Abstract
Organizational deviance represents a costly behavior to many organizations. While some precursors to deviance have been identified, we hope to add to our predictive capabilities. Utilizing social cognitive theory and psychological contract theory as explanatory concepts, we explore the role of moral disengagement and turnover intentions, testing our hypotheses using two samples: a sample of 44 nurses from a hospital system in the Southwestern United States (Study 1), and a sample of 52 working adults collected from an online survey system (Study 2). Results strongly supported our hypotheses in both samples, indicating that the self-regulatory deactivation inherent in moral disengagement led to increased organizational deviance; effects that were much more pronounced when turnover intentions were high. Our findings support the increased role of cognition in determining behavior when environmental pressures stemming from the psychological contract have been altered, leading to a number of theoretical and practical implications, particularly in industries with high turnover rates.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In this study, we focus on turnover intentions caused by dissatisfaction with some aspect of the job/organization. We acknowledge that there are many reasons that an employee may wish to leave an organization, some of which would not result in reduced relational psychological contacts with the organization (e.g. a better job offer, returning to school, having a child). In such cases, turnover intentions are not likely to enhance the relationship between moral disengagement and organizational deviance behavior. We discuss this issue in more depth in the discussion.
We report analyses using the abbreviated 20-item moral disengagement scale. We also tested our hypotheses using the full 23-item scale and results did not significantly differ.
Given the cross-sectional nature of our Study 2 data collection, these correlations are likely inflated by common method variance (CMV; Podsakoff et al. 2003), and we acknowledge that this is a limitation. However, previous work suggests that interaction effects cannot be artifacts of CMV, and that in fact, an interaction term can be severely deflated by CMV. Therefore, interactions are more difficult to detect when CMV is present (Siemsen et al. 2010).
References
“2008 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse,” Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, available online at http://www.acfe.com/uploadedFiles/ACFE_Website/Content/documents/2008-rttn.pdf. Accessed 29 December 2012.
Agle, B. R., Mitchell, R. K., & Sonnenfeld, J. A. (1999). Who matters to CEOs? An investigation of stakeholder attributes and salience, corporate performance, and CEO values. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 507–525.
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Aquino, K., Reed, A., Thau, S., & Freeman, D. (2007). A grotesque and dark beauty: How moral identity and mechanisms of moral disengagement influence cognitive and emotional reactions to war. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 385–392.
Aryee, S., Budhwar, P. S., & Chen, X. (2002). Trust as a mediator of the relationship between organizational justice and work outcomes: A test of a social exchange model. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 267–285.
Aryee, S., & Chay, Y. W. (2001). Workplace justice, citizenship behavior, and turnover intentions in a union context: Examining the mediating role of perceived union support and union instrumentality. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 154–160.
Avolio, B. J., & Waldman, D. A. (1990). An examination of age and cognitive test performance across job complexity and occupational types. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 43–50.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura, A. (1990). Mechanisms of moral disengagement. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: Psychologies, ideologies, theologies, and state of mind (pp. 161–191). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In W. M. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Theory, research, and applications (Vol. 1, pp. 71–129). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (1996). Multifaceted impact of self-efficacy beliefs on academic functioning. Child Development, 67, 1206–1222.
Bandura, A., Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Pastorelli, C., & Regalia, C. (2001). Sociocognitive self-regulatory mechanisms governing transgressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 125–135.
Baron, R. A., & Richardson, D. R. (1994). Human aggression (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Plenum.
Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1993). Autonomy of a moderator of the relationship between the big five personality dimensions and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 111–118.
Barsky, A. (2011). Investigating the effects of moral disengagement and participation on unethical work behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 104, 59–75.
Baumeister, R. F., Gailliot, M., DeWall, C. N., & Oaten, M. (2006). Self-regulation and personality: How interventions increase regulatory success, and how depletion moderates the effects of traits on behavior. Journal of Personality, 74, 1773–1802.
Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2007). Self-regulation, ego depletion, and motivation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 115–128.
Bennett, R. J., & Robinson, S. L. (2000). Development of a measure of workplace deviance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 349–360.
Berry, C. M., Ones, D. S., & Sackett, P. R. (2007). Interpersonal deviance, organizational deviance, and their common correlates: A review and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 410–424.
Brady, F. N., & Wheeler, G. E. (1996). An empirical study of ethical predispositions. Journal of Business Ethics, 15, 927–940.
Bullock, H. E., & Waugh, I. M. (2004). Caregiving around the clock: How women in nursing manage career and family demands. Journal of Social Issues, 60, 767–786.
Burris, E. R., Detert, J. R., & Chiaburu, D. S. (2008). Quitting before leaving: The mediating effects of psychological attachment and detachment on voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 912–922.
Cain, P. S., & Green, B. F. (1983). Reliabilities of selected ratings available from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Journal of Applied Psychology, 68, 155–165.
Cascio, W. F. (2000). Costing human resources: The financial impact of behavior in organizations (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Kent.
Cascio, W. F. (2006). Decency means more than “always low prices”: A comparison of Costco to Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 20, 26–37.
Castle, N. G., & Engberg, J. (2006). Organizational characteristics associated with staff turnover in nursing homes. The Gerontologist, 46, 62–73.
Chen, G., Kirkman, B. L., Kanfer, R., Allen, D., & Rosen, B. (2007). A multilevel study of leadership, empowerment, and performance in teams. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 331–346.
Chen, G., Ployhart, R. E., Thomas, H. C., Anderson, N., & Bliese, P. D. (2011). The power of momentum: A new model of dynamic relationships between job satisfaction change and turnover intentions. The Academy of Management Journal, 54, 159–181.
Chowdhury, S. K., & Endres, M. L. (2010). The impact of client variability on nurses’ occupational strain and injury: Cross-level moderation by safety climate. The Academy of Management Journal, 53, 182–198.
Christian, M. S., & Ellis, A. P. J. (2011). Examining the effects of sleep deprivation on workplace deviance: A self-regulatory perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 54, 913–934.
Coffin, B. (2003). Breaking the silence on white collar crime. Risk Management, 50, 8.
Cullen, M. J., & Sackett, P. R. (2003). Personality and counterproductive workplace behavior. In M. R. Barrick & A. M. Ryan (Eds.), Personality and work (pp. 150–182). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Dabney, D. (1995). Workplace deviance among nurses: The influence of work group norms on drug diversion and/or use. Journal of Nursing Administration, 25, 48–55.
Dalal, R. S. (2005). A meta-analysis of the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive work behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 1241–1255.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268.
Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., & Sweitzer, V. L. (2008). Moral disengagement in ethical decision making: A study of antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 374–391.
Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 611–628.
Duffy, M. K., Aquino, K., Tepper, B. J., Reed, A., & O’Leary-Kelly, A. M. (2005). Moral disengagement and social identification: When does being similar result in harm doing? Paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Conference. Honolulu, HI.
Ernst and Young. (2003). Fraud: The unmanaged risk, 8th global survey. London: Ernst and Young.
Ferris, D. L., Brown, D. J., Lian, H., & Keeping, L. M. (2009). When does self-esteem relate to deviant behavior? The role of contingencies of self-worth. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1345–1353.
Filipowski, D. (1993). HR plays a direct role in decreasing employee theft. Personnel Journal, 72, 88.
Firth, L., Mellor, D. J., Moore, K. A., & Loquet, C. (2004). How can managers reduce employee intention to quit? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19, 170–187.
Folger, R. (1977). Distributive and procedural justice: Combined impact of voice and improvement on experienced inequity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 108–119.
Fox, S., Spector, P. E., & Miles, D. (2001). Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) in response to job stressors and organizational justice: Some mediator and moderator tests for autonomy and emotions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 59, 291–309.
Fraedrich, J. P. (1993). The ethical behavior of retail managers. Journal of Business Ethics, 12, 207–218.
Gailliot, M., Schmeichel, B. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2006). Self-regulatory processes defend against the threat of death: Effects of self-control depletion and trait self-control on thoughts and fears of dying. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 49–62.
Gavin, M. B., & Hofmann, D. A. (2002). Using hierarchical linear modeling to investigate the moderating influence of leadership climate. The Leadership Quarterly, 13, 15–33.
George, J. M., & Jones, G. R. (1996). The experience of work and turnover intentions: Interactive effects of value attainment, job satisfaction, and positive mood. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 318–325.
Giacalone, R. A., Riordan, C. A., & Rosenfeld, P. (1997). Employee sabotage: Toward a practitioner-scholar understanding. In A. G. Robert & J. Greenberg (Eds.), Antisocial behavior in organizations (pp. 109–129). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Glomb, T. M., & Liao, H. (2003). Interpersonal aggression in work groups: Social influence, reciprocal, and individual effects. Academy of Management Journal, 46, 486–496.
Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review, 78, 78–90.
Grant, A. M., Dutton, J. E., & Rosso, B. D. (2008). Giving commitment: Employee support programs and the prosocial sensemaking process. The Academy of Management Journal, 51, 898–918.
Green, G. S. (1997). Occupational crime (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall.
Greenberg, J. (1990). Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: The hidden cost of pay cuts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 561–568.
Griffeth, R. W., Hom, P. W., & Gaertner, S. (2000). A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: Update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. Journal of Management, 26, 463–488.
Griffin, R. W., O’Leary-Kelly, A. M., & Collins, J. (1998). Dysfunctional work behaviors in organizations. In C. L. Cooper & D. M. Rousseau (Eds.), Trends in organizational behavior (Vol. 5, pp. 65–82). New York, NY: Wiley.
Harrington, C., & Swan, J. H. (2003). Nursing home staffing, turnover, and case mix. Medical Care Research and Review, 60, 366–392.
Hofmann, D. A., Lei, Z., & Grant, A. M. (2009). Seeking help in the shadow of doubt: The sensemaking processes underlying how nurses decide whom to ask for advice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1261–1274.
Hom, P. W., & Griffeth, R. W. (1995). Employee turnover. Cincinnati, OH: South/Western.
Hom, P. W., Griffeth, R. W., & Sellaro, C. L. (1984). The Validity of Mobley’s (1977) model of employee turnover. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 34, 141–174.
Johns, G. (2006). The essential impact of context on organizational behavior. Academy of Management Review, 31, 386–408.
Judge, T. A., Scott, B. A., & Ilies, R. (2006). Hostility, job attitudes, and workplace deviance: Test of a multilevel model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 126–138.
Kacmar, K. M., Collins, B. J., Harris, K. J., & Judge, T. A. (2009). Core self-evaluations and job performance: The role of the perceived work environment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1572–1580.
Khaw, M. W., Christian, M. S., & Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Sleep deprivation, moral disengagement and cheating. Paper presented at the Annual Conference for the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Chicago, IL.
Kish-Gephart, J. J., Harrison, D. A., & Treviño, L. K. (2010). Bad apples, bad cases, and bad barrels: Meta-analytic evidence about sources of unethical decisions at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95, 1–31.
Lankau, M. J., & Scandura, T. A. (2002). An investigation of personal learning in mentoring relationships: Content, antecedents, and consequences. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 779–790.
Lee, K., & Allen, N. J. (2002). Organizational citizenship behavior and workplace deviance: The role of affect and cognitions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 131–142.
Lee, T. W., & Mitchell, T. R. (1994). An alternative approach: The unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover. Academy of Management Review, 19, 51–89.
Lind, E. A., Kanfer, R., & Earley, P. C. (1990). Voice, control, and procedural justice: Instrumental and noninstrumental concerns in fairness judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 952–959.
Millward, L. J., & Hopkins, L. J. (1998). Psychological contracts, organizational and job commitment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 1530–1556.
MinorityNurse.com (2009). Nursing Statistics. Retrieved November 2011, from http://www.minoritynurse.com/minority-nursing-statistics.
Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and assessment. New York, NY: Wiley.
Mitchell, T. R., Holtom, B. C., Lee, T. W., Sablynski, C. J., & Erez, M. (2001). Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 1102–1121.
Mobley, W. H. (1977). Intermediate linkages in the relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62, 237–240.
Mobley, W. H., Horner, S. O., & Hollingsworth, A. T. (1978). An evaluation of precursors of hospital employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 408–414.
Moore, C., Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., Baker, V. L., & Mayer, D. M. (2012). Why employees do bad things: Moral disengagement and unethical organizational behavior. Personnel Psychology, 65, 1–48.
Muraven, M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: Does self-control resemble a muscle? Psychological Bulletin, 126, 247–259.
Murphy, K. R. (1993). Honesty in the workplace. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
O’Leary-Kelly, A. M., Griffin, R. W., & Glew, D. J. (1996). Organization-motivated aggression: A research framework. Academy of Management Review, 21, 225–253.
Pearsall, M. J., & Ellis, A. P. J. (2011). Thick as thieves: The effects of ethical orientation and psychological safety on unethical team behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96, 401–411.
Penney, L. M., & Spector, P. E. (2005). Job stress, incivility, and counterproductive work behavior (CWB): The moderating role of negative affectivity. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 777–796.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 879–903.
Raja, U., Johns, G., & Ntalianis, F. (2004). The impact of personality on psychological contracts. Academy of Management Journal, 47, 350–367.
Restubog, S. L. D., & Bordia, P. (2006). Workplace familism and psychological contract breach in the Philippines. Applied Psychology, 55, 563–585.
Reynolds, S. J., & Ceranic, T. L. (2007). The effects of moral judgment and moral identity on moral behavior: An empirical examination of the moral individual. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1610–1624.
Robinson, S. L. (1996). Trust and breach of the psychological contract. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 574–599.
Robinson, S. L., & Bennett, R. J. (1995). A typology of deviant workplace behaviors: A multidimensional scaling study. Academy of Management Journal, 38, 555–572.
Robinson, S. L., Kraatz, M. S., & Rousseau, D. M. (1994). Changing obligations and the psychological contract: A longitudinal study. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 137–152.
Robinson, S. L., & O’Leary-Kelly, A. M. (1998). Monkey see, monkey do: The influence of work groups on the antisocial behavior of employees. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 658–672.
Robinson, S. L., & Rousseau, D. M. (1994). Violating the psychological contract: Not the exception but the norm. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15, 245–259.
Rogelberg, S. G., & Stanton, J. M. (2007). Understanding and dealing with organizational survey nonresponse. Organizational Research Methods, 10, 195–209.
Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2, 121–139.
Rousseau, D. M. (1995). Psychological contracts in organizations: Understanding written and unwritten agreements. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Schank, M. J., & Weis, D. (2000). An instrument to measure professional nursing values. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 32, 201–204.
Schmeichel, B. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2004). Self-regulatory strength. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 84–98). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Siemsen, E., Roth, A., & Oliveira, P. (2010). Common method bias in regression models with linear, quadratic, and interaction effects. Organizational Research Methods, 13, 456–476.
Steers, R. M., & Rhodes, S. R. (1984). Knowledge and speculation about absenteeism. In P. S. Goodman & R. S. Atkin (Eds.), Absenteeism (pp. 229–275). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Tepper, B. J., Carr, J. C., Breaux, D. M., Geider, S., Hu, C., & Hua, W. (2009). Abusive supervision, intentions to quit, and employees’ workplace deviance: A power/dependence analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109, 156–167.
Tett, R. P., & Burnett, D. D. (2003). A personality trait-based interactionist model of job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 500–517.
Tett, R. P., & Guterman, H. A. (2000). Situation trait relevance, trait expression, and cross-situational consistency: Testing a principle of trait activation. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 397–423.
Thoms, P., Wolper, P., Scott, K. S., & Jones, D. (2001). The relationship between immediate turnover and employee theft in the restaurant industry. Journal of Business and Psychology, 15, 561–577.
Trevino, L. K. (1986). Ethical decision making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model. Academy of Management Review, 11, 601–617.
Turnley, W. H., Bolino, M. C., Lester, S. W., & Bloodgood, J. M. (2003). The impact of psychological contract fulfillment on the performance of in-role and organizational citizenship behaviors. Journal of Management, 29, 187–206.
Waldman, D. A., & Avolio, B. J. (1991). Race effects in performance evaluations: Controlling for ability, education, and experience. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 897–901.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.
Wood, R. E., & Bandura, A. (1989). Impact of conceptions of ability on self-regulatory mechanisms and complex decision making. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 407–415.
Young, R. (2004). Is Wal-Mart good for America?. Frontline: WGBH Educational Foundation.
Zhao, H., Wayne, S. J., Glibkowski, B. C., & Bravo, J. (2007). The impact of psychological contract breach on work-related outcomes: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 60, 647–680.
Zuber, A. (2001). A career in foodservice—cons: High turnover. Nation’s Restaurant News, 35, 147–148.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the Center for Leadership Ethics and the Center for Management Innovations in Health Care at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona for their assistance with funding this research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Christian, J.S., Ellis, A.P.J. The Crucial Role of Turnover Intentions in Transforming Moral Disengagement Into Deviant Behavior at Work. J Bus Ethics 119, 193–208 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1631-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1631-4