Title

Sabotage in the workplace: The role of organizational injustice

Authors

Authors

M. L. Ambrose; M. A. Seabright;M. Schminke

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process.

Keywords

UNDERPAYMENT INEQUITY; POTENTIAL CAUSES; EMPLOYEE THEFT; AGGRESSION; JUSTICE; FRUSTRATION; FRAMEWORK; VIOLENCE; BEHAVIOR; FORMS; Psychology, Applied; Management; Psychology, Social

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between injustice and workplace sabotage. Drawing on the organizational justice and workplace deviance literatures, we hypothesize that injustice will be the most common cause of sabotage, and that the source of injustice will influence the goal, target, and severity of sabotage behavior. The results generally support our hypotheses. First, injustice was the most common cause of sabotage. Second, when the source of injustice was interactional, individuals were more likely to engage in retaliation, and when the source of injustice was distributive, individuals were more likely to engage in equity restoration. Third, the source of injustice and the target of sabotage were generally the same, although this relationship was stronger for organizational targets than for individual targets. Finally, there was an additive effect of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice on the severity of sabotage. We discuss the implications of these results for future research on sabotage and deviant workplace behavior. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Volume

89

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2002

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

947

Last Page

965

WOS Identifier

WOS:000178237700008

ISSN

0749-5978

Share

COinS