We conducted a series of four cross-sectional, exploratory, noncomparative studies in four organizations—a national utility company (Study 1), a group of hospitals (Study 2), a postal service unit (Study 3), and a hi-tech R&D unit (Study 4)—
selected to represent a variety of work organizations and different sectors: private and public, utilities and health care, and mediating and intensive technologies.
We explored a variety of organizations for cumulative rather than comparative purposes. We searched for statistically significant relationships between selected antecedent variables and perceived or reported expressions of misbehavior. Thus, we do not report a unified set of hypotheses and variables, but rather those to which these organizations gave us access due to the sensitive nature of the topic under
investigation. In the first study, we posed three research questions: What is the relationship between the manner in which managers act (lead) and the misbehavior of their subordinates? Is the level of dissatisfaction at work reflected in reported misbehavior? Is misbehavior reported differently for the self and others (colleagues and peers)?
The interest in managerial leadership has traditionally tilted toward the search for effectiveness, with emphasis on positive work outcomes such as performance, organizational citizenship behavior, commitment, and attachment (House &
Podsakoff, 1994), and managers’ effects on subordinates’ misconduct have been conspicuously neglected. Traditional research notwithstanding, it stands to reason that as much as managers influence normative behavior such as adequate level of work performance, managers’ attitudes and behaviors should also influence sub- ordinates’ intentions to misbehave. For instance, Greenberg (1990a) demonstrated in a quasi-experimental study that the type of information managers provided their subordinates concerning change in pay is directly related to employee theft. Thus, we assumed that employees reciprocate considerate managerial behavior by re- fraining from damaging their manager, whereas a more restrictive style may lead to mistrust resulting in more revengeful intentions (Bies & Tripp, 1995). Thus, we hypothesized that OMB is related to leadership style: The more a manager employs a considerate style toward subordinates, the lower is the subordinates’
misbehavior.
Based on previous findings of employee misconduct research (Hollinger &
Clark, 1983; Mangione & Quinn, 1975), we suggested that feelings of frustration (Spector, 1997) and job dissatisfaction are important affective forces that should enhance people’s intentions to engage in misconduct in much the same way that they enhance withdrawal behaviors such as tardiness and absenteeism. Therefore, we expect that the employee’s level of job satisfaction is negatively related to OMB: The lower the level of job satisfaction, the higher the OMB.
The measurement of sensitive issues in organizations is cumbersome. It is cer- tainly problematic when it comes to behaviors that are deemed by employers as unhelpful, counterproductive, or dysfunctional (Bennett & Robinson, 2000;
Sackett & DeVore, 2001; Skarliki & Folger, 1997). To avoid making respondents uncomfortable and to lower the effect of social desirability, researchers may use nondirect language when asking individuals to report other’s (rather than their own) misconduct. Based on attribution theory (Weiner, 1974), we expected that, as a rule, when reporting misbehavior both managers and employees tend to min- imize their own misbehavior while perhaps exaggerating others’. Therefore, we argue that organization members tend to attribute more misbehavior to others than to themselves.
Work environments in general, and human service organizations in particu- lar, often pose extremely demanding contexts for their employees. Such demands may be especially acute in jobs in which service providers directly interact with clients or customers (Schneider & Bowen, 1995). Although they attempt to provide quality service, we expect such settings to also enhance work-related misbehavior
ORGANIZATION TYPE 173 among their staff. Hospital nurses are a good example of workers who are sub- jected to such demanding organizational environments because of the crucial pa- tient service they perform, their boundary-spanning role, and the inherent con- flicts with other stakeholders (physicians, administrators, and patients’ families).
Their behavior (and misbehavior) is determined by their attitude toward the work, level of responsibility and authority, and manner in which they perceive organi- zational and professional obligations. Specifically, we expected nurses’ misbe- havior to be related to how they perceive their unit’s service climate, their own attitude toward providing health care service, and the level of their job and pro- fessional commitments. For example, nurses in supervisory roles would relate to misbehavior differently than staff nurses. That is, OMB is negatively related to employee orientation toward service and perceived service climate, employee atti- tudes of organizational commitment and professional involvement, and level of job responsibility.
The traditional assertion posited in the mainstream OB literature has been that employment status (Archer, 1994) as well as the design of one’s task (Hackman &
Oldham, 1980) influence attitudes and behaviors toward both work and employing organization (Steers & Mowday, 1977). We now extend these assumptions and ar- gue that these factors also bear on employee misbehavior. For example, in chapter 7 we addressed the issue of job design and OMB, suggesting that it may offer built-in opportunities to misbehave and thus be an important antecedent of OMB. Although job autonomy can enhance performance, it might also tempt employees to misbe- have (Vardi & Weitz, 2001). Similarly, temporary employees can be expected to feel less attached to the organization and more inclined to engage in OMB than full-time, permanent employees.
The Israeli Postal Service was selected for Study 3 after some incidents of mail theft in several distribution centers were discovered and reported in the local media.
This particular work environment is characterized by relatively lax controls and obvious temptations (employees handle mail containing goods, cash, and checks during the night shift), with full- and part-time employees performing similar work side by side. We agree with previous findings that temporary employees engage in OMB more than full-time permanent employees, and that job satisfaction, work commitment, and career opportunities moderate the relationship between employ- ment status and OMB.
The possible effects of the work environment on OMB were investigated in study 4—a hi-tech setting. Typically, the hi-tech culture is characterized by extended work hours, extremely heavy workload, competitiveness, unrealistic deadlines, high levels of turnover, and pressure to excel. The work atmosphere is replete with underlying tensions between individualism and managerial controls (Kunda, 1992). Reports (e.g., Fimbel & Burstein, 1990) indicate that the hi-tech industry is replete with employee misconduct (e.g., concealing bugs in a software product from customers). We sought to identify some of the determinants of OMB (e.g., time wasting, Internet surfing, quality compromising, bootlegging, and substance abuse) in such a stressful work environment. Based on mainstream stress literature
(e.g., McGrath, 1976; Shirom, 1982), we assumed that the subjective pressure that emanates from a job environment characterized by ambiguity, role conflict, and overload (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964) may not only enhance excellence, but OMB as well.
In hi-tech work environments, the intention to misbehave could be related to the employee’s affective state, such as satisfaction drawn from work and the organiza- tion as a whole (Vardi & Wiener, 1996). Specifically, job satisfaction is postulated to play a mitigating role between the level of subjective pressure and misbehavior because for professionals pressure is not necessarily a negative motive (Meglino, 1977) and because positive affect toward the organization may inhibit thoughts of revenge or malice aimed at the work, colleagues, or the employer (Spector, 1997a).
Therefore, we expect that there will be a positive relationship between OMB and perceived work-related job pressure (ambiguity, role conflict, and overload), and that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between stress and OMB.
Study 1: Public Service—Utilities
This investigation was conducted among employees of the Israeli National Elec- tricity Company, Israel’s largest and most powerful utility. From the 185 question- naires distributed in the company, 162 employees at the nonsupervisory (26%), supervisory (34%), lower managerial (32%), and higher managerial (8%) lev- els responded (for an 88% response rate). The questionnaires were administered while the respondents attended various training sessions in the company’s human resources development center. Most of the respondents were men (93%) with at least a high school education, and their average age was 40. They all considered their income as being above average (actually, they are among the highest paid employees in the Israeli public sector).
Study 2: Public Service—Health
Of 550 randomly selected nurses from three general hospitals (1,100 beds) located in the greater Tel Aviv metropolitan area and members of Israel’s largest HMO, 318 returned usable questionnaires. Because of the common employer and the similar- ities among the three hospitals in mission, structure, and location, the participants were pooled into one sample comprised of 90.6% women, 23.9% practical nurses, 44.5% registered nurses, and 31.6% academic nurses; 15.8% held supervisory po- sitions and 58% held full-time positions. The median length of service as a nurse was 8 years and in the hospital 6.5 years.
Study 3: Public Postal Services
This research was conducted in the central mail-sorting unit of the Israeli Post Office, a governmental agency similar to the U.S. Postal Service. We randomly
ORGANIZATION TYPE 175 selected 160 employees to represent full-time, permanent, and temporary em- ployees and different types of jobs such as manual sorting clerks, mechanized sorting typists, bulk mail handlers, and third-shift workers. Following Analoui and Kakabadse’s (1992) model for qualitative field research on employee misconduct, this study combined 11 months of participant observation by a graduate student who was also a personnel contractor for the unit, follow-up formal and informal interviews, and self-report questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed at workstations during shift hours (morning, afternoon, and night), and 121 (61 tem- porary and 60 permanent employees) were individually collected after 12 hr. The response rate was 75%.
Study 4: Hi-Tech
This study was conducted in the R&D section of one of Israel’s leading hi-tech firms located in an industrial park in Tel Aviv. The company manufactures and markets data transmission and communication products for wide area and local area networks and employs 650 persons. All 200 members of the R&D section received questionnaires via interoffice mail. The cover letter explaining the study promised confidentiality and asked participants to return the completed question- naires directly to the researchers. We received 95 complete and usable question- naires (47.5%). The sample included 73 men and 22 women, with an average age of 31 (S D=6.09); a majority (84.3%) were trained professionals in computers and electronics, 60% with a bachelor’s degree and 11% with a master’s; and the rest identified themselves as students. Most of them (67%) performed duties in the software area, and 30% held supervisory positions.