Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences: Home

Article Title:
An Analysis of the Causes and Impact of Deviant Behaviour in the Workplace. The Case of Secretaries in State Universities
by Vonai Chirasha and Mildred Mahapa

Abstract:
While management in most organisations have shown no interest in managing deviant behaviour as they view it as destructive, research has shown that minor deviant behaviours may extend to high profile scandals that have a negative impact on organisations hence the importance of managing deviant behaviour at workplace. Two universities in Zimbabwe were made use of and due to confidentiality there will be referred to as University A and University B. The research sought to establish the prevalence of production, property and personal deviance at the workplace and the impact they have on organisational performance. Stratified random sampling was employed to come up with a sample size of 60 respondents with 8 being the immediate bosses (management) and the rest were the secretaries. Robonson and Bennets? typology of workplace deviance was used and speculated that the factors contributing to workplace deviance range from interpersonal factors, organisational justice and work place environment. Findings revealed that indeed workplace deviance through its various forms was overt in the universities. The two most common are production and property deviance through leaving early or coming to work, misuse of company property ,use of stationery on personal matters and verbal abuse were common judging from the response. The research concluded that workplace deviance is not a phenomenon to be underestimated as it impacts negatively on both the organisation total output and the individual employee?s moral and motivation. The research recommended that management should be involved and set the tone in supporting ethics programmes to improve organisational culture and conduct of employees in the workplace

Keywords: interpersonal deviance, organisational justice, conducive working environment, production deviance, property deviance.

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