Counterpoductive Behaviors

The term counterproductive work behavior (CWB) refers to a range of volitional acts at work that harm or intend to harm organizations and their stakeholders (clients, coworkers, customers, and supervisors). Such behaviors may be aimed at harming the organization (organizational deviance, or CWB-O), or they may be aimed at harming individual stakeholders inside or outside the organization (interpersonal deviance, or CWB-I). These behaviors range from relatively minor acts, such as purposefully doing work incorrectly or giving a coworker a dirty look, to severe acts, such as stealing expensive company property or physically assaulting a coworker. Other examples include threatening others, sabotaging equipment, committing physical assault, making offensive remarks, overreporting hours worked, isolating an individual so that he or she has difficulty working, stealing from the ...