Giordano, Casey2023-11-302023-11-302021-08https://hdl.handle.net/11299/258865University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2021. Major: Psychology. Advisor: Deniz Ones. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 208 pages + 1 supplementary file.Counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) describe a class of unethical and malfeasant actions that harm the well-being of organizations and their stakeholders alike. Although much is known about between-person differences in CWBs, the within-person processes undergirding these behaviors are poorly understood. To advance our understanding of these behaviors, the present dissertation project comprises four studies—each exploring a different facet of how behaviors unfold within people over time. The first study investigates the long-term stability of CWBs (e.g., across months, years) by applying multi-level meta-analytic techniques to parse out the covariate of time. In contrast, the second study explores the short-term lability of CWBs (e.g., across hours, days) by applying similar multi-level meta-analytic methods for aggregating within person variability effects. Moreover, the second study also adopts a qualitative analytic approach to better understand how contemporary researchers are theorizing about CWB dynamicity and how these researchers implement theory when designing their studies. Results from these studies provide a baseline for understanding the dynamicity of CWB to better guide research designs in future investigations. The third study utilizes an archival CWB primary dataset for several purposes: to replicate and extend the meta analytic results from the Study 2, to explore trends in within-person CWB variability due to cyclic patterns, and to provide further methodological guidance. Finally, a fourth study scrutinizes a common, albeit tacitly assumed, phenomenon in the CWB literature. Namely, that the same CWB trajectory applies to all employees. Adopting strategies from the crossroads of classification algorithms and growth modeling procedures, distinct latent classes of CWB trajectories are investigated. Collectively, these studies represent foundational work in exploring the behavioral dynamics of CWB—a central work behavior with widespread economic and psychological impacts.enThesis or Dissertation