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Although time banditry has been recognized as a unique form of counterproductive work behavior, little research has been dedicated to examining predictors of this common behavior. This study examined time banditry among two unique groups of working adults, and found that while both personal and job-level variables can predict time banditry, personal factors appear to be more important.
Keywords: counterproductive work behaviors, time banditry
INTRODUCTION
Although organizational leaders spend much of their time encouraging their employees to perform at a high level and make positive contributions to their organization, they are also concerned with how to discourage employees from engaging in behaviors that are detrimental to organizations. These harmful actions, often referred to as counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), encompass a wide array of behaviors, ranging from gossiping and speaking poorly of one's organization to outsiders, to illegal behaviors such as property damage and workplace violence (Sackett & DeVore, 2001). CWBs have been the focus of substantial research in industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology in recent years (for reviews, see Sackett, 2002; Gruys & Sackett, 2003), and the negative repercussions of these behaviors are welldocumented in both the academic literature (Sackett & DeVore, 2001) and the popular press (AhmedUllah, 2014; Needleman, 2010).
The current study focused on one relatively new CWB construct, time banditry, which has been broadly defined as non-work behaviors that employees may engage in while at work (Martin, Brock, Buckley, & Ketchen, 2010). These behaviors can include a diverse array of actions, including socializing with co-workers, doing online shopping or paying bills, or browsing social media websites. While the specific effects of these behaviors may differ from one workplace to another, it has been estimated that in the United States time banditry may cost organizations over $750 billion annually (Martin et al., 2010) behooving organizational leaders to be aware of this phenomenon and take steps to mitigate its impact. The goal of this study was to examine how several variables, some at the individual level (such as an employee's attitudes about their job), and some at the job level (such as the amount of freedom the job gives employees) predict the degree to which employees engage in time banditry behaviors.
Time Banditry
Time banditry was first conceptualized by Ketchen and colleagues (Ketchen, Craighead, &...