Psychology News
A team of researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) delved into the psychology of workplace deviance. The study is published in the journal Accounting Forum.
The Study
The researchers explored the perception of managerial control rather than the actual controls used by organizations. They examined data from a survey conducted with 100 hospital employees at three hospitals in Santa Catarina, Brazil.
The participants answered questions about performance management systems, compensation systems, etc.
The Findings
The results revealed that if certain managerial controls appear to be threatening, employees develop dysfunctional and negative responses.
This is called “workplace deviance” and it commonly includes unobservable forms of professional misconduct, such as absenteeism, reducing effort, daydreaming, deliberately turning a blind eye to mistakes, etc.
One of the lead researchers, Dr. Ernesto Lopez-Valeiras, elaborated: “Our study aims to understand how threatening perceptions of those controls affect the behavior of employees in the workplace.”
To Know More You May Refer To
Lopez-Valeiras, E., Gomez-Conde, J., Naranjo-Gil, D., & Malagueño, R. (2022). Employees’ perception of management control systems as a threat: effects on deliberate ignorance and workplace deviance. Accounting Forum, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/01559982.2022.2140500