PERCEIVED ETHICAL CLIMATE AND WORKPLACE DEVIANCE: ROLE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Abstract

Employee deviant behaviours at the workplace trouble industrial organizations and induce huge social costs. The frequency and impact of their occurrence, coupled with a lack of adequate attention from the scholar community, warrant an investigation of this phenomenon to identify mitigating strategies to contain it. As employers have great control over the social context of workplaces, such as organizational climate, to direct employee behaviour, the study aspires to probe the role of organizational ethical climate in predicting workplace deviance. To add further sophistication to this investigation, the role of emotional intelligence, as a moderator, in this relationship will also be evaluated, as emotionally intelligent employees tend to go well with employers. Conventionally, workplace deviance has been explained based on equity theories, social exchanges, and social learning though a wider set of theoretical perspectives are available, stalling further advancement on the theoretical front. Hence, the predictive relationship of ethical climate on workplace deviance in the light of social information processing theory was taken up in the present study to offer an accurate and solid theoretical background for the current research. In order to achieve the research goals, a descriptive research design based on survey data, followed by quantitative data analysis was followed in the current study. With the help of purposive convenient and snowball sampling methods, data from 158 information technology professionals working in the region of Hyderabad, Telangana, were collected, through various means such as visiting them in person, e-mailing the survey forms, and following up with telephone conversations. Working professionals who are employed full-time, and who have spent a minimum acclimatization period of 18 months with the current employer were contacted to respond to the study. Exploratory factor analysis of the questionnaire data reveal the presence of four types of ethical climate: principled, benevolent, efficiency, and company profit; regression analysis of workplace deviance on the prevalent ethical climate unveils a significant negative relationship of principled and benevolent climate types with workplace deviance, and a significant positive relationship with company profit and efficiency climate types. Thus, fostering principled and benevolent climate types prevent workplace deviance, whereas the presence of efficiency and company profit climate types promote it. Additionally, Hayes moderation analysis unveils the role of emotional intelligence as a moderating variable in the predictive relation of efficiency climate and workplace deviance, with low levels of emotional intelligence exacerbating the impact of efficiency climate on workplace deviance, leaving the other three climate types with no moderation effect. As the study upholds the predictive relationship and moderation effect, in a way, the validity of the instruments of data collection has also been ascertained in the study. Thus, by considering the influence of a hitherto less explored construct such as ethical climate in the context of India’s workplaces, this study enriches the literature on ethical climate, inspires upcoming scholarship in the domain of business ethics, and equips various stakeholders such as corporates, and policymakers with an empirically valid two-pronged strategy of fostering ethical climate and nurturing emotional intelligence to contain the menace of workplace deviance. The study also lends support to the relevance of emotional intelligence on work-related outcomes and acknowledges the importance of emotional intelligence training for working professionals. As workplace ethical climate manifests into various employee outcomes such as employee commitment, compassion, citizenship behaviours, organizational trust, ethical and unethical intentions, and behaviours, job meaningfulness, job satisfaction, and job success, it can be said that the study hints at the possible transgressions of ethical climate beforehand, by reporting the prevalent four types of ethical climates. Further implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed in the following sections, along with the means to foster organizational ethical climates such as the development of human resources systems, ethical leadership and communication, and emotional intelligence.