Organizational Psychology

The article concerns the direction of the psychological study of employees’ counterproductive behavior – work behavior which negatively affects the functioning of the organization. Classification criteria for this behavior (target of action, character of action, the severity of the damage) are described and problems of such classifications are pointed out. For example, counterproductive behavior (CWB)includes: low productivity (production deviance), property damage (property deviance), disrespect for employees (political deviance) and personal aggression (personal aggression). The main problem of such classifications is that specific forms of counterproductive work behavior is partially dependent on the nature of its business, as well as the norms and values prevalent in organization. Researchers agree that the various forms of counterproductive activity reduce productivity and thus affect the financial and psychological well-being of organization. Instrumental and expressive motivation of counterproductive behavior and the factors contribute to its strengthening. The main factors considered individual characteristics of employees (personality traits, personal values and attitudes), employees’ relationship to each other (attitude and interaction with colleagues, equality in status, regulatory control, fairness, consistency of words and actions of leader), and the organization of work (the presence of obstacles, high workload). Finally, it discusses the main problems of studying of counterproductive work behavior, and the relationship of this form of activity with other forms of organizational interaction (citizenship behavior and protest activity). The lack of a stable negative relationship between citizenship and counterproductive behavior in organization is discussed. In general, an studying of counterproductive behavior as a form of organizational protest in comparison with other forms of protest activity helps to analyze determination of the behavior by factors related to the structure of society as a whole.