Doing Bad to Feel Better? An Investigation of Within- and Between-Person Perceptions of Counterproductive Work Behavior As a Coping Tactic

Employee counterproductive work behavior (CWB, e.g., theft, production deviance, interpersonal abuse) is costly to organizations and those who work within them. Evidence suggests that employees are motivated to engage in CWB because they believe that these behaviors will make them feel better in response to negative workplace events. However, research has yet to consider the situational and individual factors that shape the extent to which employees view CWB in such a manner. In order to provide insight into the decision-making process surrounding the use of CWB as a coping strategy, this study leverages coping theory to examine the factors (both situational/within-person and individual/between-person) that contribute to employees\u27 beliefs that CWBs will be instrumental for emotion regulation aims in response to workplace stressors. In a repeated measures scenario-based study of 297 employees, we found that individuals\u27 perceived coping instrumentalities for CWBs are a function of the controllability and source of the stressor as well as a more stable learned response to stressful situations at work

Use and helpfulness of self-administered stress management therapy in patients undergoing cancer chemotherapy in community clinical settings

The purpose of this multicenter longitudinal randomized controlled trial was to examine the efficacy of self-administered stress management training (SSMT) in improving quality of life and reducing psychological distress among patients receiving cancer chemotherapy. Participants were randomized to SSMT (n = 111) or usual psychosocial care only (n = 109). Mixed linear modeling demonstrated no significant improvements in primary outcome measures; however, participants assigned to SSMT reported using significantly more relaxation techniques (p \u3c 0.0001), showed improvements on emotional adjustment scores, and demonstrated a stabilizing effect on the functional adjustment scores. Findings highlight the usefulness of SSMT in community clinical settings. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC