Counterproductive
Leader Behavior
Hannah L. Jackson &
Deniz S. Ones
Counterproductive Leader Behavior
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Intentional behavior enacted by
leaders that involves misuse of
position or authority for personal
and/or organizational benefit
Leader behavior may be acceptable
by the organization’s standards but
violate societal norms
Counterproductive Workplace
Behavior (CWB)

CWB is intentional/volitional behavior
enacted by employees and viewed by
the organization as contrary to its
legitimate interests
CWB and Leaders

Researchers have tended to treat
leaders and their behaviors as
essentially distinct from those
considered in existing CWB theories
and models
The Prevalence of CWB

CWB has been recorded for workers
of all types of organizations and for
employees at all levels within them,
whether they be salaried
professionals or nonprofessionals,
managers or non-supervisory
employees
Why Examine Leaders and CWB?
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Opportunities for serious misconduct
are at least as great among
managers and executives
A handful of leaders engaging in
CWB can do as much if not more
damage than a large number of
front-line workers
Leaders and Ethics

Ethical issues are ever present for
leaders, who must continually face
conflicting stakeholders, interests,
and values
Transformational Leadership

Communicating a collective vision
and inspiring their followers to look
beyond self-interests and perform for
the good of the group
Transactional Leadership

Controlling followers’ behaviors and
handling problems by engaging in
some transaction between the leader
and subordinate
What Makes an Unethical Leader?
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Frequently operate with egotistic
intent
Employ controlling versus
empowering strategies to influence
followers
Fail to abstain from vices
Taking a Broad View of CWB

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Allows researchers to generalize to
unstudied but related behavior
The possibility of a unified concept or
dimension of CWB
The possibility of finding common
antecedents
One View of CWB

CWB can be grouped into broad
categories:
• Property Deviance - acquisition or
damage of employer assets
• Production Deviance - violation of norms
specifying the quality and quantity of
work to be accomplished
• Interpersonal CWB – Sexual harassment
and verbal abuse
A Recent Model of CWB


CWB can be distinguished between
behaviors targeted at the
organization and behaviors targeted
at organization members
Further divided by behaviors directly
related to job performance and
behaviors not related to job
performance
What About Leaders?


It seems likely that misconduct by
leaders has elements in common
with misconduct by others
If leadership behavior is different,
this represents an opportunity to
expand the CWB construct
Antecedents of CWB

Considering both personality and
environmental antecedents will be
essential for a complete
understanding of CWB
Individual Difference as
Antecedents
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Problems in socialization
Attitudes regarding deviance and
theft
Problems with authority
Excitement seeking
Social influence
Unstable upbringing
Unmet needs
Situational Influences as
Antecedents
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Inflexible policies
Organizational injustice
Competitive environment
Economic conditions
Reward systems
Adverse working conditions
Organizational culture
Environmental Factors

Leaders have some control over the
situational factors that might
influence CWB therefore it is worth
considering individual differences
Individual Differences, Leadership,
and CWB


Integrity tests substantially predict
CWB
The big five personality variables of
agreeableness, conscientiousness
and emotional stability are
associated with CWB
Perpetrators’ Explanations for Their
CWB
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Denial of harm
Unnecessary or unjust laws
Achievement vital to economic goals
or even survival
Expectations and pressure from
others
Everybody else is doing it
Guidelines for HR

Train employees to reflect upon a
proposed action or decision from
another perspective
Guidelines for HR Continued

Consider some form of performance
evaluation approach to enable others
to focus not only on the
numbers/financials produced by
leaders, but also how they were met
Guidelines for HR Continued

Foster an ethical environment
through:
• Mechanisms for reporting and
discussing perceived ethical
issues/problems without fear of
retribution
• Verification procedures for codecompliance during key activities
Guidelines for HR Continued


Senior leaders should be encouraged
to share information publicly about
important organizational decisions
Senior officials should signal support
for ethical values
Reversing CWB

External change agents are likely to
be the most successful because:
• They signal a break with the past and
an intention to change for the future
• They bring with them a different
perspective that promotes questions
about long held practices
Summary
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This chapter examined:
The construct of CWB
Antecedents to CWB
Leadership and CWB
Environmental factors and CWB
Guidelines to prevent CWB