In the current era, healthcare organizations experience intense competition, increased administrative costs, and lawsuits. As a result, it is very critical for healthcare workers to perform their jobs with utmost efficiency and without distraction. It is clear that deviant workplace tendencies among the healthcare workers threaten the eventual effectiveness of the organization. Consequently, managers must reduce the prevalence of its tendencies by understanding its antecedents. The paper will classify the deviant behavior into two major types: individual and organizational. The individual behavior category will include such aspects as aggression and harassment while organizational behavior category will include sabotage, theft, and deliberate absenteeism. This will be based on the organizational behavior theories Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX) and Perceived Organizational Support (POS) (Bayero University, 2003). On the other hand, the job design aspects will be intrinsic motivation and depersonalization, which will serve as predictors of subsequent deviant behavior. The thesis of the paper is to find out if weaker perceptions of LMX and higher perceptions of depersonalization indicate higher levels of deviant behavior. It will also test if higher perceptions of LMX and lower perceptions of depersonalization mean higher chances of deviant behavior engagement.
Background Information and Factors
Workplace deviance refers to the voluntary behaviors by workers to violate organizational norms. The actions of such workers threaten the welfare of the organization and its members. When it is directed to other workers, it amounts to aggression, gossip, abuse, stealing from co-workers, bullying, and harassment (Simons, Leroy, & Savage, 2013). On the other hand, when deviant behavior is directed to the organization it is done in form of theft, sabotage, lateness, tardiness, the wastefulness of organizational resources, among other aspects. Whatever the form it takes, deviant behavior is costly to the organization. Scholars have reported that the cost amounts to $200billion annually in form of legal defense fees, lost productivity, court settlements, and administration costs (Bayero University, 2003). The impact of deviant behaviors is felt by healthcare managers since the healthcare sector is nowadays driven by the human resources or capital.
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Recent studies reveal that workforce problems are the primary challenges, which face healthcare firms. The high economic demands and financial challenges that are replete in the economy make it even hard for the health firms to lose money in disciplinary actions. Further reports from the Federation of State Medical Boards show that 61, 000 cases of disciplinary action against medical physicians were reported between 1996 and 2007(Borkowski, 2015). There was a 3.7% increase in the prevalence between 2006 and 2007. The same report indicates that there were 65, 000 disciplinary action cases against nurse practitioners and registered nurses during the same span. The increase in deviant behavior in this category between 2006 and 2007 was 4.3 percent. As such, it is pertinent for the healthcare managers to minimize deviant behavior in the healthcare unit. The area is reportedly un-researched despite the adverse effects that it has on the healthcare firms, patients and the general direction of the organizations.
LMX
Studies reveal that how employees perceive their relationships with their leaders affects their attitudes as well as behaviors. It affects their job satisfaction, job performance, and turnover rates. Leader-member-exchange (LMX) is one perception among workers; it is the overall employee perception of their relationships with given leaders or supervisors. A high-quality relationship is one in which the worker perceives emotional support and high trust from their leaders. On the contrary, low-quality relationships are ones where trust levels are low; the workers receive infrequent or low feedback and limited support from their leaders. Further research indicates that leaders treat subordinates based on whether they are in ‘in-groups’ which are composed of obedient workers who can be counted on or out-groups, which are composed of people who hardly volunteer for extra work(Bayero University, 2003). The supportiveness of the leader influences the behavior of the follower according to the social exchange theory. Supportive leaders cause the workers to reciprocate positively; they cause employees to develop good work attitudes and duty performance. However, the opposite is also true since poor perceptions of their leaders also cause poor performance (Borkowski, 2015).
Hypothesis 1 : to find out if when workers perceive lack of trust support and other benefits from their leaders they reciprocate with disruptive and undesirable behaviors in the job. The work will also establish if the people in the out-group expand to the in-group by harassments and bullying to rebel against the inequality at the workplace.
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation refers to the act of deriving satisfaction and pleasure from performing one’s duty. The intrinsically motivated workers perform their duties because they enjoy the work and not because of the benefits, which they derive from the job (Simons, Leroy, & Savage, 2013). Self-determination theory explains how intrinsic motivation influences the behavior of the workers. The theory posits that workers prefer to originate their own behavior than being hostages to other people. Therefore, social contexts, which satisfy the workers need for autonomy and learning, make them intrinsically motivated.
Second Hypothesis of the work will be to discover if workers who report low levels of intrinsic motivation are more likely to engage in deviant behaviors.
Organizational Support
Perceived organizational support (POS) refers to the workers’ global belief concerning the way the firm values their contributions and cares about their welfare. POS is mainly determined by the HRM practices among other factors. Consequently, most organizations have responded by implementing measures that support the well-being of the workers. These include educational programs and recreational activities for the workers (Borkowski, 2015). The perception by scholars is that when workers perceive support from their firms they respond with positive job behaviors (Bayero University, 2003).
The third hypothesis of the study will be to establish if workers with lower POS levels engage in deviant behaviors to harm the organization
The fourth hypothesis will be to find out if workers who report higher levels of depersonalization engage in deviant behaviors in higher dimensions
Who is your customer?
The project’s customers will be the healthcare managers in different health care organizations in America and other sections of the world. The report will offer the group some tips that will reduce the chances of deviant behavior at work. At the same time, the report will also be important to the lot that invests in healthcare facilities as an entrepreneurial practice. Following the finding of the report, they will know that best way to manage human resource within their firms. At the same time, the report will be important to the public health facilities, which now faces ample competition from the private sector. The managers or public officers in charge of the facilities will use the report to reform their sectors.
What is the significance of the project to the customer?
As earlier mentioned, there is ample competition in the healthcare market, and only the best can survive. At the same time, numerous lawsuits are made against the healthcare organizations by their unsatisfied customers and sometimes employees. As a result, it is vital for the companies to understand how best to maintain low levels of deviant behaviors, which cost the firms millions of money (Borkowski, 2015). Through studying and understanding the content and findings of the report, the audience will put in the stringent measures and seal all the loopholes that could lead to the downfall of their organizations.
What are the local, national, and global impacts of this project?
The project finding will have a positive local, national, and global impact since the health care managers will have a better understanding of the factors that contribute to deviant behaviors among the workers. Consequently, they will employ measures and standards, which result to higher motivation and productivity among the employees (Bayero University, 2003). As a result, the health sector will lose less money in form of losses resulting from workers’ deviant activities. Additionally, patients will be served better and the satisfaction levels among all stakeholders will be high.
What standards and guidelines must be addressed in the delivery of your project?
When conducting the research, the samples will be drawn from only people who give us their consent. Additionally, the utmost privacy of the participants will be observed as no names will be mentioned or written in the surveys. The sample will also be unbiased and diverse.
Lastly, the research will also offer control measures for such factors as gender, age, and tenure.
How do you believe this project will help your future professional practice?
The project results will help my career since I intend to work in the management departments of the health sector. The findings of this research will be applied in my work and will be provided to my other colleagues. Therefore, the project will affect the organizations and all their stakeholders positively.
Project Details
In the project, I will research how the workers' perception of leadership and management as well as job designs predict the deviant behavior. The large healthcare unit identified will mainly be studied continually for a span of one year
Method
I will choose an organization that has over 5000 workers, and data will be provided by the departments there. I will use an employee opinion survey as well as personal files information. The opinion survey will provide data concerning the employee attitudes. The deviant employee data will be drawn from the HRM department over one year span. Their personal files will also show their deviant behaviors as reported in our system. On the other hand, Independent variables such as LMX will be measured by use of LMX-7, which is a seven-item tool, used to measure exchange relationships between leaders and followers (Bayero University, 2003).
References
Bayero University. (2003). Bayero business review . Kano, Nigeria: Dept. of Business Administration, Bayero University.
Borkowski, N. (2015). Organizational Behavior Theory and Design in Health Care . Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.
Gagné, M. (2014). The Oxford handbook of work engagement, motivation, and self-determination theory .
Simons, T., Leroy, H., & Savage, G. T. (2013). Leading in health care organizations: Improving safety, satisfaction, and financial performance . Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Pub. Ltd.
