ISSN: 2226-3624
Open access
Workplace deviant behavior is a long-standing issue particularly in public sector organizations. This critical issue has become burdensome, as it has enormous costs and implications for the organizations. The objective of this study is to examine the organizational factors that influence the deviant behavior of employees working in public sector organizations in Malaysia. Online questionnaire was used to collect the required data from the respondents who were selected using convenience sampling technique. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, factor analysis, reliability, Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis. The findings of this study revealed that ethical work climate has a negative influence on workplace deviant behavior whereas organizational justice, trust and organizational support show no significant relationship with the dependent variable. Thus, by ensuring high ethical work climate in the organization through practicing leadership by example and implementing Islamic work practices, among others, workplace deviant behaviors can be controlled. If these behaviors persist, corrective actions must be taken thoroughly and promptly, or it can affect the organization as a whole and there will be serious consequences of these behaviors. The practical and research implications of the study are further discussed in the paper.
Abdul Rahman, A. R. (2008). Predictors of workplace deviant behavior in Malaysia. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia.
Ahmad, A., & Omar, Z. (2014). Reducing deviant behavior through workplace spirituality and job satisfaction. Canadian Center of Science and Education, 10(19), 107-112.
Akhigbe, O. J., & Sunday, P. I. (2018). Organizational trust and workplace deviant behavior in higher institutions in Rivers State. International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research, 5(10), 48-62.
Ambrose, M. L., & Schminke, M. (2009). The role of overall justice judgments in organizational justice research: A test of mediation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(2), 491–500.
Appelbaum, S. H., & Shapiro, B. T. (2006). Diagnosis and remedies for deviant workplace behaviors: Causes, impacts, and solutions. Journal of American Academy of Business, 9(2), 14 -20.
Aquino, K., & Byron, K. (2002). Dominating interpersonal behavior and perceived victimization in groups: Evidence for a curvilinear relationship. Journal of Management, 28, 69-87.
Aryati, A. S., Sudiro, A., Hadiwidjaja, D., & Noermijati, N. (2018). The influence of ethical leadership to deviant workplace behavior mediated by ethical climate and organizational commitment. International Journal of Law and Management, 60(2), 233–249.
Azim, A. M. M., Hassan, M. S., Zaid, D. S., & Daud, M. A. (2020). The influence of supervisor support, organizational trust on workplace deviant behavior: Do psychological contract matter? International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 10(2), 103–119.
Berry, C. M., Onez, D. S., & Sackett, P. R. (2007). Interpersonal deviance, organizational deviance, and their common correlates: A review and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(2), 410–424.
Bies, R. J., & Moag, J. F. (1986). Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness. Research on Negotiations in Organizations, 1, 43– 55.
Buchan, H. (2009). Public accountants’ perceptions of ethical work climate: an exploratory study of the difference between partners and employees within the instrumental dimension. The Open Ethics Journal, 3, 1-7.
Chernyak-Hai, L., and Tziner, A. (2014). Relationships between counterproductive work behavior, perceived justice and climate, occupational status, and leader-member exchange. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30, 1-12.
Demir, M. (2011). Effects of organizational justice, trust and commitment on employees’ deviant behavior. Anatolia - An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 22(2), 204-221.
Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D., & Cooper, C. L. (2003). The concept of bullying at work: The European tradition, in S. Einarsen, H. Hoel, D. Zapf and C.L. Cooper (9 eds). Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace, London: Taylor & Francis.
Eisenberger, R., Armeli, S., Rexwinkel, B., Lynch, P. D., & Rhoades, L. (2001). Reciprocation of perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(1), 42-51.
Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Hutchison, S., & Sowa, D. (1986). Perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 500–507.
Gilbert, J., & Tang, T. (1998). An examination of organizational trust antecedents. Public Personnel Management, 27(3), 321–338.
Gill, D., Prowse, V., & Vlassopoulos, M. (2013). Cheating in the workplace: an experimental study of the impact of bonuses and productivity. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 96, 120-134.
Gilligan, J. (1996). Violence: Our deadly epidemic and its causes. G.P. Putnam.
Greenberg, J. (1990). Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: The hidden cost of pay cuts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 561-568.
Griffin, R. W., & Lopez, Y. P. (2004). Toward a model of the person-situation determinants of deviant behavior in organisations. Paper presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, New Orleans, LA, 6-11 August 2004.
Hadi, N. U., Ilham, S., & Abdullah, N. (2016). An easy approach to exploratory factor analysis: marketing perspective. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 6(1), 215-223.
Haldorai, K., Kim, W. G., Chang, H. S., & Li, J. J. (2020). Workplace spirituality as a mediator between ethical climate and workplace deviant behavior. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 86, 1-11.
Hartog, D. N., & Belschak, F. D. (2012). Work engagement and machiavellianism in the ethical leadership process. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(1), 35-47.
Homans, G. C. (1961). Social behaviour: Its elementary forms. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Kanten & Ulker (2013). The effect of organizational climate on counterproductive behaviors: An empirical study on the employees of manufacturing enterprises. The Macrotheme Review, 2(4), 144-160.
Krejcie, V. R., & Morgan, W. D. (1970). Determining sample size for research activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30, 607-610.
Lazaroo, S. (2016). Firms suffer from workers’ absence. The Star. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/
Lee, H., & Chui, J. (2019). The mediating effect of interactional justice on human resource practices and organizational support in a healthcare organization. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 6(2), 129–144.
Lu, S., & Lin, C. (2014). The effects of ethical leadership and ethical climate on employee ethical behavior in the international port context. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(2), 209-223.
Lugosi, P. (2019). Deviance, deviant behaviour and hospitality management: Sources, forms and drivers. Tourism Management, 74, 81-98.
Malik, P., & Lenka, U. (2018). Integrating antecedents of workplace deviance: Utilizing AHP approach. Journal of Indian Business Research, 10(1), 101–122.
Marasi, S., Cox, S. S., & Bennett, R. J. (2016). Job embeddedness: Is it always a good thing? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31(1), 141–153.
Mishra, M., & Pandey, S. (2014). A theoretical model on the determinants of workplace deviance among employees in the public service organizations of India. International Journal of Business Behavior, 2(3), 1321-1337.
Mitchell, M. S., & Ambrose, M. L. (2007). Abusive supervision and workplace deviance and the moderating effects of negative reciprocity beliefs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(4), 1159–1168.
Mostafa, A. M. S., & Shen, J. (2019). Ethical leadership, internal CSR, organisational engagement and organisational workplace deviance. In Evidence-based HRM: A Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship. Emerald Publishing Limited.
National Registration Department. (2017) 2016 Annual Report of the National Registration Department. Retrieved from https://www.jpn.gov.my/wp-content/uploads/Laporan-Tahunan-2016-web.pdf
Ojo, B. Y., & Tamunoipiriala, D.-J. C. (2019). Organisational predators of workplace deviant behaviour in hotel industry. Journal of Tourism Management Research, 6(1), 1–18.
Pallant, J. (2013). SPSS Survival manual. A step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS, 4th edition. Allen & Unwin.
Paliszkiewicz, J. (2010). Organizational trust – a critical review of the empirical research, Proceedings of 2010 International Conference on Technology Innovation and Industrial Management, 16-18 June 2010 Pattaya, Thailand.
Paliszkiewicz, J., & Koohang, A. (2013). Organizational trust as a foundation for knowledge sharing and its influence on organizational performance. Online Journal of Applied Knowledge Management, 1(2), 116–127.
Pradhan, S., & Jena, L. K. (2019). Getting even: a study of abusive supervision, workplace deviance and intention to quit in Indian entrepreneurial organizations. South Asian Journal of Business Studies, 8(3), 332-347.
Public Complaints Bureau. (2020). 2019 Annual Report of Public Complaints Bureau. Retrieved from http://www.pcb.gov.my/STATISTIK/2019/Statistik_Pengurusan_Aduan_2019.pdf
Rahman. (2006). National competitiveness: Role of the public sector in Malaysia. Jurnal Pengurusan Awam, 5(1), 19-33.
Robinson, L. S., & Bennett, R. J. (1995). A typology of deviant workplace behaviors: A multidimensional scaling study. The Academy of Management Journal, 38, 555-572.
Sekaran, U. & Bougie, R. (2013). Research methods for business: A skill-building approach. 6th Edition. Wiley: New York
Tuna, M., Ghazzawi, I., Yesiltas, M., Tuna, A. A., & Arslan, S. (2014). The effects of the perceived external prestige of the organization on employee deviant behaviour workplace behaviour: The mediating role of job satisfaction. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(2), 366-396.
Vogel, R., Homberg, F., & Gericke, A. (2016, December). Abusive supervision, public service motivation, and employee deviance. In Evidence-based HRM: A global forum for empirical scholarship. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Wang, Y.-D., & Hsieh, H.-H. (2012). Organizational ethical climate, perceived organizational support, and employee silence: A cross-level investigation. Human Relations, 66(6), 783–802.
Wenzel, K., Schindler, S., & Reinhard, M. A. (2017). General belief in a just world is positively associated with dishonest behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(1770), 1-8.
Wu, M., Sun, X., Zhang, D., & Wang, C. (2016). Moderated mediation model of relationship between perceived organizational justice and counterproductive work behavior. Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management, 7(2), 64–81.
Yasir, M., & Rasli, A. (2018). Direct and indirect effects of ethical leadership on workplace deviance in public healthcare sector of Pakistan. Journal of Advances in Management Research, 15(4), 558-574.
In-Text Citation: (Othman et al., 2022)
To Cite this Article: Othman, A. K., Maulud, F. S. F., Rahman, M. K. B. A., & Isa, M. F. M. (2022). Factors Contributing to Employee Workplace Deviant Behaviors in Public Sector Organizations. International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management and Sciences, 11(1), 154-168.
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode