Impact of Organizational Trauma on Workplace Behavior and Performance

Research suggests, according to Branch, Ramsay, and Barker (2013), that a significant number of people are exposed to persistent abusive treatment within the workplace, with the majority of studies within Europe indicating that between 10% and 15% of the workforce are exposed to workplace bullying (Zapf, Escartin, Einarsen, Hoel, & Vartia, 2011), with North American research reporting similar prevalence rates. This is a significant, ongoing dilemma for researchers and practitioners, for which an agreed resolution would be useful because of legal and policy implications. Hence, the purpose of this chapter is on the impact of organizational trauma on workplace behavior and performance based on workplace bullying. The chapter is based on a case study regarding a program that is funded by the Department of Education within a community college in the State of California. The community college is one of four community colleges under the same community college district.

Workplace Perceptions and Workplace Incivility in Egypt

Using a sample of two hundred and ninety two administrative employees from five universities in Egypt completed the survey, the survey response rate was 58.4%, this study examined whether organizational cynicism mediated the effects of workplace perceptions represented in distributive, procedural, interactional justice (DJ, PJ and IJ), perceived organizational support (POS), and Perceived of Psychological Contract Breach (PPCB) on workplace incivility. DJ, PJ, IJ and POS were found to significantly and negatively influence both organization cynicism and workplace incivility. PPCB was found to significantly and positively influence both organization cynicism and workplace incivility. Results from Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) also showed that organizational cynicism partially mediates the relationship among DJ, PJ, IJ, POS, and PPCB and workplace incivility. Implications for research and practice of our findings are discussed.

Managing IT Employee Attitudes that Lead to Turnover

IT staff turnover and low retention rates are costly and contribute to organizational inefficiency. The authors extend the existing literature by investigating whether differences in individual preferences for various job characteristics as well as the ability of organizations to meet employee expectations (person-job fit) affect contentment levels and, consequently, attrition rates. Specifically, they investigate the question, “Does a person-job fit perspective provide more explanatory power with regard to antecedents to turnover among IT professionals than either person or job characteristics alone?” for systems developers. Survey results indicate that a person-job fit perspective does provide more explanatory power for certain job attributes, but not for others. In particular, the relationships between system developers' preferred and actual job levels of social support as well as of job challenge are better indicators of attitudes than actual levels of either attribute alone. However, actual job challenge and actual job stress (as perceived by workers) are, individually, better predictors of employee self-esteem, burnout, and alienation than their respective degrees of fit with employee preferences.

Workplace Spirituality and Transformational Leadership

Workplace spirituality or spirituality in the workplace is about employees search for meaning, purpose, and interconnectedness in the workplace. Similarly, transformational leadership is a leadership style that encourages a higher level of moral maturity and performance standard for followers. In this chapter, through a review of literature and propositional analysis, the authors demonstrate that transformational leadership has the capacity to drive employees towards meaning, purpose, and interconnectedness with the organization's goals and values. Researchers agree that transformational leadership inspires, motivates, and also attempts to connect with followers. Thus, while workplace spirituality is a potent ingredient in the modern workplace, transformational leadership is the driving force that actually transforms the workplace. Thus, the authors conclude by proposing that transformational leadership can potentially encourage and sustain workplace spirituality. Suggestions and recommendations for future empirical research are provided.

Mastering Employee Turnover Intention in the Modern Workforce

This chapter indicates the advanced issues of employee turnover intention; employee turnover intention, job satisfaction, and Human Resource Information System (HRIS); employee turnover intention and job burnout; employee turnover intention and mobbing; employee turnover intention, psychological capital, and work-family conflict; employee turnover intention and job engagement; and employee turnover intention in the health care industry. Turnover intention is a measurement of whether the organization's employees plan to leave their positions or whether that organization plans to remove employees from positions. Employee turnover is a natural part of business in any industry. Replacing employees can affect the organization's productivity, expenses, and overall performance. Understanding the effects of losing a high number of employees serves as a motivator to work toward reducing the employee turnover rate for the higher profits in the modern workforce.

Building an Ethical Culture in the Post-Bureaucratic Era

The purpose of this chapter is to propose a framework for achieving an ethical culture in the post-bureaucratic era. The authors emphasize the necessity of informal dialogue and employee empowerment, and examine the role that personal values have in the post-bureaucratic work environment. Next, this chapter explores the appraisal of personal values and asserts that modern organizations will need similar strategies in order to identify and develop an effective ethical culture. The last portion of this chapter addresses three employee virtues that are helpful in the design and implementation of an ethical culture. Over and above appraising the values of an organization, this chapter provides a modern account for the definition of values and discusses methods for appraising each virtue while also proposing some alternatives for measuring employee loyalty, integrity and perseverance.

Surveillance of Electronic Communications in the Workplace and the Protection of Employees' Privacy

The use of Information and Communication Technologies in the workplace is constantly increasing, but also the use of surveillance technology. Electronic monitoring of employees becomes an integral part of information systems in the workplace. The specific software which is used for monitoring electronic communications is, however, intrusive and infringes upon the employees' right to privacy. The issue of surveillance of employees' electronic communications is subject to different approaches in various jurisdictions. The most comprehensive protection to employees is afforded in the EU, and it would be enhanced once the General Data Protection Regulation is passed.

Information Privacy Concerns and Workplace Surveillance

Consumers' privacy concerns have escalated in parallel with our increasing dependence on technology and its pervasiveness into social and work environments. Many of these concerns emanate from the paradox that is the willingness of consumers to provide personal information in order to achieve a specific outcome, whilst equally harbouring the contradictory desire for such personal information to be treated as private. Although examinations of information privacy have tended to focus on the transaction environment, the computer-mediated work environment has emerged as a new and significant area of concern due to increased awareness of the ways in which technologies are now being used to monitor employee email, Internet interactions, and work productivity. Such surveillance concerns are likely to negatively impact employee morale and consequent productivity. However, little attention has been paid to this issue to date. This chapter examines a number of emerging issues concerning technology-enabled workplace surveillance and considers whether the privacy concerns of employees can be successfully balanced against managements' justification for the employment of such technologies in the workplace. In doing so, it provides a balanced perspective that will be of assistance to academics and practitioners alike in dealing with this emerging and contentious issue.

Workplace Bullying in Digital Environments

Workplace bullying continues to be a prevalent workplace conflict issue in organizations around the world. The organizational reliance of communication technologies and digital media have enabled workplace bullying to evolve into workplace cyberbullying. Workplace bullying impacts individuals, relationships, organizations, and societies. For this reason, this chapter reviewed the transdisciplinary workplace bullying literature to conceptualize key constructs such as workplace bullying and workplace cyberbullying. This chapter also reviews the prevalence of workplace bullying, antecedent behaviors of workplace bullying, the consequences of workplace bullying, and the intervention approaches. Lastly, this chapter offers several recommendations for the future trends of workplace bullying scholarship.

Workplace Incivility as Low-Level Violence

This chapter intends to inform the readers about workplace incivility, which is being rude to one's colleagues, with no apparent intention to harm. It is regarded as the basic level of counterproductive work behavior that might be tremendously injurious to an organization and its members. Not greeting subordinates, making sarcastic grimaces while talking with a coworker, and spreading rumors about the supervisor are few examples to incivility. The progenitors of workplace incivility research are two prominent organizational scientists from the USA, Lynne Andersson and Christine Pearson. They coined this term and published about this concept in a 1999 article. In the 17 years since its introduction, lots of researchers from different countries published about diverse aspects of incivility, its antecedents, consequences, measurement methods and interventions. Since incivility researchers tested myriad theories mainly from psychology, health, and criminology disciplines using both experimental and empirical methods, currently there is a huge accumulation of data.