A cognitive perspective on counterproductive work behavior. Evidence from a two-wave longitudinal study

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is costly for organizations and their members. In this study, we adopted the theory of planned behavior and the effort-reward imbalance model to understand how behavioral intention relates to actual CWB, how such a relationship arises from personal beliefs and social norms, and whether perceptions of imbalance between efforts and rewards contribute to explain CWB. Two-wave data with a time lag of 12 weeks were collected among 80 Italian employees working in a large production plant of a private company operating in the manufacturing sector in Italy. Self-reported measures of attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioral control, intentions and CWB, perceived efforts and rewards, as well as control variables were collected. Attitudes and perceived behavioral control were indirectly related to CWB via behavioral intention. Effort-reward imbalance was not related to CWB. Our findings suggest that attitudinally controlled intentions, which have an internal locus of causality, are associated with greater likelihood of CWB performance, and that individual perceptions of control over CWB are key predictors of such a negative, volitional organizational behavior.