Love, Hate, Ambivalence, or Indifference? A Conceptual Examination of Workplace Crimes and Organizational Identification

Although research has shown that there may be very different types of workplace crimes, scholarly work in this area (a) is currently fragmented with very little communication between very similar streams of research and (b) tends to be incomplete and can lead to conflicting findings. We address both of these shortcomings. First, we propose a typology of different types of workplace crimes (consisting of pro-organizational, nonaligned-organizational, and anti-organizational crimes) based on the intentions of the perpetrators. Second, we link these intentions to various identification “pathologies”—such as over-identification and over-disidentification, under-identification and ambivalent identification—and argue that these pathologies are linked to propensities to commit certain types of workplace crimes. Specifically, we contend that over-identification and over-disidentification have direct effects on workplace crimes, whereas under-identification and ambivalent identification indirectly influence the propensity to engage in workplace crimes. We suggest that this research aids us in clarifying the inconsistent conclusions in previous work in the domain of workplace crimes and that it emphasizes the importance of including organizational identification as a key factor in the extant models of workplace crimes. This research also highlights policy implications regarding workplace crimes in that it suggests that different agencies may be more effective in enforcing the law and disciplining those engaged in the different types of workplace crimes. </jats:p

Always on my mind: The impact of relational ambivalence on rumination upon supervisor mistreatment

Often viewed as a self-regulatory impairment (Thau & Mitchell, 2010), rumination describes the repeated pondering of an offense (Caprara, 1986). The current study predicts that employees high in relational ambivalence with supervisors, or who “maintain both a positive and negative attitude toward their supervisor,” are more likely than those in positive or negative relationships to ruminate over a supervisor-induced psychological contract violation (S-I PCV). By use of a 10-day diary study, this study reveals differences in the moderating role of relationship quality with supervisors (i.e., positive, negative, or ambivalent) on S-I PCV and rumination. More specifically, relational ambivalence with supervisors positively moderated the relationship between S-I PCV and rumination, whereas positive and negative relationships with supervisors both negatively moderated this relationship

The impact of ethical and despotic leadership on the emotions and team work engagement perceptions of individual members within work teams

The purpose of this thesis is the study of the impact of two different leadership styles, ethical and despotic, on three different variables of members of a team: positive emotions, negative emotions and perception of team work engagement. Data was collected from both real world companies and through a laboratory study. The results show that ethical leadership seems to positively impact team work engagement perceptions and positive emotions and to negatively impact negative emotions. Despotic leadership, on the other hand, seems to be linked only to an increase of negative emotions. When analyzing data collected exclusively from companies, effects on positive emotions are not statistically significant. In terms of data exclusively retrieved from the study, only effects of ethical leadership on team work engagement and positive emotions are statistically significant. Furthermore, it was found that positive emotions seem to mediate the effect of ethical leadership on team work engagement.O objetivo desta tese é o estudo do impacto de dois diferentes estilos de liderança, ético e despótico, em três variáveis diferentes de membros de equipas: emoções positivas, emoções negativas e percepção de team work engagement. Os dados foram recolhidos a partir de empresas reais e através de um estudo de laboratório. Os resultados mostram que a liderança ética parece influenciar positivamente as percepções de team work engagement e emoções positivas e influenciar negativamente as emoções negativas. A liderança despótica, por outro lado, parece estar ligada apenas a um aumento de emoções negativas. Ao analisar os dados recolhidos exclusivamente das empresas, verifica-se que os efeitos sobre as emoções positivas não são estatisticamente significativos. No que toca aos dados obtidos exclusivamente a partir do estudo de laboratório, apenas os efeitos da liderança ética em team work engagement e nas emoções positivas são estatisticamente significativos. Verificou-se ainda que as emoções positivas parecem mediar o efeito da liderança ética em team work engagement

Does Gender Raise the Ethical Bar? Exploring the Punishment of Ethical Violations at Work

We investigate whether women are targets of more severe punishment than men following ethical violations at work. Using a large sample of working adults, Study 1 finds that ethical behavior is more strongly prescribed for women than for men. Women face intensified ethical prescriptions, relative to a gender-neutral person. Study 2 experimentally tests whether women are punished more severely than men. Study 2 also tests the scope of our theory by asking whether women are punished more for errors in general, or only for ethical violations. Study 3 examines our effect in the field by examining how severely attorneys are punished for violating the American Bar Association’s ethical rules. Female attorneys are punished more severely than male attorneys, after accounting for a variety of factors. Study 3 also provides evidence that the gender make-up of the decision-making group that allots punishment serves to moderate the extent of discriminatory punishments. When a larger percentage of women sat on the judges’ panels overseeing attorney disciplinary hearings, disparities in allotted punishment between men and women were smaller. Our research documents a new prescriptive stereotype faced by women and helps to explain gender disparities in organizations. It highlights punishment severity as a novel mechanism by which institutions derail women’s careers more than men’s

Public Sector Organizational Failure: A study of collective denial in the UK National Health Service

This paper argues that public sector organizational failure may be best understood from a perspective of collective denial. The rise of this phenomenon is examined using testimony from a Public Inquiry into the downfall of a UK hospital, where falling organizational standards led to unethical decision making and an unacceptable number of patient deaths. In this paper we show how collective denial, over time, became a process that resided within the fabric of organizational life. To explore the organizational processes associated with collective denial, and how and why it occurs, we identify the influence of a ‘narrative of silence’. This narrative allows ever more serious failings to be justified as organizational members lose contact with reality entering a downward spiral with no recovery. The combined impact of assumptions about leadership capability, enculturated professional identities and organizational loyalty create an environment where a narrative of silence can develop

Ambivalence in Organizations: A Multilevel Approach

The experience of simultaneously positive and negative orientations toward a person, goal, task, idea, and such appears to be quite common in organizations, but it is poorly understood. We develop a multilevel perspective on ambivalence in organizations that demonstrates how this phenomenon is integral to certain cognitive and emotional processes and important outcomes. Specifically, we discuss the organizational triggers of ambivalence and the cognitive and emotional mechanisms through which ambivalence diffuses between the individual and collective levels of analysis. We offer an integrative framework of major responses to highly intense ambivalence (avoidance, domination, compromise, and holism) that is applicable to actors at the individual and collective levels. The positive and negative outcomes associated with each response, and the conditions under which each is most effective, are explored. Although ambivalence is uncomfortable for actors, it has the potential to foster growth in the actor as well as highly adaptive and effective behavior