Personality traits and counterproductive work behaviors: the moderating role of demographic characteristics

Abstract

The main objective of the current contribution is to determine how the personality traits (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Openness to experience) influence counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), and whether/to what extent this potential impact is moderated by employees’ main demographic characteristics. To reach the pointed aim a survey among 1,380 professionally active people in Poland was conducted. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methodology was applied to analyze the obtained empirical data. The proposed theoretical models were intended to determine how particular types of personality affect organizational and interpersonal CWB and how those types of personality affect CWB (Production deviance, Abuse against others, Theft, Sabotage, Withdrawal) with potential moderating effects of demographic features. We confirmed that personality traits have an inverse relationship with counterproductive behavior. The strongest predicators of interpersonal and organizational CWB were: Conscientiousness (the correlation in both cases is negative), Agreeableness (only in the case of CWB-I – negative correlation), Neuroticism (CWB-O – negative correlation) and Extraversion (CWB-I – positive influence; CWB-O - negative influence). With regard to the subjective CWB categories, Agreeableness reduced Abuse against others the most, Openness to experience increased Withdrawal, and Extraversion – Abuse against others, while Neuroticism and Conscientiousness reduced Withdrawal the most. The pointed relationships were significantly moderated by the analyzed demographic variables, with most significant moderating effects recorded in the case of women, the elderly and people with longer work experience, as well as in office / clerical positions (compared to those holding managerial positions).