Productive and Counterproductive Behaviors in Organizations

Productive and Counterproductive Behavior in Organizations

Productive and Counterproductive Behavior in Organizations

Productive and counterproductive behaviors are significant parts of organizational psychology and are key components of the efficiency of an organization. For an organization it is important to increase productive behavior while decreasing counterproductive behavior. This paper will define productive and counterproductive, describe the impact of that these behaviors have on job performance and the overall performance of an organization, and discuss recommendations on how to increase productive behavior while decreasing counterproductive behavior.

Productive and Counterproductive Behavior Definition

Productive and counterproductive behavior definitions are contradictory of each other. Productive behavior refers to actions that increase productivity of an organization and this type of behavior is “defined as employee behavior that contributes positively to the goals and objectives of the organization” (Britt & Jex, 2008, Ch. 4). Productive behavior helps the company achieve their goals and purpose. When an employee first starts working at an organization they need to have job-related training and gain information about the organization in order to become a productive member of the company. Productive behavior is also when the organization starts to obtain return on the venture in a new employee. An organizational psychologist would evaluate how effective an employee’s job performance is to the organization, an employee’s efficiency and how well they aide the company in reaching their goals. An organizational psychologist evaluates three different forms of productive behavior; job performance, organizational citizenship behavior and innovation (Britt & Jex, 2008).

Counterproductive behavior has the opposite definition of productive behavior. This type of behavior is any action that takes away from the productivity and goals...