Does Workplace misbehaviour signify resistance?

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Word Count: xxxx Employees get through their working days having to conform to certain sets of rules and routines involving their commitment which may or may not be favourable to themselves. In seeking to maximise their utility,i.e. getting the most satisfaction or the least dissatisfaction in working, they would be forced to become more creative and resourceful in coming up with ways to affirm some control over, and give meaning for, the workloads they undertake (Noon and Blyton, 2007). The strategies formed may be viewed as workplace misbehaviours,which is referred to by Ackroyd and Thompson (1999) as “anything you do at work you are not supposed to do”, a definition borrowed from Sprouse’s (1999) defition of sabotage in the American workplace. Eventhough the definition is slightly vague, taking into context that the actions are those which breaks significant orginational standards (Robbinson and Bennett,1995), and quoting (Vardi and Wiener, 1996: 153),”…any intentional action by member/s of organization/s that defies and violates (a)shared organizational norms and expectations, and/or (b) core societal values, mores and standards of proper conduct”, we will take misbehaviour as actions which are not within the organisation’s norms,core societal values and ethics of proper conduct and are taken to gain certain benefits either to the employee themselves (survival in the workplace), against the employee (resistance) or both.Thus,in this essay it will be argued that the workplace behaviours do not necessarily signify resistance at work. The different types of misbehaviours and whether they are just a consent,resistance or both will be identified alongside the main causes of workplace behaviour in this essay. The question arises on ... ... middle of paper ... ...upervision (e.g. waiters and taxi driver), “Donkeys” : highly supevised at work and works individually, e.g. assembly line workers, “Wolves” : people who work in groups within a strong supervised environment such as airport baggage handlers, and “Vultures” : they have a strong group from which they need support to fiddle and has low supervision, e.g. salesperson. This typology developed by Mars shows the different types of opportunities available across different jobs. Financial aspect is just one aspect but not the most important part, as some aims to give a satisfaction to work, a consent. However, some may present it as ‘a way of hitting out at the boss, the company, the system or the state’ (Mars,1982: 23).Thus in a way it is a form of resistance to some, however the extend in which the managers react towards them determines the intensity resistance or consent.

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