CWB and OCB

Reference paper:

Dalal, R. S. (2005). A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Counterproductive Work Behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(6), 1241–1255. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.90.6.1241

Abstract:

(A 50-word quick summary from my understanding)

Study indicates modest negative OCB-CWB relationship. The relationship strength did not increase appreciably even for same targets (individual/organization). OCB and CWB exhibited distinct patterns of relationship with antecedents (satisfaction, commitment, justice, conscientiousness, and positive/negative affect). OCB-CWB relationship was moderated by rating source, presence of antithetical items and response option types.

Quick Notes/queries:

(For my further delving)

CWB

• Could what behavior constitutes as CWB be subjective in nature? For example, consider an employee speaking up on a work related issue. It is possible that depending on the content, his/her supervisor may perceive this behavior as a CWB, while in the true sense, this could be an instance of OCB (and the employee perceives it so). If perception of a behavior as either an OCB or CWB is subjective, then what influences this perception?
• Why are employee retaliations to unjust situations considered CWB (as stated in the current paper)? For example, consider an employee perceiving an injustice to his/her peer by the supervisor. The employee in this case might retaliate by speaking up or whistle-blowing to draw the attention to address this. While this behavior may be perceived as CWB by the supervisor, it could be a genuine case of OCB behavior exhibited by the employee.
• What are the various moderators of OCB-CWB (other than rating source, antithetical item inclusion, format of response options and rater education levels)?
• What are the various antecedents of CWB? What various factors moderate the antecedent-CWB relationship?
• How do CWB-Task performance correlate?

Similar constructs

• How different are Non-Compliance Behaviors (Hopper and Mitchell, 1995) as compared to CWBs?
• How does political behavior (PB) construct related to CWBs? Note: Ashforth and Lee (1990) define political behaviors as discretionary social influence attempts that are intended to promote or protect self-interests of individuals/groups and threaten self-interests of others.
• How does negative behavior (NBs) construct related to CWBs? Robinson and Bennett (1995) define negative behavior as voluntary behavior that violates the organizational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of the an organization, its members or both.

Salient interests

• On the typology of extra-role behaviors (Kenneth Eastman and Badrinartan Shankar Pawar, 2005) with two dimensions - employee's concern for self-interests and concern for organizational interests - where does CWB fall?
• Could OCBs and CWBs be seen as trade-offs between short-term individual interests and long-term collective interests, i.e. as social dilemmas (Daniels et al, 2005)?
• Is the salient feature of CWB self-interest maximization or organizationally dysfunctional consequences?
• How do CWBs related to affective and instrumental forms of workplace aggression (Neuman and Baron, 1997)?

OCB-CWB

• How does level of analysis moderate OCB-CWB relationship?
• What are the research and practical implications of creating an OCB-CWB composite (Sackett and DeVore, 2001)?
• Could employee's behavior be mapped on OCB-CWB 2x2 matrix? i.e. employee could be either high or low on OCB, and high or low on CWB?

Other behaviors

• How do we characterize those required work behaviors, but performed with greater degree of integrity or enthusiasm? Are these characterized under task performance or contextual performance?
• How do we characterize those intentional employee behaviors that are harmful to another individual or group (for example - an employee intentionally maligning a coworker), but not necessarily to the legitimate interests of the organization?
• How do we characterize certain behaviors which in their absence do not harm the legitimate interests of the organization, (i.e. CWB) but when present could promote organizational functioning in the aggregate (i.e. OCB)? For example - consider an employee intentionally not offering help to a peer despite the need for the help. Also consider another scenario where the employee is unaware that help is needed or that his offering of help would be useful.