| This dissertation developed a taxonomy of counterproductive senior leader behavior and investigated the dimensionality of this domain by examining relationships between various wrongdoing behaviors. Using the critical incident methodology, structured interviews were conducted with over 60 senior leaders and executive assessors and coaches who work closely with senior leaders. The interviews produced 129 unique and specific incidents of senior leader wrongdoing. These incidents were subsequently content analyzed in two separate phases by eight Subject Matter Experts (Phase 1, N = 3; Phase 2, N= 5) to form 10 categories of counterproductive senior leader behavior. The categories were organized by content and included: Interpersonal Incivility and Aggression, Lying and Breaking Agreements, Misuse of Power, Nepotism, Misrepresentation/Manipulation of Information, Misuse of Organizational Resources, Alcohol Use, Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, and Condoning Wrongdoing in Others. Comparing CWB at different organizational levels (e.g., lower-level and senior leader level) suggested that there were a number of unique, analogous, and identical categories.;Reports about actual co-occurrence of these behavioral categories were gathered from a separate group of 68 senior leaders. These reports suggested that, for some category pairs, if a senior leader engaged in one category of behaviors the odds that they also engaged in a second category of behaviors were quite high. The results of principal components analysis using actual co-occurrence data suggested that three major factors best summarize reports based on first-hand observations of the behavior categories. These factors were: Interpersonal Wrongdoing, Organizational Wrongdoing, and Self-Gratifying Wrongdoing. Ratings about perceived co-occurrence of each pair of categories were also gathered from the same group of senior leaders. A multidimensional scaling analysis of the perceived co-occurrence data suggested that the 10 categories of counterproductive senior leader behavior are organized along two continua: (1) Interpersonal-Organizational Wrongdoing, and (2) Active-Passive Wrongdoing. Results from the actual and perceived co-occurrence data converged to some extent and served to highlight key themes in the domain of counterproductive senior leader behavior. |
