Engaging and Misbehaving: How Dignity Affects Employee Work Behaviors

Abstract

While there has been a growing body of research on workplace dignity, the majority of studies tend to focus on how dignity is experienced by organizational members, paying considerably less attention to consequences for organizations. In this study, we explore the influence of workplace dignity on employee work behaviors that affect organizational performance. Framing our inquiry with Sharon Bolton’s yet-untested multidimensional theory of dignity, we analyze Randy Hodson’s content-coded ethnographic data to reveal that increases in workplace dignity tend to predict increases in employee engagement, yet have mixed effects on counterproductive workplace behaviors. Following a post-hoc ethnographic reimmersion, we identify the critical role of safe and secure working conditions in enabling and constraining employees’ ability to redress or resist workplace indignities with counterproductive workplace behaviors.

Opening Constructive Dialogues Between Business Ethics Research and the Sociology of Morality: Introduction to the Thematic Symposium

“…The existing work on dignity in business ethics (e.g. Lucas 2015;Lucas et al 2013Lucas et al , 2017 has cited but not really engaged with Sayer's comprehensive conceptual oeuvre that includes moral sentiments, socialization, virtues, character, norms, stories, reasonability, social relations, social structure, and power.…”

Life imitates art:Yojimbo, critical management, and contractors

“…A central problem, in this case, emerges when street level bureaucrats or contractors perform tasks that are inconsistent with public value ‘safeguards’ (Rohr, 1986; Rutgers, 2010) or organizational values (Vardi and Wiener, 1996). They might engage in non-conforming behavior for good or ill (Lucas et al, 2017). One might also argue that such actions violate some implied social contract or term of employment.…”

“…Typically, spaces for resistance are contextualized around insiders experiencing an ethical dilemma or change in perception of the workplace more generally (Lucas et al, 2017). As mentioned earlier, there has not yet been enough consideration given to the disparities that emerge from being external to an organization.…”

Is it safe to bring myself to work? Understanding LGBTQ experiences of workplace dignity

“…Karlsson (2012) explained that when employees are exposed to negative conditions that undermine their worth, they are likely to respond by taking steps to restore their dignity or to retaliate against the organization for harming their dignity. Previous workplace dignity research demonstrates a range of resistance strategies such as unionizing (Stuesse, 2010), articulating cynicism against management (Fleming, 2005), quitting (Cleaveland, 2005), sabotage (Hodson, 2001), and engaging in counterproductive work behaviours (Lucas, Manikas, Mattingly, & Crider, 2017).…”