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Age, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, and Counterproductive Work Behaviors

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Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

Synonyms

Discretionary behaviours; Positive extra-role behaviours, Prosocial organizational behaviours, Constructive contextual performance Synonyms for ‘counterproductive work behaviours’; Negative work behaviours; Deviant work behaviours

Definition

This chapter reviews the relationships between age and both positive and negative extra-role work behaviors. The basic issue is whether older workers display more (or less) positive and negative discretionary work behaviors. The research evidence suggests that, overall, older workers are more likely to engage in positive work behaviors (citizenship) and are generally more likely to engage in fewer counterproductive behaviors than younger workers.

In recent years there has been considerable discussion of and research on the job performance of workers, along with the factors which contribute, either positively or negatively, to this performance, as well as the consequences of high and low job performance (for a recent review, see Dalal et...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Michael P. O’Driscoll & Maree Roche

Authors
  1. Michael P. O’Driscoll
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  2. Maree Roche
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael P. O’Driscoll .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Nancy A. Pachana

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O’Driscoll, M.P., Roche, M. (2017). Age, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, and Counterproductive Work Behaviors. In: Pachana, N.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-082-7_196

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