A Deep Dive into Employee Misbehavior in The Workplace

Prevailing employee misbehavior and unethical practices

Misbehavior define as 'any intentional action by members of organizations that violates core organizational and/or societal norms” (Yoav & Yoash, 1996). Ethics defines as “the principles, values, and beliefs that define right and wrong decisions and behavior” (Stephen & Mary, 2012). According to the management and employees’ feedback given by Sportswear Plant, several misbehavior and unethical practices which will violate the organizational norms and show unacceptable behaviors, were identified.

Use power and position to mistreat others

According to the interviews had with several employees within the molding department, it was noted that they were treated badly by their supervisors and head of the department. Since the supervisors and head of the department use an abusive language to guide the employees under them, employees in the molding department felt bad and they were shy to communicate with their supervisors and head of the department. During the interview, it was found that, when an employee was badly blamed by either head of the department or supervisor due to a mistake, he or she felt shame and confused. Finally, it can conclude that head of the molding department and supervisors use their power and position to mistreat and disrespect employees under them which is unethical according to the above mentioned “ethics” definition.

Favoritism

Due to the labor shortage in sewing department DSI provide on the job training for new employees. Therefore interviewed employees who have joined DSI during last four months. During that interview, it was revealed that Line leaders used to properly train their favorite employees and ignore others. Due to this unfair behavior of line leaders’, newly joined employees faced different problems. They couldn’t be able to achieve their career growth because of this unfair training behavior. The employees were also blamed by their head of the department, due to the repetitive quality rejects which made them feel uncomfortable. Finally, it can conclude that leaders of the sewing department show favoritism during the training of their new employees, which is unethical according to the above mentioned “ethics” definition.

Cheating to achieve goals

According to the interview had with the quality assurance manager, it was noted that employees intentionally forward products with quality defects in order to achieve their daily targets. Most of the complaints were made due to the upper damages and bonding weaknesses of the shoes which can be detected in the molding stage and packing stage. According to the quality assurance manager’s statement, employees forwarded low quality products to customers, when they fall short of their goals. Since this behavior violates organizational norms, it can consider as a misbehavior.

“There are three types of organizational misbehaviors

• Type S – misbehavior that intends to benefit the self
• Type O – misbehavior that intends to benefit the organization
• Type D – misbehavior that intends to inflict damage” (Yoav & Yoash, 1996)

According to above definition, it can conclude that cheating to achieve goals can be consider as type S misbehavior, because this behavior will benefit the employees to attain their incentive pay.

Factors that determine the unethical behavior of employees

Whether employees behaves ethically or unethically when faced in an ethical dilemma is influenced by several things. Individual characteristics and organization’s structural design can be consider as moderating variables for the above discussed ethical issues. (Stephen & Mary, 2012)

Individual characteristics

Personality and values are the two individual characteristics which determines a personal ethical or unethical behavior in the workplace. (Stephen & Mary, 2012) According to the interviewed employees’ explanations in both molding and sewing department and interview had with plant manager and quality manager, personality traits of their head of the department, supervisors and line leaders plays a major role in determining unethical behavior.

To analyze the personality of above mentioned head of the department, supervisors and line leaders in molding and sewing department, big five personality traits and type A and type B personality traits.

Big five personality traits

“Traits are the predispositions to behave in a certain ways in a variety of different situations. Openness, Consciousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism are the defined five personality traits, attribute to people in an attempt to understand why they behave in the way they do” (Michael, 2009).

According to the plant manager’s explanations and employees’ feedbacks, head of the molding department and most of the supervisors are hostile, not well organized and also short tempered. Therefore, it can conclude that they are low on agreeableness, low on conscientious and high in neuroticism, with respect to five personality traits. “It was found that significant positive associations existed between personality traits and ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity except neuroticism” (Grace, 2010). According to that, the head of the molding department and most of the supervisors haven’t the ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity due to their personality. Therefore, they behave aggressively in their workplace when guiding employees under them towards the targets.

According to the feedback given by some newly joined employees in the sewing department, most of the leaders show unfair behaviors and treat employees unequally. “Leaders who are high on agreeableness are likely to treat employees in a fair and respectful manner and to attempt to not offend them” (Karianne, Deanne N. Den, & Annebel, 2011). Therefore, it can conclude that most of the leaders in sewing department are low on agreeableness. Therefore, fairness behavior couldn’t be expected from them according to their personality traits.

Type A and Type B personality traits

“Type A personality is characterized by impatient, ambitious, proactive, anxious, and overly concerned with time management. Type B personalities who generally live at lower stress levels, work steadily, and enjoying achievement but not becoming stressed out when not achieving in contrast to type A personalities.” (Poorva & Tejinder, 2016)

According to the above definition, head of the molding department and supervisors’ characteristics shows type A personality traits. Because they are hostile and short tempered.

Line leaders in sewing department are also shows type A personality traits due to their inflexible behavior when dealing with newly joined employees