Why Do Public Service Employees Work Unproductively?

Abstract

The public has high expectations of the public service employees’ work performance. This study examines the relationship between Customer Oriented-Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (CO-OCB) and Counterproductive Work Behavior (CBW) in public service employees. The relationship between OCB and CWB is critical to assessing the performance of public services from government agencies. This cross-sectional study used convenience sampling to gather 307 Indonesian public services employees. Data on CO-OCB and CWB were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman Rank’s Correlation Coefficient. The result shows a significant negative relationship between CO-OCB and CWB. This indicates that the better the employees’ commitment to service, the lower the CWB. A more specific analysis of each dimension found that sportsmanship and individual initiative were associated significantly with CWB-P. Additionally, tenure is positively correlated with CO-OCB but not with CWB. These findings imply that examining each dimension of CO-OCB is necessary to reduce CWB.