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CUHK Psychology Department Releases Study on
The studies surveyed a combination of 380 full-time employees. The respondents were between 18 and 57 years of age who have an education ranging from primary school to university levels. The respondents were full-time employees from a diverse background who have been working between 0.1 and 25.5 years. Respondents self-reported, anonymously, how frequently they have engaged in each of 37 CPB¡¦s in a three-month period. These CPB¡¦s vary in their severity -- mild CPB¡¦s include taking care of personal business during office hours, lying to colleagues; serious CPB¡¦s include gambling and drinking at the workplace, sexual harassment, blaming wrongdoings onto colleagues, forging receipts to claim reimbursement, and stealing from colleagues. Some of the major results are: These numbers are likely to be conservative estimates as typically people under-report their CPB¡¦s. It is believed that CPB¡¦s at the workplace are more prevalent than the data have shown. The study also examined how respondents perceived their colleagues and their supervisors¡¦ would react to their CPB¡¦s. A sizable proportion of the respondents thought that their colleagues or supervisors would not have any serious reactions. For example, 37% of the respondents thought that their supervisor would do nothing if they were absent from their posts without a legitimate cause, and 33% of the respondents thought that their supervisor would do nothing if they were tardy at work. The data also showed that if employees expected that their supervisors would not react seriously towards their CPB¡¦s, the respondents would engage in more CPB¡¦s. For example, respondents reported 3.4 times more ¡§drinking at work¡¨ if they thought their supervisors would react mildly. Companies should not ignore the prevalence of CPB at the workplace. CPB is an alarm signaling job dissatisfaction, grievances, lack of organizational commitment, injustice, and lack of communication. In order to reduce CPB at work, it is recommended that an organization can: |