When good students do bad things? The relationship between propensity to morally disengage, perceived justice and undesirable student behaviour

Abstract

Nepoželjna organizacijska ponašanja poput krađe, izostajanja s posla, prijevare i slično, postaju sve veći problem koji narušava ugled i profit organizacija. A s obzirom da akademska ponašanja predviđaju buduća radna ponašanja, ove je odnose potrebno ispitati među studentskom populacijom. Organizacijska pravednost u prijašnjim se istraživanjima pokazala kao snažan prediktor nepoželjnim ponašanjima. Ono što dodatno doprinosi učestalosti nepoželjnih ponašanja jest individualna sklonost da se opravdamo, odnosno moralno distanciramo od posljedica nepoželjnih ponašanja. Cilj istraživanja bio je provjeriti ulogu doživljaja pravednosti i sklonosti moralnom distanciranju u nepoželjnim ponašanjima studenta pri čemu su korišteni Upitnik pravednosti profesora i kolega, Upitnik nepoželjnog organizacijskog ponašanja za studentsku populaciju i Skala sklonosti moralnom distanciranju. Provedena je hijerarhijska regresijska analiza na uzorku od 1107 studenata kako bi se provjerio odnos između ovih triju konstrukata. Suprotno očekivanom, rezultati pokazuju kako samo dvije dimenzije pravednosti, distributivna i interakcijska pravednost profesora, negativno doprinose nepoželjnim ponašanjima studenata, dok se proceduralna pravednost profesora i interakcijska pravednost kolega nisu pokazali značajnim prediktorima. Očekivano, sklonost moralnom distanciranju pozitivno doprinosi nepoželjnim ponašanjima studenata. Od svih dimenzija pravednosti, studenti su najnegativnije procijenili interakcijsku pravednost profesora, a ona se pak pokazala kao najsnažniji prediktor nepoželjnih ponašanja. U budućnosti su potrebna istraživanja koja će dodatno objasniti odnose između ovih triju konstrukata.Undesirable behaviors like theft, absence and fraud are becoming a large problem that disrupts reputation and profit of an organization. Considering that future work behaviors are predicted by academic behaviors, it is important to examine these relations among student population. In previous research, organizational justice has been shown as strong predictor to undesirable behavior. Additional contribution to frequency of undesirable behaviors is individual tendency to justify, or morally disengage from the consequences of undesirable behaviors. The aim of this study was to examine the role of perceived justice and propensity to morally disengage in undesirable student behaviors. This study used Questionnaire of justice among professors and colleagues, Questionnaire of undesirable organizational behavior for students population and Scale of moral disengagement. To test the relationship between these constructs, hierarchical regression analysis was conducted on a sample consisted of 1107 students. Contrary to predictions, results show that only distributive and interactional justice of professors inhibit undesirable student behaviors, while procedural justice of professors and interactional justice of colleagues were not significant predictors. As expected, propensity to morally disengage positively contributes to undesirable student behaviors. The dimension of interactional justice of professors was valued as most negative, but was also the strongest predictor in our model. Future research is needed for additional explanation of relationship between these constructs