Reducing Deviant Behaviour among University Academics through Informational Justice and Spirituality

Abstract

Deviant behaviour, according to studies, is a serious problem for manufacturing and service organisations in developing and emerging nations, and this has also been observed even in academia. The study specifically looked at the role of spirituality as a mediator in the link between informational justice and deviant behaviour among university academics. Data were collected among university academics in Gombe state university and Federal university Kashere, Gombe state Nigeria. Structural Equation Model with Partial Least Square (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data. The results of the hypotheses reveal that informational justice has no significant negative effect directly on deviance behaviour; spirituality has a significant negative effect on deviance behaviour. Informational justice has a significantly positive effect on spirituality. The non-significance of informational justice direct effect on workplace deviance proves that there is a full mediation effect of spirituality. This implies that, to reduce deviant behaviour among university academics, merely informational justice is not enough, but it should increase spirituality. This study’s findings prove that informational justice can significantly reduce deviant behaviour among university academics when mediated by high spirituality.