Productive and Counterproductive Behaviors

Productive and Counterproductive Behaviors

Obviously, there are differences between productive and counterproductive behaviors. The differences in these behaviors play a major role and can either cause success or failure of an organization. As long as both management and employees are able to understand the difference between these behaviors counterproductive behavior can be decreased while increasing productive behavior.

Productive and Counterproductive Behaviors

Productive behavior can be described as any form of action that improves productivity. The text describes productive behavior as the behavior of an employee that makes a positive contribution to the goals and vision of an organization (Britt & Jex, 2008, Ch. 4). Needless to say productive behavior can be helpful to a company. Productive behavior can be things such as going over and beyond the job description and providing ideas to enhance the organization.

Counterproductive on the contrary is behavior that hinders productivity. The text defines this form of behavior as "behavior that explicitly runs counter to the goals of an organization" (Britt & Jex, 2008, Ch. 6). Counterproductive behavior comes in many forms such as excessive employee absenteeism, drug and alcohol abuse, stealing of company property, or even sexual harassment of fellow co-workers; ineffective performance can also be seen as counterproductive behavior (Britt & Jex, 2008). The article entitled "Stopping crime does pay: Correcting counter-productive behavior boosts profits", gives examples of counterproductive behavior, and some actions can even be considered criminal actions, such as food violations, cash theft, sexual harassment, substance abuse, product theft, disrespect for others, anti-diversity and unreliability.

Impact of Behaviors on Job and Overall Performance

Productive behavior can have a great impact on an organization. A productive employee can uplift and encourage other employees, thus increasing their productivity. A productive employee can also bring new ideas to the company, boosting productivity, increasing customers, and profit. A counter-productive employee can be a distraction and hindrance to a productive employee and further distract or hinder an already counter-productive employee. A counter-productive employee can be hazardous to the entire company especially if this employee has any influence at all, this can come in the form of angry customers, poor production and profit loss. Having knowledge of tactics that allow managers to decrease counterproductive and increase productive behavior causes them to be an asset to the organization.

Strategies to Increase Productive and Decrease Counterproductive Behaviors

One of the first steps to