Reducing Counterproductive Work Behavior - The Roles of Self-Efficacy and Emotional Regulation

Sammanfattning: The aim of the study was to investigate the reduction of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) through two interventions. The sample consisted of 22 nursing assistants working in an elderly nursing home, who were divided into two treatment groups, where one received a mindfulness intervention and one received a feedback intervention. The main hypothesis was that both interventions would be effective in reducing CWB by increasing self-efficacy through positive feedback and increasing emotional regulation through mindfulness practice, respectively. A pre-post quasi-experimental design was used, where the participants engaged in the interventions two times per week for four consecutive weeks. The results did not support the main hypothesis, as the interventions did not significantly reduce CWB. The lack of support for the main hypothesis is most likely due to low self-reported engagement in CWB at baseline. However, the interventions did significantly affect both self-efficacy and emotional regulation, but not in line with the hypotheses’ expectations. The feedback intervention significantly increased both emotional regulation dimensions but not self-efficacy, while the mindfulness intervention increased emotional self-efficacy and showed strong tendencies towards increasing social self-efficacy, but did not increase any of the emotional regulation dimensions as hypothesized. A conclusion from the results is that more research is needed to further investigate the effectiveness of the two interventions.