). Increase/Decrease Behaviors There can be many different ways of increasing or decreasing productive/counterproductive behaviors in an organization. To increase productive behavior would be through communication. Communicating with employees about what the company’s goals are, how the organization wants to reach these goals and how the employee is should perform his or her job. With communication covered an organization should make sure that each employee is properly trained for the job they are to perform. Training will help to prevent counterproductive behaviors that employees wish to deter. Compensation for their job performance should also be taken into consideration for employees who have performed their job duties to the best of their ability without incidents (Jex & Britt, 2008). To decrease counterproductive behaviors an employer should make sure that the employees have a conducive work environment. A work environment should be a place where work is performed not gossiping, chitter chatter, or socialization (unless that is part of your job). To decrease counterproductive behavior in the form of absenteeism; an employer should make have an attendance plan in place and follow that strictly. Letting the employee know what they attendance policy is from the first day of employment so that he or she understand that they are not going to be allowed. (Jex & Britt, 2008). References Campbell, J.P. (1990). Modeling the Performance Prediction Problem in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. In M. D. Dunnette & L.M. Hough (Eds.) Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology Jex, S.M & Britt, T.W. (2008). Organizational Psychology: A Scientist-Practitioner approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Kelley, H.H. (1973). The Process of Causal Attribution. American Psychologist, 28, 107-128. Schat, A.C.H., & Kelloway, K.E. (2005). Reducing the Adverse Consequences of Workplace Aggression and Violence: The Buffering Effects of Organizational Support. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.