Corruption, Morale Decadence and Productivity Downturn in the Business World: A Troubled Nation Mirrored in 21st Century Developing Economies

The business world had suffered a lot of decadence in its corporate life notably in the 21st Century. Reportedly, corruption, morale decadence and productivity downturn are some proven challenges inimical to the growth of firms. The situation tends to be more pervasive in consideration of the dwindling economy of many developing nations. Corruption and its dreadful menace have constituted major issues of discourse in the literature of firms and the library of nations. Corruption hurts firms. Poor performing firms relative to corruption suffer morale decadence. Morale decadence and its associated counterproductive work behaviours culminate in productivity downturn. It had permeated many segments of the society, ravaged the corporate scene and left many nations in the travail of financial or economic woes. The principles of morals and leadership ethics have suffered for years. Work morale has deteriorated and productivity has fallen in firms. Illicit acts are noticeable in business institutions. Counter-productive and anti-social work behaviours have characterized a lot of firms in recent times. Budgets and financial records do not only lack the attributes of truth and fairness, but suffer credibility loss and unreliability for years. Institutions and designated authorities (nationally and internationally) have made tremendous effort to fight and exterminate this monstrous canker called corruption from the business environment. Yet, not much is achieved, rather much is required. Productivity downturn has not only caused many firms to collapse, but it has also caused economic recession in nations. This paper attempts to proffer useful inputs in the determination to fight corruption in the business world, recover trust and confidence amongst the members of business communities, heighten employees’ work morale and engender productivity upturn in business institutions.

Curtailing Job Insecurity and Counterproductive Work Behaviours as Bullying Effects in Pakistani Academia: Work Engagement as a Moderator

Judging from persistent changes, drive for performance and widespread uncertainty that characterize the Pakistani higher education system, this study sought to confirm whether workplace bullying – a by-product of relentless change – triggers job insecurity and counterproductive work behaviours in the bullied faculty, and whether these damaging outcomes are moderated by work engagement. Using convenience sampling, we sought data from 337 faculty members from the higher education sector. Analysis confirmed that bullying triggers job insecurity and counterproductive work behaviours while mixed findings emerged for the hypothesized moderation effects of work engagement. The study mainly stresses infusing work engagement within a work environment where bullying prevails. Managers may design jobs to augment engagement in a pressurized work environment with an aim to curtail job insecurity and counterproductive work behaviours for sustained performance in a changing work environment.

Budgetary Systems in Organisations: An Anatomy of Management Views, Employees’ Behaviour and Productivity Trend of 21st Century Firms in a Tropical Nation

The success or failure of any budgetary system depends to a large extent on the management assumptions of human nature (views), employees’ behavior and level of commitment towards productivity. The budgetary system may be non-humanistic (autocratic) or humanistic (participatory). Autocratic budgetary system is synonymous with employees’ negative reactions including counter productive work behaviours while participatory budgetary system is identified with employees’ positive reactions embedded in productive work behaviours. While admitting the proposition that certain settings may require the operation of autocratic budgetary system, this paper holds that available accounting literature on management theories and empirical researches support the assertion: Participatory budgetary system is a panacea; that is, a cure for all the many ills which have been associated with autocratic budgetary system. The unconcerned attitude of enterprise management towards modern theories and researches in budgetary systems and practices, the level of counterproductive work behaviours and some illicit acts in businesses and the environment, the corruption trend in a tropical Nation like Nigeria, productivity downturn and economic depression have posed serious concern. Participatory budgetary system relative to modern management views and motivated work behaviours will boost productivity upturn in Nigerian firms.

Perceived organizational injustice and counterproductive work behaviours: mediated by organizational identification, moderated by discretionary human resource practices

PurposeThis research unpacks the relationship between employees' perceptions of organizational injustice and their counterproductive work behaviour, by detailing a mediating role of organizational identification and a moderating role of discretionary human resource (HR) practices.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses were tested with a sample of employees in Pakistan, collected over three, time-lagged waves.FindingsAn important reason that beliefs about unfair organizational treatment lead to enhanced counterproductive work behaviour is that employees identify less strongly with their employing organization. This mediating role of organizational identification is less salient, however, to the extent that employees can draw from high-quality, discretionary HR practices that promote their professional development and growth.Practical implicationsFor management practitioners, this study pinpoints a key mechanism – the extent to which employees personally identify with their employer – by which beliefs about organizational favouritism can escalate into purposeful efforts to inflict harm on the organization and its members. It also reveals how this risk can be subdued by discretionary practices that actively support employees' careers.Originality/valueThis study adds to previous research by detailing why and when employees' frustrations about favouritism-based organizational decision making may backfire and elicit deviant responses that likely compromise their own organizational standing.

Innovations in human resource management: impact of demographic characteristics, quality of interpersonal relationships on counterproductive work behaviours

This paper describes the selected demographic characteristics as moderators of the impact of the quality of interpersonal relationships at work on counterproductive work behaviours. The main purposes of the research are describing: 1) how interpersonal relationships at work influences the intensity of counterproductive work behaviours; 2) how sex, age, education, length of service and type of job moderate the influence of interpersonal relationships at work on counterproductive work behaviours; 3) how the above-mentioned demographic characteristics influence interpersonal relationships at work and counterproductive work behaviours separately. The studies on the literature indicated that there were no comprehensive research results concerning those problems. The research paper fills a gap in the literature relating to the impact of interpersonal relationships at work on counterproductive work behaviours and the relation to modelling this impact by demographic characteristics of employees (sex, age, education, length of service, type of job). To achieve the study purposes, the author conducted a survey conducted on a sample of 1336 active employees in Poland. The survey period was 2018-2019. The IBM SPSS Statistics and IBM SPSS Amos were used to analyze data. Based on Structural Equation Modelling, it was that:1) interpersonal relationships at work negatively impacted on the intensity of counterproductive work behaviours against another individual; 2) the strength of influence of interpersonal relationships at work on counterproductive work behaviours did not change relevantly in modelling with selected demographic characteristics (sex, age, education, length of service, type of job); 3) only education, current kind of job and service length had a relevant influence on interpersonal relationships at work and counterproductive work behaviours. The research results could be useful for managers. In their activities, managers should systematically monitor interpersonal relationships at work and counterproductive work behaviours taking into account employees' demographic characteristics. In this process, managers should pay particular attention to education, type of current job, and service length.

Religious beliefs as a moderator of the relationships between workplace incivility and counterproductive work behaviours

BACKGROUND: The current work describes the relationship between workplace incivility and counterproductive work behaviours as moderated by religious-inspired ethics. Drawing from conservation of resources theory, we consider workplace incivility a type of workplace stressor draining the cognitive and psychological resources of employees that make them effective and productive. We posit that individuals’ religious beliefs and work ethics based on these beliefs provide resources to employees to counter, balance, or offset the loss of productive psychological resources. OBJECTIVE: We investigate the buffering effects of Islamic work ethics on the relationship between workplace incivility and counterproductive work behaviours. METHODS: The sample includes 251 employees working in the healthcare sector in Pakistan. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analysis was used to explore the relationships between workplace incivility, counterproductive work behaviours and Islamic work ethics. RESULTS: Our study results show that workplace incivility positively covaries with counterproductive work behaviours. However, Islamic work ethics negatively moderate this relationship. CONCLUSION: Theoretically, this study contributes by examining religious beliefs (Islamic work ethics) as a key resource that moderates the relationship between workplace incivility and counterproductive work behaviours. Furthermore, evidence regarding the different impacts of incivility on CWB-I and CWB-O in the Pakistani context agrees with the existing literature.

When workplace bullying spreads workplace deviance through anger and neuroticism

Purpose With a basis in affective events theory, this study aims to investigate the mediating role of anger in the relationship between employees’ exposure to workplace bullying and their engagement in deviant behaviours, as well as the invigorating role of their neuroticism in this process. Design/methodology/approach Three-wave, time-lagged data were collected from employees and their peers in a sample of Pakistani organizations. Findings Workplace bullying spurs interpersonal and organizational deviance because it prompts feelings of anger in employees. This mechanism is more prominent among employees with high levels of neuroticism. Originality/value This study reveals that the experience of anger is a key feature by which bullying behaviours steer employees towards counterproductive work behaviours, and this harmful process is more likely to escalate when employees’ personality makes them more vulnerable to emotional distress.