Counterproductive Work Behaviors: Understanding the Dark Side of Personalities in Organizational Life

There has been a growing interest among scholars in the fields of organizational behaviour and industrial psychology in what can be termed "the dark side of the organizations." A main concept in this regard this is both important and relevant counterproductive work behaviours (CWBs), which can be defined as deliberate actions that harm the organization or its members.

These behaviours include a variety of acts that can be directed toward organizations (CWB-O) or toward other people (CWB-P). Destroying organizational property, purposely doing work incorrectly, and taking unauthorized work breaks are examples of CWB-O, whereas hitting a co-worker, insulting others, and shouting at someone are forms of CWB-P. Despite the growing interest in CWBs as a research issue, not enough is known about the determinants of CWBs.

The goal of Counterproductive Work Behaviors therefore is to cover this stimulating, important, and innovative issue of dark triad personalities in the workplace. The book will deal with important aspects of this issue, such as the characteristics of dark triad personalities, how they operate and damage organizations, what organizations are more vulnerable to them, ways to diagnose and detect them, and ways to handle dark triad personalities and prevent them from harming organizations and employees.

There is no doubt that the issues covered by Counterproductive Work Behaviors will continue to attract academic attention and therefore the book is essential reading for researchers, academics and business professionals alike in the fields of Organizational Studies and Behaviour, Organizational Psychology, Strategy, Human Resource Management, Leadership and the related disciplines.

About the Author

Professor Aaron Cohen is currently at the Department of Political Science, University of Haifa, Israel. He received his D.Sc. in Management at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. His current research interests include commitment in the workplace, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), organizational fairness, and misbehavior in organizations. His work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Human Relations, Cross-cultural Psychology, and Applied Psychology: An International Review, and Human Resource Management Review. He authored two books: Multiple commitments in the workplace: an integrative approach published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates in 2003 and Fairness in the workplace: A global perspective, published by Palgrave McMillan in 2015.