ABSTRACT
D. J. Cherrington (1980), on the basis of a two-year observational study of employees in a variety of job categories and job levels, reported that 49% of employees’ time was allocated to coffee breaks, late starts, early departures, chatting with coworkers, and other personal activities. Approximately half of an employee’s commitment (time and effort) at work was directed at outcomes other than those required role behaviors that are necessary for an organization to survive. Previous results (Fitzgerald, Hulin, & Drasgow,1994; Hanisch & Hulin, 1990, 1991; Roznowski & Hanisch, 1990) from a variety of organizations strongly suggest these behaviors have attitudinal antecedents and, if aggregated into an estimate of work withdrawal (avoidance of dissatisfying work or work tasks, Hanisch, 1995a) would be substantially related to measures of general job attitudes (Hanisch & Hulin, 1990, 1991; Hanisch, Hulin, & Roznowski, 1998; Roznowski & Hulin, 1992).
