The Impact of the Quality of Interpersonal Relationships between Employees on Counterproductive Work Behavior: A Study of Employees in Poland

• Main Author: Dawid Szostek
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-10-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: quality of relationships at work; counterproductive work behaviors; counterproductive sustainability behaviors; demographic features
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/21/5916

The purpose of the article is to determine how the quality of interpersonal relationships at work (QIRW) affects the extent of counterproductive work behavior (CWB), and whether this impact is moderated by employees’ demographic features (education, age, sex, length of service and type of work). These questions are particularly important for organizations that want to function sustainably, because counterproductive behavior also includes wasting resources, polluting the environment and using environmentally unfriendly products. The research objectives were met using a survey conducted in 2018 among 1488 professionally active people in Poland. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the empirical data. The proposed theoretical model was intended to determine how particular categories of relationship quality affect dimensions of CWB (which included taking into account employees’ aforementioned demographic features). I determined that relationship quality has an inverse relationship with counterproductive behavior of employees (the higher the quality, the lower the propensity for CWB), but there are also many paradoxes that I discuss in detail. Moreover, this impact is significantly moderated by employees’ demographic features (mainly education, type of work, length of service and sex). I also discuss the theoretical contributions, practical implications and limitations of this study, and directions for future research.