Organizational Misbehavior (OMB)

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Organizational Misbehavior (OMB)

• What Makes Good People Do Bad Things At Work?
• Yoav Vardi Ely Weitz

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Sources of Knowledge about Organizations

• Genetics and initial socialization
• Personal experience different organizational
  roles one plays
• Intuition and predisposition
• Media (films, television, press)
• History and literature
• Personal theory (Trial and Error)
• Scientific research (Quantitative and
  Qualitative)

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What is OMB?
Intentional workplace behavior which defies and
violates shared organizational norms and
expectations, and/or core societal values, mores
and standards of proper conduct.
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Comments

• Some of the norms are defined by the workplace
  and some by society.
• Not all OMB necessarily harms the organization.
• Some of the norms have been legislated (e.g.,
  sexual harassment and substance abuse others,
  such as spreading rumors and talking back to
  supervisors, are beyond the realm of the law).
• Some misbehaviors are committed unintentionally,
  we do not deal with these.

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Comments, continued

• Unethical behavior is a special case of OMB
  (violating codes of ethics of right or wrong).
• Some acts OMB are committed by abnormal persons
  sociopaths or psychopaths. We do not deal with
  these kind of cases, either.
• What concerns us is the normal member of an
  organization who both behaves and misbehaves,
  behaves both well and badly.

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Causes for OMB

• To study the causes for these behaviors, we call
  for
• An inter-disciplinary approach for understanding
  the variety of behaviors of different individuals
  in a variety of social and organizational
  settings (psychology, sociology, management,
  criminology, etc).
• An approach combining theory, empirical research
  and managerial practice.
• Levels of research and analysis Individual
  (worker, manager), group or team, organizational
  unit (department, division), organization.

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Span of Behaviors in Organizations

• Positive
• OCB Organizational Citizenship Behavior
• OB Organizational Behavior
• OMB Organizational Misbehavior
• - Negative -

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Recommended Reference

• Vardi, Yoav Weitz, Ely (2004), Misbehavior in
  Organizations Theory, Research and Management.
  NJ LEA Publishers.

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The Iceberg Metaphor

• Only 1/9 of the OMB phenomenon is seen and known.
• 8/9 of the phenomenon are unseen or hidden.

Given that the unknown is larger than the known,
time and qualitative tools are needed in order to
study and understand organizational phenomena in
general and OMB in particular.
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Who Cares about OMB?

• Employees They constitute the majority of the
  organization and are both performers and victims
  of OMB.
• Managers The minority in organization, and are
  also both performers and victims. Yet, it is
  their responsibility to know about various
  behaviors in the organization, and to manage them
  effectively.
• Researchers.
• Consultants.

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The Behaviors

• Behaviors that may be intended to do well or
  cause harm.
• OMB might harm The worker, colleagues, the work
  itself, the group, the unit, the organization,
  the environment, the society.

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Motivation and Intent

• According to Vardi and Wiener (1992, 1996), there
  are three kinds of OMB
• Type S Actions intended to benefit the person.
• Type O Actions intended to benefit the
• organization.
• Type D Actions intended to cause damage.

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Causes of OMB intentions

• Type S Mostly instrumental and calculative
  forces (gain or loss, reward or punishment)
• Type O Mostly affective forces of commitment
  and loyalty (identification).
• Type D Could be either or both

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Manifestations of OMB

• Vardi Weitz identified five categories of OMB
  (see next figure). These behaviors might take on
  different modes in different organizational
  settings.
• It is important to remember that OMB is a local
  and unique phenomenon What is acceptable in one
  setting might be unacceptable in another.

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General Model of OMB
Intra-Person Misbehavior
Inter-Person Misbehavior
Work Processes Misbehavior
Property Misbehavior
Political Misbehavior
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Intra-Person OMB

• Improper behaviors of individuals (workers,
  managers) directed at themselves
• Self-deception.
• Workaholism, stress, fatigue burnout.
• Substance abuse.

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Inter-person OMB

• Improper behavior directed at others (colleagues,
  employees, supervisors, customers, clients).
• Such as
• Incivility, breach of agreements, bullying.
• Physical and mental harassment, abusive
  supervision.
• Psychological terror, violence and abuse.
• Deception, lies and fraud.

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OMB in Work Processes
Behaviors that may harm job performance and work
processes in the organization.

• Not following instructions, cutting corners.
• Restricting production slow-down.
• Unjustified lateness and absence.
• Social loafing.
• Sabotage, intentionally damaging quality.

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OMB Aimed at Property and Resources
Misbehavior which intentionally abuses the
organizations resources and assets.

• Theft from the workplace (most common damage
  estimated at 200 billion a year in the US).
• Private use of company property, fraud and
  corruption.
• Stealing time.
• Stealing secrets harming company and product
  reputation theft of intellectual property.
• Vandalism.

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Political OMB
Misbehavior aimed at gaining control over
resources, and territory, by means of
aggressive influence, and subversive means and
tactics.

• Planning active opposition and subversive
  activities.
• Conspiratory acts.
• Cover-ups.
• Discrimination / Reverse discrimination.
• Making an impression - deception for better or
  worse.
• Whistleblowing Good Samaritan behavior or
  betrayal?

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Does Every Worker Lie?

• According to David Shulmans book
• From Hire to Liar The Role of Deception in the
  Workplace (2007), Cornell University Press.
• The answer is Yes!
• The workplace is a social situation in which one
  of the skills one acquires is the art of lying
  (from innocent white-lies to substantial lies).
• Is there anyone who can honestly say s/he never
  lied at work?

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Lies, Continued

• For some jobs, lies and deceptions are part of
  the role detective, spy, investigator
• But in many cases, the worker is expected to act
  and pretend, such as in sales and marketing
  organizations. Especially when working with a
  crowd, clients and costumers.
• When the acting not genuine, the emotional toll
  is high (see research on flight attendants, The
  Managed Heart by Arlie Hochschild).

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Harassment and Hostility in Management

• There is much interest in the abusive supervision
  phenomenon at work today.
• The phenomenon is very common (78 of all
  interviewed).
• It is defined as the workers perception of the
  manager How the direct supervisors acts are
  perceived as characterized by hostile behavior,
  both verbal and non-verbal. (Can sometimes be
  physical violence).

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Abusive Supervision Questionnaire (Tepper)

• How often/much does my supervisor ( 1-5)
• 1. Ridicule me
• 2. Tell me my thoughts, ideas or feelings are
  stupid
• 3. Gives me the silent treatment
• 4. Puts me down in front of others
• 5. Invades my privacy
• 6. Reminds me of my past mistakes and failures
• 7. Doesn't give me credit for jobs requiring a
  lot of effort

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Abusive Supervision Questionnaire (Continued)

• How often/much does my supervisor
• 8. Blame me in order to save himself/herself
  embarrassment
• 9. Breaks promises he/she makes
• 10. Express anger at me when he/she is mad for
  another reason
• 11. Makes negative comments about me to others
• 12. Is rude to me
• 13. Does not allow me to interact with my
  coworkers
• 14. Tells me I'm incompetent
• 15. Lies to me

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Abuse Supervision Questionnaire (Continued)

• If your overall questionnaire score is over 45,
  you conceive your supervisor to be harassing you
  at work, and to be a hostile supervisor.

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Managerial Implications

• Recognizing that each organization has of
  different manifestations of OMB.
• Willingness to look below the surface.
• Defining relevant behavioral standards and
  instilling them within the organization.
• Detailing a plan for dealing with especially
  pernicious OMB phenomena.
• Understanding that abolishing OMB is neither
  needed nor possible but making OMB less
  pervasive, intense and harmful should be targeted.

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End notes

• There is no absolute truth in organizations.
• Each phenomenon has many causes thus there in no
  one best solution for OMB.
• Think about the following example

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You and Your Boss or organizational hypocracy
When you take a long time, you're slow. When your
boss takes a long time, he's thorough. When
doing something without being told, you're
overstepping your authority. When your boss does
the same thing, that's initiative. When you take
a stand, you're being pig-headed. When your boss
does it, he's being firm. When you overlooked a
rule of etiquette, you're being rude. When your
boss skips a few rules, he's being
original. When you're out of the office, you're
wandering around. When your boss is out of the
office, he's on business. When you're on a day
off sick, you're always sick. When your boss has
a day off sick, he must be very ill.