LEADERSHIP STYLES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AS PREDICTORS OF UNETHICAL WORK BEHAVIOUR AMONG EMPLOYEES IN PUBLIC SERVICE

LEADERSHIP STYLES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AS PREDICTORS OF UNETHICAL WORK BEHAVIOUR AMONG EMPLOYEES IN PUBLIC SERVICE

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study
Unethical behaviors in the workplace are increasing being recognized as serious problem that warrant obvious attention. Although some of organizational behaviors are desirable and functional to achieve organizational effectiveness, like organizational citizenship behavior (Organ, 1997) and commitment related behavior (Nehmeh 2009) prosocial behaviors (Michie, 2009).
Unethical behavior as a workplace deviance in organizations in increasingly becoming important to managers and researchers (Author). Workplace deviant behavior is defined by Robinson and Bennett (1995) as a voluntary behavior that violates significant norms and in so doing threatens the wellbeing of an organization, its members or both. Robinson and Bennett (1995) define two type behaviors related to employee deviance as the ones directed against the organization and the other directed against the co – worker.
The first type of behavior is the ‘organizational deviance’ whereas the second one is the ‘interpersonal deviance’. The organizational deviance is further separated into two as ‘production deviance’ and ‘property deviance’. Where production deviance is considered to be a ‘minor deviance’ and property deviance is considered to be a ‘serious deviance’ examples include leaving early, taking excessive breaks, intentionally working slow, wasting resources ( for production deviance) and sabotaging equipment, accepting kickbacks, lying about hours worked, stealing from the company (for property deviance) (Robinson and Bennett, 1995). Interpersonal deviance on the other hand consist of behavior that occurs among coworkers political deviance such as gossip, favoritism, blaming coworker, competing non beneficially are examples for minor deviance and ‘personal aggression’ such as sexual harassment, verbal abuse, bullying, stealing from coworker and endangering coworkers are examples for serious deviance
Employee misconduct in the workplace is relatively common and may be counterproductive in social and material terms; to identify which undesirable are considered acceptable is the first step to develop ways to reduce deviance or unethical behavior in organizational settings. Deviance in the workplace is fairly prevalent and many employees at some point engage in such behavior Bolin & Heatherly, (2001); Kaptein,(2011); Kingwell& Martin, (2005) depending on the offence in question, the consequences can be serious and costly for the organization and also its stakeholders.
This study developed a framework and a set of proposition for analyzing unethical work in the organization as well as its effect on the organizational productivity

1.2 Statement of the Problem
A lot of managers have been left astonished at the increasing level of misdemeanor or unethical practices that has encapsulated their employees and have propelled the employees into indulging in behaviors that are considered very harmful and unacceptable by the organization such as fraud, stealing from the company, lying etc. have being seriously frowned at by the manager.
Previous researchers have being able to establish the link between leadership styles and unethical behavior but little attention have been paid on how a managerial leadership pattern, the organizational culture can profoundly predicts an employee’s unethical behavior which is the sole aim of this study.
Many modern organizations are faced with numerous challenges such as illegal and unethical behaviour in a number of business transactions. Managers are also faced with the challenge of evaluating the effect of this critical behaviour on the performance of such organizations. Again, many business managers operate their activities today, without keen interest of bothering whether their actions are right or wrong and the extent of employees understanding of the term ethics while the level of compliance is highly infinitesimal, (Oladunni 2002).The way Nigerian society cares little about the source of wealth tend to make some of these business operators to begin to wonder about the necessity of ethics in an organization.

1.3 Purpose of the Study
In view of the problem stated earlier, the main purpose of this study is
1. to examine how leadership style and organizational culture could predict unethical work behaviour,
2. to investigate the relationship that exist among leadership styles, organizational culture, and unethical work behaviour.
3. to determine the influence of leadership style and organizational culture on unethical work behaviour

1.4 Relevance of the Study
This study will be of enormous value in the understanding of scientific research, and also profer solutions to the issues bothering on employees unethical work behavior. this research will help investigate an add to the available literature on the variables of the study that will be helpful to both workers and researchers, now and in the future, and thereby contributing to the knowledge of employee unethical behaviors, leadership styles and organizational culture. Finally, the findings from this study will enable organization to know the differences in leadership style so as to know which to adopt in order to bring about desirable behavior from an employee that will in turn not put the organization in jeopardy.
This study will provide data on leadership style as it predicts unethical work behaviour. It will also provide data on organizational culture as it predicts unethical work behaviour. The study will add to literatures on leadership styles, organizational culture and unethical work behaviour.

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