The Management of Employee Behavior
Discussion Question 1
o Prompt: Choose a current news article about a recent workplace issue related to organizational l behavior. Provide the title and the source. Summarize the article briefly and analyze the article using concepts learned in this week’s readings.
o Requirements: 250-300 words
Article: Inside Facebook’s ‘cult-like’ workplace, where dissent is discouraged, and employees pretend to be happy all the time
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/08/facebook-culture-cult performance-review-process-blamed.html
Below are some of the topics discussed in this unit.
The discussion that follows will focus primarily on selected outcomes and selected interventions. Exhibit 8.2 suggests that misbehavior is a purposeful action on the part of individuals that is mediated by a person’s beliefs and an organization’s expectations. The intention to misbehave can result in a number of financially and socially costly outcomes.
Antecedents
Exhibit 8.2 displays four types of antecedents to misbehavior—individual, job, group, and organizational. The selection of characteristics displayed is based on available studies, frameworks, and discussions previously established on each of the factors. For example, when individuals perceive they are being mistreated by a manager, their preference for misbehaving may increase.10 This attitude can then become internalized and impact co-workers. If, for example, co-workers agree that mistreatment has occurred, they can join in with their own misbehavior. Hackett found a relationship between employee dissatisfaction and increased absenteeism.11 The intentional work misbehavior of the individual who perceives himself to be mistreated could have negative consequences for the person (dissatisfaction), the workgroup (dissatisfaction), and the organization (increased absenteeism). The model displayed in Exhibit 8.2 assumes that all misbehaviors (outcomes) are voluntarily committed.
Mediators
A core concept in the model presented in Exhibit 8.2 is the “intention to misbehave.” Accidental behaviors on the part of individuals are excluded. The intention to misbehave is defined as the behavior exhibited by an individual or group that is purposeful (intentional) and can be harmful to the person and others, as well as financially and socially costly.
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The intention to misbehave is posited to mediate the relationship between antecedents and the outcomes that are expressions of the misbehavior.12 Intentions are assumed to be the result of a normative force, or the person’s expectations of how he or she is supposed to behave, and an instrumental force, which represents the individual’s personal interests Page 195and beliefs. These two forces can influence a person’s intention to misbehave as well as what type of misbehavior will be engaged in. For example, an angry employee may attempt to hurt the organization by hiding a crucial set of data to satisfy his need to retaliate (instrumental force), restrict his attendance (normative force), or misbehave in both ways.
Outcomes
The examples of misbehaviors (outcomes) presented in Exhibit 8.2 are some of the more researched, reported, and analyzed misbehaviors, but more examples exist. Five specific categories that are discussed in the literature are interpersonal, intrapersonal, performance, property, and political.13 Some specific misbehaviors in these categories will be discussed later in the chapter.
Costs
The potential costs of employee misbehavior to individuals, groups, organizations and other societal groups can be substantial. For example, the financial costs of the 2001 Enron scandal to employees (lost pensions and jobs), executives (imprisonment, lost careers), the community (Houston’s economic and business infrastructure), and society at large (legal expenses) have been estimated to exceed $100 billion.14 In addition to the financial costs of the Enron and other similar cases are substantial social costs (premature illness, depression, suicide, family instability). Are managers responsible for these costs? Some believe that managers have been given a “free ride” in the social cost responsibility area. The OB Matters on page 196 illustrates examples of misbehavior in a number of organizations.
Management Interventions
Management interventions are the actions taken by managers (representing the organization) to prevent, control, or respond to harmful misbehavior. Exhibit 8.2 displays three specific points for management intervention—A, B, and C. At point A, management can carefully screen and refuse to hire “risky” individuals. Management can also intervene at other antecedent points: job, group, and organization. The problem with interventions at these points is that the person is already employed. The most efficient intervention point is during the pre-employment phase.15
The intervention at point B requires affecting the normative force, as well as the instrumental force. The goal of this intervention point is to reduce the possibility of a job, group, or organizational antecedent triggering misbehavior. For example, some organizations use mentor programs to provide a role model of proper (normative) attitudes and behavior and communicate through mentor-mentee discussions the consequences of misbehaving (instrumental).
The intention of intervention at point C shifts from prevention to deterrence. The manager works to reduce the possibility of an employee’s intention to misbehave. A member of a team who values being part of the team may learn that misbehavior could mean being transferred (control) to another unit. She may decide that staying with the preferred unit is important and elect to behave properly. The threat of a transfer may be powerful enough to evoke a change in behavior.
These intervention points offer managers different opportunities to reduce the incidence or at least consequences or costs of misbehavior. Because every possible misbehavior can’t be discussed, we select only a few. These have been selected because of the available literature and current discussion of them in the academic and popular press.
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