Abstract
Much attention has been given to counterproductive work conduct in organisations. In addition to the financial effects, these behaviours can affect interpersonal relations between employees, the overall effectiveness of an organisation, as well as having negative reputational consequences. The present study examined the criterion profile pattern relationship of personality and emotional intelligence for counterproductive work behaviour that harms organisations or people in the workplace. A cross-sectional design was used for the sampling of information of 322 South African employees who have been employed for more than two years. The present research used descriptive statistics to outline the respondents’ demographic and work-related responses, and to describe occurrences of specific behaviours conducted by employees in the workplace. The study used an online survey software, QuestionPro, to collect data. These results suggest that it is mostly the profile level effect that drives the relationship between the personality traits and EQ and Counterproductive Work Behaviour. Secondary to this, Positive Social-Relational Disposition, NonNSR and Conscientiousness add additional information on explaining the variance. Thus, suggests that people low on conscientiousness and high on negative social relational disposition tend to engage in Organisational CWB. This research study will assist organisations in comprehending the premise of CWBs, including the types of personalities and situations that can lead to this type of behaviour in the workplace. Such knowledge will equip employers with information that will help them to make better hiring decisions and put preventative measures in place to counter this behaviour.
Keywords: Counterproductive work behaviour, conscientiousness, criterion profile analysis, personality traits, and emotional intelligence.