The path to the dark side of work: Do attitudes and emotions explain the relationship between personality and counterproductive work behavior?

Abstract

Counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) are harmful behaviors that are detrimental to financial success of organizations while also harming the psychological well-being and productivity of employees. Personality traits are one of the main determinants of CWB, but research on the relationship between personality traits and CWB has mainly focused on the conscious/explicit aspects of personality. Also, only a small number of studies has considered the psychological mechanisms through which the personality traits affect CWB. This paper includes an overview of research on the relationship between personality and CWB, and, compared to previous reviews, also considers how unconscious/implicit aspects of personality can help in explaining CWB. I focus on the method for measuring implicit aspects of personality that showed the greatest potential for predicting work behavior - the Conditional Reasoning Test. In the rest of the paper, I consider the psychological mechanisms by which explicit and implicit aspects of personality affect CWB, using attitudes toward work and organization and emotions in the workplace as variables that explain the relationship between personality traits and CWB. Finally, based on a review of research on the relationships of personality, attitudes, emotions, and CWB, I develop a theoretical model of the relationship of these four variables, which facilitates understanding of the complex psychological mechanisms by which implicit and explicit aspects of personality lead to CWB.