Effect of organizational factors on employee deviant behaviors evidence from service sector companies in vietnam

Internal Virtual Community Participation as a moderator in the relationship between organizational factor and employee deviance behaviors .19 2.4.. The results show that Likelihood of de

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN DANH VIET

EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL

FACTORS ON EMPLOYEE DEVIANT BEHAVIORS: EVIDENCE FROM SERVICE SECTOR COMPANIES IN VIETNAM

MASTER’S THESIS

Hanoi, 2020

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN DANH VIET

EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL

FACTORS ON EMPLOYEE DEVIANT BEHAVIORS: EVIDENCE FROM SERVICE SECTOR COMPANIES IN VIETNAM

MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

CODE: 8340101.01

RESEARCH SUPERVISORS:

Dr TRAN THI BICH HANH Prof Dr DANIEL ARTURO HELLER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Research questions and research objectives 3

1.3 Organization of the thesis 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 A theoretical background on unethical behavior 5

2.2 Workplace Deviance 6

2.2 Organizational factors 10

2.3 Hypothesizes development 12

2.3.1 Code of conduct and deviant behaviors 12

2.3.2 Social norms and deviant behaviors 13

2.3.3 Unethical leadership and deviant behaviors 14

2.3.4 Performance pressure and deviant behaviors 16

2.3.5 Likelihood of Detection and deviant behaviors 18

2.3.6 Internal Virtual Community Participation as a moderator in the relationship between organizational factor and employee deviance behaviors 19 2.4 Research model 21

CHAPTER 3: METHOD 23

3.1 Sample 23

3.2 Procedure and Data Analysis 24

3.3 Measures 26

3.3.1 Deviance behaviors 26

3.3.2 Code of conduct 26

3.3.3 Social norms 26

3.3.4 Unethical leadership 26

3.3.5 Performance pressure 27

3.3.6 Likelihood of Detection 27

3.3.7 Internal Virtual Community Participation 27

CHAPTER 4 RESULT 28

4.1 Reliability test 28

4.2 Exploratory factor analysis 29

4.3 Regression analysis 31

4.4 Moderating Effect 34

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION 37

5.1 Conclusion 37

5.2 Implications 39

5.3 Limitations and future research direction 42

REFERENCES 44

APPENDIXES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The academic life in VJU was exciting with friends and supportive people around

To complete this essay, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor

Dr Tran Thi Bich Hanh, and co-supervisor, Prof Daniel Arturo Heller Their tireless support has been a massive motivator for me to complete this study

I sincerely thank all VJU staff for providing me an opportunity to do the research and review it

Finally, I wish all my friends and my teachers have a lot of joy in their way

Yours sincerely,

Nguyen Danh Viet

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to point out the organization factors that affect the deviant behaviors and the impact of Internal Virtual Community Participation in those relationships from service organizations in Vietnam

The study focuses on two types of employee’s deviant behaviors: interpersonal deviance and organizational deviance Self-report data was collected among 174 employees of some Vietnam services company through an online survey Correlational and moderated regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses The results show that Likelihood of detection (L) is the most critical factor that impacts both Interpersonal and Organizational Deviance, which is followed by Code

of Conduct (C), Social Norms (S), Unethical Leadership (U) According to the research results, the minimum impactful factor toward Interpersonal Deviance (ID)

is Code of Conduct (C), and the least impactful factor toward Organizational Deviance (OD) is Unethical Leadership (U) And Performance Pressure (P) fails to support the hypothesis Finally, the moderating effect is not significant Future research directions and practical implications for organizational settings are addressed in the last chapter

Keywords: Unethical behaviors, workplace deviances, business ethics,

organizational factors, internal virtual communication participation

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Measures of misconduct behaviors……… 8

Table 2.3 Literature on outcomes of unethical leadership on employee… 17 Table 2.4 Summarizes some studies on the influence of Unethical leadership to subordinate behaviors………

17 Table 3.1 Demographic data……… 26

Table 4.1 Coefficient α reliabilities result……… 30

Table 4.2 KMO and Bartlett’s Test……… 31

Table 4.3 Rotated Component Matrix (N = 174)……… 32

Table 4.4 Correlation and descriptive result……… 33

Table 4.5 Coefficients for the sample for Deviant behaviors toward Interpersonal misconduct 34 Table 4.6 Coefficients for the sample for Deviant behaviors toward Organizational misconduct 35 Table 4.7 Conditional indirect effect of Unethical Leadership (U) on Interpersonal Deviance (ID) at Internal Virtual Community Participation (V) 35 Table 4.8 Moderating effect……… 38

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Typology of deviant behaviors at workplace……… 10 Figure 2.2 Categories of influences on individual decision-making process 11 Figure 2.3 Research model ……… 24 Figure 4.1 Research moderation model……… 36 Figure 4.2 Statistical diagram of moderating effect……… 36

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

In the early years of the 21st century witnessed a series of scandals in the unethical behaviors’ issue Many of the biggest corporations is a typical example of the collapse

of the company after those scandals came to light Some giants like WorldCom, Tyco, and Lehman Brothers collapsed after those scandals were leaked out

The financial loss is noticeable; the value of securities instantly falls dramatically The stock market response is almost immediately after the scandal events are revealed According to a statistic of 23 primary cases of business scandals (see: appendix C) links with corporate governance problems in the period 2000 - 2010, the total market capitalization loss estimated by $751 billion, of which 16 cases in total 23 were confirmed linking to fraud (accounting for 70% case) and total company's market capitalization decreased by $369 billion (da Silveira, 2012) More recently, there was

a scandal of formal chairman of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn Nissan has been in turmoil after Carlos Ghosn was detained in Tokyo The first time in 11 consecutive years, Nissan recorded a full-year $ 6.2 billion loss in its 2020 financial report Those issue

of ethics at the workplace is an attractive topic to be concerned, especially for deviant behavior Misconduct behavior clearly has many adverse outcomes for an organization as also confirmed by researchers; Workplace deviance like many other unethical behaviors seems to have a further impact on customers (Babin, Boles, & Robin, 2000; Gilbert, 2003) Deviant workplace behaviors become a problem that many businesses have noticed because of its consequences for branding, firm performance, which in turn will increase financial risk and cost (Thomas, Schermerhorn, & Dienhart, 2011; Henle, 2005) In the long-term period, negative effects result from this behavior will damage the competitive strength of the firms Therefore, businesses need to have a full awareness of this issue Vietnam's economy

is growing; the lessons drawn from the predecessor is a way to shorten the

has increasingly accounted for a higher share of the Vietnamese economy According

to the Vietnamese Ministry of Social Labor, by 2018, the service sector will bring 3.6 million new jobs and accounted for 41% GDP contribution In consideration of ethical issues, this study explores the effect of organizational factors toward deviant outcomes in the context of service firms The increase in foreign investment and following is the fierce competition in both domestic and international markets, which motivates the Vietnam businesses to improve their competitiveness Improving the corporate environment is also a part of the organization’s sustainable development The Government of Vietnam currently has highly responsive in improving the business environment and national competitiveness The Government released Resolution No 02/NQ-CP on responsibilities to enhance the business climate and the national competitiveness Accompanying with these goals, businesses and organizations also need to actively participate in the process of improving their working environment, thereby promoting labor productivity and competitiveness

In addition, advancements in information technology have changed the way people interact with others In a complex project environment, teams member face multi-dimensional communication problems that can ultimately lead to project breakdown Team Performance varies in Face-to-Face environment versus groups working remotely in a computer-mediated communication environment A virtual community

is considered a cost-effective tool and ability to boots the connections among members in the community But there has not much research into the process of participating in these virtual communities that affecting the relationships among team members and affecting the process of making unethical decisions This thesis discusses the applicability of Virtual community and in a virtual space It also offers the concept of Virtual community commitment as a primary outcome of participation

in a community Using self-report, this research applies a deductive method to examine the role of the firm “ethical infrastructure” contain: ethical Code of conduct, norms, Likelihood of detection, performance pressure, and unethical leadership to the deviant behaviors at workplace By underlines the importance of understanding those firm ethical infrastructure factors, we could explain which factors motivate or minimizes destructive behaviors Indeed, the ultimate result cut down the financial losses, social and psychological expenses for the firm Additionally, this research test

if higher levels of participation in an Internal virtual community translate to higher levels of members' perceived ethical outcomes, in turn, lower their unethical behaviors How participation behavior in an online community evolves to attachment towards ethical behaviors?

1.2 Research questions and research objectives

Through all of the rational, this thesis derives the research questions:

1 What are the vital organizational factors that have an effect on the deviant behaviors of employees in service organizations in Vietnam?

2 Does Internal Virtual Community Participation (IVCP) moderates the effect

of Organizational factors on the workplace deviant behaviors of the employee?

To answer the research questions above, the author proposes research objectives:

1 Identifying the vital factors that impact the deviant behaviors of employees at service organizations in Vietnam

2 Evaluating the moderating effect of Internal virtual community participation

on the relationship between organizational factors and employee’s deviant behaviors

3 The research result will support decision-makers in concentrating on critical factors while considering the outcome of deviant behaviors

The scope of this study: This study wants to evaluate a relationship between

organizational factors to employee's standard deviated behavior

The survey was conducted in Vietnam, and data were collected from 2019/04/11 to 04/30 Respondents were those who are working in the service sector in Vietnam

1.3 Organization of the thesis

Chapter 1 introduces the reason for choosing this research and presents a review of the research’s framework

Chapter 2 will systemize the literature on organizational factors and unethical

Data analysis and test of research results are conducted in Chapter 4

The last chapter concludes the research results through these results, evaluating the

overall objective of the topic, proposing suggestions for future research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 A theoretical background on unethical behavior

There has been much research about the factors influencing the decision making unethical behaviors The first part of chapter two will review some of the theoretical foundations to analyze the factors that affect unethical behaviors in general and deviant behavior in particular

Social learning theory: Bandura highlights the importance of perceiving and copying the attitudes and behaviors of others Bandura (1977) showed that “Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” Individual behavior can be built upon learning through observation or instruction A critical factor in Social Learning Theory is the notion of a reciprocal relationship This concept affirms that the environment shapes an individual's behavior and is also affected by the individual's behavior Three components: environment, behavior, and individuals cognitive all together jointly reinforce each other

Rational Choice Theory: This theory states that individuals are rational makers and behave according to the potential risks and potential returns inherent in a decision (Michaels & Miethe, 1989) Each individual evaluates the degree of reward and punishment They will weigh the benefits and costs of their behaviors to decide which action to take (Buckley, Wiese, & Harvey, 1998)

decision-Deterrence Theory: This theory shows that dishonest acts will be significantly reduced if the members perceive a considerable deterrence for their wrongdoing The higher the detection possibility, the lower the frequency of unethical behaviors Social Bond Theory: This theory predicted that an individual detached from social connections is the cause of emerging misconduct behaviors In a group or community, the behavior is considered "Normal" when all the members accept and comply When

he or she will tend to take actions that are not socially acceptable, or in other words, deviant behaviors

Self-Protection mechanism: Shu, Gino, & Bazerman (2011) define cheating as an act that gains a particular benefit for her or himself but ignores the rules and norms; this behavior may harm others' interests Moreover, this is not an accidental action but intentional action In order to ensure their interests, actors may disregard the rules to maximize their interests Performance pressure is assessed as a salient threat to employees' interests, creating a counter-reaction to protect themselves from losses (Wang & Murnighan, 2011) The Performance pressure imposes on employees a target when the target cannot be performed, or the pressure is too high, the Self-protection mechanism is activated to protect their interests

Virtual community: A virtual community is a social group of people with common interests that communicate with each other with the help of information and communication technologies Using technology, this community creates a virtual bridge that connects people through a virtual world Howard Rheingold, who set a foundation for virtual community research, shows that Virtual community creates an environment in which “speeded-up social evolution”(Rheingold, 2000) Virtual communities have and will continue to have a dramatic impact on communication Some virtual communities encourage the improvement of the ethical environment, empowering in-group reformation, and restriction for violating group standards Moreover, some virtual communities spread activities that harm the interests of its members or outsiders Virtual communities have and will remain to have a considerable influence on perceive of individual toward ethical or unethical behaviors Some virtual communities encourage the improvement of the ethical environment, empowering in-group reformation, and restriction for violating group standards Moreover, some virtual communities spread activities that harm the interests of its members or outsiders (Parsell, 2008)

2.2 Workplace Deviance

Workplace deviance or counterproductive work behaviors, also called workplace incivility or antisocial work behaviors, affects almost all businesses (Case, 2000; Coffin, 2003), many antecedent studies suggesting that the more than half of employees have involved in at least one type of deviant behavior (Slora, 1989; Harper,

1990; Bennett & Robinson, 2000; Harris & Ogbonna, 2002) Deviant behaviors cost the organization, that has been measured to be rather remarkable, with approximation being in millions US Dollar for US companies annually (Case, 2000; Harris & Ogbonna, 2006; Murphy, 1993) Deviant behaviors at the workplace are defined by Robinson and Bennett, 1995 as “voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of an organization, its members, or both.”

In the field of organizational behavior, a lot of behaviors are classified as organizational misconduct Many researchers have independent evaluations and give different names for these behaviors, but they all have the same characteristics, somehow damages the benefits of the organization by series negative action (Martinko, Gundlach, & Douglas, 2002; Sackett & Devore, 2012) Numerous construct is similar, overlap, and sub-labels have reproduced Table 2.1 summarizes several studies of deviance-related behaviors

Ethical behavior is defined by social science in order to understand the behavior of each individual that is judged base on the widely-accepted moral standards of the whole community That standard is a benchmark for every member of a community This concept completely coincides with the idea of Bennett & Robinson (2003) about deviance behavior, that “assumes some kind of norm or rule violation With deviance, the rule or norm is regularly considered to be an organizational rule, and in many cases, organizational norms harmonize with social norms” (Greenberg, 1990) Therefore, the research of counter-normative behavior may also be considered similar

to these fields of study

In summarize, this definition of misconduct can be outlined as follows: “Voluntary employee behaviors that are viewed by the organization as contrary to its legitimate interests, violate significant organizational norms, and threaten the well-being of the organization or its members Also includes interpersonal (e.g., violence, gossip) and organizational target (e.g., working slowly, damaging company property) dimensions”

Table 2.1 Measures of misconduct behaviors

Researcher Name Survey design Items

(Bennett &

Robinson,

2000)

Workplace Deviance Scale

Self-report 12 items of interpersonal

deviance

7 items of Organizational deviance

(Robinson &

O’Leary-Kelly, 1998)

Antisocial behavior

Self-report 9 items of individual

and 9 items Group antisocial behaviors (Ball, Trevino,

& Sims Jr,

1994)

Anti-citizenship behavior

Interview 12 items work-related

output including defiance, physical avoidance of or escape from work, hostility, resistance to authority, individual, and revenge

Self-report 45 items in five

dimensions of deviance: abuse, sabotage,

production, theft, and withdrawal

Aquino et al

(1999)

Workplace deviance

Self-report 15-items measure of

organizational and interpersonal deviance Stewart et al

(2009)

Workplace Deviance scale

other-report 15-items

According to research by Robinson & Bennett (1995), workplace deviance is divided into two dimensions (see figure 2.1) One measurement is based on the intensity of the behavior, and the other is based on the target of the behavior They apply multi-dimensional scaling analysis the typology of workplace deviance as follows:

Intensity: This dimension refers to the severity of misconduct behavior from mirror

to serious Personal aggression and Poverty deviance which considers as a serious

violation act and thus is seen as more likely damaging to the company and its members The minor form includes such behaviors as social loafing, absenteeism, or showing favoritism

Target: This dimension determines whether the action is directed toward the organization or its member

Figure 2.1: Typology of deviant behaviors at the workplace

Source: Robinson & Bennett, 1995

Table 2.1 summarizes the types of workplace deviance according to the theory of Bennet and Robinson The forms of deviant behavior are expressed in many different ways and levels

2.2 Organizational factors

The popular approach here is to consider recent theory and empirical research that addresses the influence of individual cognition and organizational context on the cognitive process of decision-making (see Figure 2.2)

Figure 2.2 Categories of influences on the individual decision-making process

Source: Trevino et al, p 953

Trevino and colleagues suggest the approach analyze recent both empirical and theoretical study that addresses individual and contextual have an impact on processes of ethical decision-making of individual (see Figure 2.2) Rest (1986) introduced the four-component analysis, including four stages: “moral awareness, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral behavior.” This mechanism is more likely in the field of psychological, rather than the organizational area of study (Treviño et al., 2006) Therefore, within the scope of this study, my thesis is designed

to focus on the problem of misconduct behaviors, which is influenced by organizational factor, and subtract individual factors

Due to pressure from legal and regulation, many large companies have applied various efforts to implement policies and programs to promote ethical behavior

among company members (Weaver et al., 1999) These “ethical infrastructures” (Tenbrunsel et al., 2003) “contain both formal and informal elements: ethics codes and policies, communications, training, monitoring systems, sanctions, and rewards

on the formal side, and attention to ethical climates and organizational cultures on the informal side.”

Many factors in the organizational environment have been shown to be related to ethical behaviors in the organization There is a clear link between work pressure related to unethical behavior (Robertson & Rymon, 2001) “Unmet organizationally defined goals also contribute to unethical behavior, even in the case of goals that involve no tangible economic benefits, and especially in situations when individuals are just slightly removed from the achievement of a goal” (Schweitzer et al., 2004) Studies also indicate a role-conflict is also a cause for immoral behavior Grover (1993, 2008) study discovered the behavior of nurses dealing with role-conflicts by turning to unethical acts Lying was an example

In addition, Weaver et al (2005) pointed out that many elements of one’s role person can make others consider it as a moral standard, and standardized its and applied to their behaviors

In order to better understand these complex mechanisms, this thesis will take a closer look at some aspects of the organization's factors in the next sections The limitation

of this study will only focus on analyzing the following factors: Code of conduct, Likelihood of detection, Social norm, Unethical leadership, and Performance pressure

2.3 Hypothesizes development

2.3.1 Code of conduct and deviant behaviors

A business code of ethics and conducts can be defined in M S Schwartz (2002) study

as “a written, distinct, formal document which consists of moral standards which help guide employees or corporate behavior” Business codes of ethics and conduct, also called codes of conduct are official tools to govern the behavior of the individual in

a company, Codes of conduct, and ethics are important to the professional organization Business codes of conduct present critical direction that is used to monitor subordinates’ actions and many business firms build these codes of ethics as

a general tool to guide employee behavior (Benson, 1989) Codes of conduct can affect workers’ actions with respect to moral issues (Treviño & Nelson, 2011; Weaver, 1995)

A good code of conduct will be a reliable instrumental in encouraging employees to act ethically “Corporations can be held legally responsible for the actions of their employees, and managers enact codes to guide individual behavior and to protect the corporation from any potentially illegal or unethical behavior by employees” (Adams, Tashchian, & Shore, 2001)

Loe, Ferrell, & Mansfield (2013) determined 17 practical academic works that analyzed the connection between ethical codes of conduct and moral outcomes Most obtained experimental results indicate positive relationships In addition, 19 empirical studies of M Schwartz (2001) confirm the relationship between them But only nine results showed positive relations Studies show that the Code of conduct alone often does not has significant results on individual behaviors In the study of Trevino et al., (1999) compared the informal elements such as cultural and leadership with the role of typical elements of ethics infrastructures, such as corporate codes of conduct and ethics, the impact of Code seems to be minimal “Reasons for the gap between practice and policy was grounded in 5 reasons, suggested by Webley, S & Werner, A (2008) including (1) Inadequate codes of ethics; (2) Lack of embedding; (3) Lack of commitment of top management; (4) Pressure to meet targets; (5) Fear of retaliation.”

Although the correlation has been confirmed in many academic studies, there is still

a lot of skepticism about the degree of relationship between the Code of conduct tool

and individual behavior (Valentine & Barnett, 2003) Likewise, M Schwartz (2001) considers the exact connection between ethical codes and individual behavior as a black box Recognizing the possible dispute between the individuals’ and organization’s ethical standards could be one approach for opening this box Likewise,

M Schwartz (2001) identified that Ethical Code has two major influences on employee behavior: (1) formalizing behavior and (2) changing corporate culture The presence of ethical codes emphasizes the moral orientation of the organization Fritz et al (1999) That means the leadership interest in the ethical environment of the company Especially a moral code also has symbolic meaning for the company’s image It also contributes to the brand of the organization the absence of a moral code will send a message to employees that top management does not really care about the morality and therefore, employees do not need to pay too much attention to complying with vague standards (Adams et al., 2001)

In considering all the reviews, the hypotheses will be:

Hypothesis 1a: The Code of conduct has a negative impact on employee interpersonal deviance behaviors

Hypothesis 1b: The Code of conduct has a negative impact on employee organizational deviance behaviors

2.3.2 Social norms and deviant behaviors

All organizations have a social standard—a standard accepted by all members, and orient the behavior of members in that organization Norm also has an impact on individual behavior Different organizations and communities have different ethical standards As a community member, the norms will be invisible or tangible put pressure on individuals, which oriented their attitudes and behaviors that do not violate the group’s standards Along with formal institutions like rules or formal business code, Social norms are an important tool for social control, norms create a compliance environment for people to socialize in the society in which they connect

that an organization with strong institutions to ensure compliance with social norms will reduce misconduct

As mentioned above, social norms affect the behavior of individuals in working behavior Deng (2013) investigated the influence of social norms on moral buying intention and presumed that organization and individual norms positively impacted consumers’ ethical buying intentions

In the study of tax compliance, Bobek, Hageman, & Kelliher (2013) pointed out that the norm also positively affects the behavior of complying with tax regulations So, within the entrepreneurial venture Norms of ethical practice in the organization's context would enhance employees’ ethical actions, thereby reducing their wrongful intentions

In consider all the reviews, the hypotheses will be:

Hypothesis 2a: Social norms has a negative impact on employees’ interpersonal

deviance behaviors

Hypothesis 2b: Social norms has a negative impact on employees’ organizational

deviance behaviors

2.3.3 Unethical leadership and deviant behaviors

Jones,1991) defined :“Unethical behavior involves acts that are illegal and/or are morally inappropriate to larger society” (Jones, 1991) Many research has revealed a diversity of unethical leader acts Numerous terms have developed in the literature, such as toxic leadership (Frost, 2004), abusive supervision (Tepper, 2000), tyrannical leadership (B Ashforth, 1994), and supervisor undermining (Duffy, Ganster, & Pagon, 2002) These studies show that leaders are offensive, oppressive, machiavellian, calculatingly undermining, and manipulative behaviors, their actions are regarded as intentional and dangerous, and it is the source of action against the benefit of companies (Tepper, Moss, Lockhart, & Carr, 2007) Hence, all of these behaviors are considers as unethical

The unethical behaviors of the leaders have a more significant influence and are serious In the case of seeking performance goals, a leader can encourage fraud and unethical acts of employees A leader can indirectly participate in a sinful action by neglecting, rewarding, or ignoring the mistakes of subordinates (Brief, Buttram, & Dukerich, 2001; B E Ashforth & Anand, 2003); In the Sims & Brinkmann, (2002)

study, the results indicate that the leader who reward short-term results, the destructive and Machiavellian behavior model, does not take actions to punish wrongdoing behaviors, even create opportunities for individuals who have like-minded misconduct

Table 2.3 The literature on outcomes of unethical leadership on employees

(Tepper, 2000; Tepper et al., 2008) Negatively affects subordinates’ attitudes (Harris et al.,2007; Zellers et al., 2002) Task and extra-role play

(Tepper et al., 2001), Defensive behaviors

(Ferguson et al., 2009) Personal life

Deviant and unethical work behavior among

standards and those that impose processes and structures that promote unethical conduct by followers” (Brown & Mitchell, 2017)

Like studies on ethical behavior, social learning theory is a popular model to explain motivations that promote unethical behavior This theory was developed by Bandura, (1978) Many theories extended later, such as social information processing theory

by (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978), and script theory by Gioia, (2013)

According to this theory, employees learn behaviors from the influencer, whether it’s good or bad behavior Subordinate often considers a key person as a role model to learn and considers it a standard for their behavior

Brief, Buttram, & Dukerich, (2001) point out that leaders with some legitimate, powerful tools and sanctions ability can impose the subordinates involved in unethical behavior Many studies validate these discussions and show that unethical leadership contributes a foundation of behaviors that affect the subordinate decision-making process (Baumhart, 1961; Brenner & Molander, 1977; Detert, Treviño, & Sweitzer, 2008)

The damage of leadership behavior is obvious in literature and practice Enron and WorldCom are an excellent example of how some leading individuals can ruin the operation of a large corporation Detert et al (2008) pointed out that misleading behaviors such as low productivity, risen absenteeism, misrepresentation of health care expenses cost U.S companies billions of dollars a year

In addition, the effect of unethical leadership clearly has an impact on the behavior

of employees, and in consider all the reviews, the hypotheses will be:

Hypothesis 3a: Unethical leadership has a positive impact on interpersonal deviance Hypothesis 3b: Unethical leadership has a positive impact on organizational deviance

2.3.4 Performance pressure and deviant behaviors

The pressure is the subjective experience of “any factor or combination of factors that increase the importance of performing well” (Baumeister, 1984, p 610) Many research described performance pressure as a factor in the process of creating stress ( Lazarus, 2016; Gutnick, et al., 2012) Work-related pressure also has an effect on the attitudes of individuals; when employees recognize a job-performance gap, they have the intention to raise their dedication to fill the gap (Gardner, 2012)

Much research has theorized that several factors within the bound of workplace increase self-interested tendencies that encourage unethical acts (Moore & Loewenstein, 2004; Linda K Trevino, Den Nieuwenboer, & Kish-Gephart, 2014) Wang & Murnighan (2011) suggested that companies could generate self-interested and wrongful conduct by heightening workers’ need for self-defense

Self-protection makes employees overshadow the moral sense of their actions These discussions imply that work environment may likely be incidentally motivating workplace cheating; fraudulent acts create great financial and reputable consequences for the organization

There are many studies on Self-Protection Mechanisms to explain misconduct

“Unethical conduct is likely to occur if the work environment promotes self-interest and, particularly, employees’ need for self-protection” (Wang & Murnighan, 2011) The basic principle of personal interests is an incentive to protect themselves Cheating or fraud is used to protect itself and tried to get as many benefits for them

as possible Williamson, 1984 pointed out that individuals are dominated by interest obtain a “take advantage of the other person before they take advantage of you” mindset The mechanisms to protect themselves from threats to their own interests that is human instinct (B Schwartz, 1986)

self-“The relationship of employees with their companies is an exchange relationship, in which employees are obligated to contribute excellent performance, in return, the company returns the benefits by paying wages, insurance, and welfare” (Cropanzano

& Mitchell, 2005)

Requiring employees to work with high performance is legitimate for the employer

In a positive way, work pressure encourages employees to work harder, and be more creative, to create a competitive and favorable environment for the organization (Rousseau, 2002; Sitkin et al., 2011) Yet, as organizations expand requirements to boost performance, workers may feel extreme pressure as they recognize that enhancing their performance is needed, because of employers justify that the

social etiquette and norms of appropriate interaction” (Robinson, 2008) In this study, Performance pressure has a positive impact on incivility behaviors

Hypothesis 4a: Performance pressure has a positive impact on employees’ organizational deviance behaviors

Hypothesis 4b: Performance pressure has a positive impact on employees’ organizational deviance behaviors

2.3.5 Likelihood of Detection and deviant behaviors

Number of research has stated that if an organization has a high level of the Likelihood of being caught and the severity of the penalty for the violation, unethical behaviors in general or deviant behaviors, in particular, will be inhibited or deterred The risk of detection was varied inversely the cheating behaviors (Leming, 1980; Steininger et al., 1964; Tittle & Rowe, 2012) Andenaes (2006) recommended that sanctions are likely to be permanently featured for subjective norms or policies that lack ethical support In addition, the threat of being caught and punished also was a vital inhibition in misconduct action among undergraduate students (Tittle & Rowe, 2012)

Rewards and penalties have proven to have an impact on moral conduct Michaels and Miethe (1989) found that the perceived severity of punishment was inversely correlated with unethical acts Many scientific studies have shown rewards and incentives as a motivation to increase unethical behavior (Trevino & Youngblood, 1990; Ashkanasy et al., 2006; Tenbrunsel, 1998; Hegarty & Sims, 1978;)

Every individual act as if comparing costs against benefits to arrive at action that maximizes their advantage This is the basic concept of Rational Choice Theory, also known as Rational Action theory or Choice Theory This theory states that “everyone

is rational, behaving and making decisions incompliant with the relationship between the uncertainty outcome and benefit of a situation.” (Michaels & Miethe, 1989)

If employees are awarded being observed by everyone in the organization, they tend

to comply with the rules of the company and enhance their job performance If the individual is aware of being caught and punished, they will adjust their behavior in conformity with the company’s regulations Strict monitoring systems will have the effect of correcting employee ethical decisions in a positive direction, whereas the ineffective monitoring policy increases the incentive for misconduct This approach

of Rational Choice Theory to researching unethical behavior was first proposed by economists and approached the issue by examining the perceived probabilities and magnitudes of both rewards and punishments (Michaels & Miethe, 1989; Piliavin, Gartner, Thornton, & Matsueda, 2006) This theory states that individuals are rational decision-makers and behave according to the potential risks and potential returns inherent in a decision The decision to engage in unethical behavior is a cost/benefit function, which is rationally determined by the individual, who weighs the positive and negative aspects that could transpire from making a decision Vitro & Schoer, (1972) found that cheating occurred most often when there was a low probability of test success and low risk of detection

Therefore, it is hypothesized that:

Hypothesis 5a: Likelihood of detection has a negative impact on employees’ organizational deviance behaviors

Hypothesis 5b: Likelihood of detection has a negative impact on employees’ organizational deviance behaviors

2.3.6 Internal Virtual Community Participation as a moderator in the

relationship between organizational factor and employee deviance behaviors

Virtual communication

Teamwork has changed with the support of technology Online communication help members communicate with each other regardless of time and geographical location instead of face-to-face, email replaced hard-paper, e-stamp, or electronic signatures significantly reduced ton of paperwork At first glance, those paperwork does not seem significant, but these are the things that obstruct the work progress However,

it is an indispensable step in the work process, revolution in working methods in Industry 4.0 era also does not remove these procedures but only improves and compress it with the help of technology Today an online discussion forum, acts as the “hub” in the centralized communication network; simultaneously, through chats

technology allows and empowers the team’s productivity by virtual communication networks where members can always be online with one another and linked with a central database Teamwork can do in both physical and virtual with computer-mediated communication software Beside the traditional communication methods, gradually, companies begin to switch to new ways of communication such as online meetings, working online, flexible working hours, or decision approving by email.“The application of this type of communication is more entrenched in a virtual environment because this is the only source available to geographically dispersed teams for the exchange of information.”

The role of interaction contribution behavior

Obviously, the attitude and behavior of each individual at work have an impact on the process of awareness of ethical behaviors, and the Zey-Ferrell & Ferrell (1982) research indicates that with the frequency and strength of interaction with peers making that impact stronger This discovery establishes the foundation for efforts to understand moral practice with regard to social networks at work (Brass, Butterfield,

& Skaggs, 1998) The environment that has a certain level of collaboration, trust, intimacy, and understanding between each other will have a high level of interaction, and each party will have appropriate conduct and trust to the other A constant level

of interaction and trust will strengthen the relationship between the parties This makes each individual consider to behave ethically because the payoff will be much higher than in the case of the connection is weak Trust grows slow and takes time The quality of the relationship will increase the cost and disincentive of misconduct behaviors (Granovetter, 1973)

Dholakia et al (2004) found that virtual community is “moderator influencing the reasons why members participate, and the strengths of their impacts on group norms and social identity The finding that social benefits, such as maintaining interpersonal connectivity and social enhancement by actively involved in a virtual community.” From these assessments, individuals who actively participate in the team online community will be expected to lessen their destructive behaviors

Hypothesis: Internal Virtual Community Participation has a moderating effect on the relationship between Organizational Factor and Deviance at the workplace The

impact of the Organization factors effect will be stronger when the Internal Virtual Community Participation is strong rather than weak

2.4 Research model

The conceptual framework in this research provided a basis for understanding the influence of some organizational factors on the misconduct behaviors of employees inorganizationn, in the context of Vietnam service company

The independent variable that the study takes into account is the organizational factor, including Code of conduct, Social norms, Likelihood of detection, Unethical leadership, and Performance pressure

The dependent variable is two dimensions of deviance behaviors: Interpersonal and Organizational Deviance

The variable chosen as the moderator for the relationship between the behavior and organizational factors is the Internal Virtual Community Participation Does the study examine whether the Internal Virtual Community Participation has a role in enhancing the influence of organizational factors on employee behavior?

Base on all the review, my research model as shown in Figure 2.3 below

Figure 2.3 Research model

Interpersonal Deviance

Organizational Deviance

H1 - H2 -

CHAPTER 3: METHOD

3.1 Sample

The sample was collected mostly from the students of the Master course in Vietnam Japan University (VJU) and VNU University of Economics and Business (UEB) and Foreign Trade University (FTU) Participation was voluntary and random

The potential participants were directed toward graduate students This target group was expected to have work experience and Three target universities were economic schools, in turn, students at this school will tend to work in the service company, that close to this research area The survey was designed for those who had experience in the service sector, who did not have work experience were denied participating in this survey

This research was grounded on graduate students, despite the Kohlberg (1984) theory stated that “people who better understand complex and nuanced issues will display more sophisticated levels of moral reasoning” Researchers often hypothesize positive relations between the level of education and ethical decision But many empirical studies showed that the results did not support Kohlberg’s theory Many studies fail to find a link between education and ethical judgments (Serwinek, 1992; Swaidan, Vitell, & Rawwas, 2003), while others report negative relationships (Chiu, 2011) Therefore, this research wants to focus on the diversity in the service sector rather than the educational structure of the participants

Out of the 177 questionnaires was collected, 174 were valid Participants consisted

of 174 employees currently working in a service organization in Vietnam one percent of employees worked as Audit or Accounting positions, while both Sales; Finance & Banking account for 13% respondent each There are more than 12 types

Twenty-of services companies, and among respondents 63% were female Their ages ranged from 18 to above 45 years

Table 3.1 Demographic data

3.2 Procedure and Data Analysis

The original measure constructs were designed in English, which was translated into Vietnamese The Vietnamese survey version was tested by 12 VJU-MBA and 3 VJU-MPP students independently Participants were asked about the accuracy and understandability of the translation compared to the original Finally, the questionnaires were used to conduct a survey The survey is shown in appendix B

C Skooglund, (1992) recommends that the survey’s participant fell more confident when reporting electronically They may possibly be more enthusiastic about sharing sensitive moral issues virtually than face-to-face basic According to Tourangeau & Yan (2007) suggest that self-reports of illegal behavior can best be obtained by web, mail surveys rather than interviewer are presented physically Most scales for deviation behaviors use self-report questionnaires, including Workplace Deviance scale (Bennett & Robinson, 2000), Antisocial Behavior scale (Robinson & O’Leary-Kelly, 1998), Counterproductive workplace behavior (Berry et at., 2012) and Counterproductive work behavior checklist (Spector, 2006)

This research survey was set up online through Google Form The link address to online survey is “https://forms.gle/9LQzKC81wfcF3che9”

Participation in the survey is voluntary Respondents will have to answer all the questions in 3 parts Section 1 is about demographic factors, and section 2 is an assessment of the organizational factors of the place where the person works, and the last section questions about deviant behaviors The total completion time is about 5 minutes Participants completed the questionnaire either via an online link or via a

QR code, and its easily scan by their mobile phone All of the surveys were completed online, and participants were secured their private information The respondents were recommended to complete the survey outside their organization or at home This helps respondents reduce their concerns about possible negative consequences