“Sure I’ll do that, but the joke’s on you.” Malicious Compliance in the Workplace

Abstract

This study examined the relationship of trait aggression and procedural justice with counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) and malicious compliance - explicitly following orders with the knowledge they will not produce the desired results. Implicit aggression and procedural justice contributed to the prediction of both CWBs and willingness to engage in malicious compliance. Specifically, individuals who were identified as having high implicit aggression and low explicit aggression reported higher instances of covert malicious compliance tendencies. Additionally, lower procedural justice in an organization was associated with higher instances of malicious compliance behaviors. Overall, this study establishes the construct and a novel measure of malicious compliance ([alpha] =.84). This knowledge can be applied to investigating individuals in the workplace as well as examining overall organizational climate.