annotatedbib

Ife PsychologIA 2016, 24(1), 48-53 Copyright © 2016 Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria ISSN: 1117-1421

48

Examination of Gender Roles in Workplace Deviance among Local Government

Employees in Akoko Area of Ondo State, Nigeria

*Anthony G. Balogun & Ayodele Komolafe Department of Pure & Applied Psychology,

Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko,

Ondo State, Nigeria

*Correspondence: Anthony G. Balogun, Department of Pure and Applied Psychology, Adekunle Ajasin University, P.M.B. 001 Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria. E-mail:

[email protected], Phone: +2348032960406

Findings on gender and workplace deviance have been mixed and inconclusive; hence,

there is a need to further examine gender differences in workplace deviance, especially in Local Governments where employees’ deviant behaviours seem to be highly prevalent.

Thus, this study examined gender difference in workplace deviance among Local

Government employees in Nigeria. Two hundred employees (male = 100; female = 100)

were selected from the four Local Government Areas in Akoko Ondo State, Nigeria using

a purposive sampling technique. Their ages ranged from 21 to 57 years (M = 35.99; SD =

11.04). The participants responded to Workplace Deviance Scale. Results of the independent t-test revealed that male Local Government employees showed higher tendencies to exhibit workplace deviant behaviours (M = 64.12) than their female counterparts (M = 22.30). Based on this finding, we suggest that more emphasis should

be placed on addressing the issue of workplace deviance among male public sector

employees than their female counterparts.

Keywords: gender, Local Government employees, workplace deviance

Workplace deviance refers to voluntary

behaviour that violates significant

organisational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of the organization,

its members, or both (Robinson & Bennett,

1995, p. 556). Workplace deviance is

believed to be voluntary behaviour because

employees can either lack the motivation to

conform to and/or become motivated to violate normative expectations of the social

context (Bennett & Robinson, 2000 cited in

Hakan & Jamel, 2013). Workplace deviance

takes a variety of forms, including, but not

limited to fraud, theft, bullying, stealing and

damaging companies properties, wasting time/or materials, habitual lateness,

absenteeism, neglecting superiors’

instructions, publicly embarrassing one’s

supervisors, spreading rumor, and sexual

harassment (Gruys & Sackett, 2003; Penny & Spector, 2005).

Robinson and Bennett (1995) classified

workplace deviance into two major types:

organizational deviance and interpersonal

deviance. Organizational deviance consists

of acts directed against the organisation,

such as sabotaging equipment, theft,

stealing and wasting resources etc. (Bennett et al., 2000). Interpersonal deviance on the

other hand, consists of acts that inflict harm

on co-workers, such as verbal harassment,

aggression, assault and spreading rumors (Robinson et al., 1995).

Today, the study of workplace deviance is

increasingly becoming a prominent concern of both practitioners and organisational

researchers in Nigeria because of its

increasing prevalence in most public sector

organisations (Olabimitan & Alausa, 2014).

Although, no reliable statistics exist on the percentage of workers who have engaged in

workplace deviance in Nigeria, however, it is

clearly evident from the frequent newspaper

reports of corruption and fraud committed

by public sector employees and government

officials that public sector organisations in Nigeria are not exempted from the incident of workplace deviance (Olabimitan et al.,

2014). Moreover, recent research reports

have shown that deviant behaviours such as

Ife PsychologIA, 24(1), 2016

49

habitual lateness to work, absenteeism,

theft, fraud, bribery, corruption,

embezzlement, misappropriation of public fund, misuse of government property, abuse

of power and office, and sabotage pervade

most public sector organisations and have

been constituting serious threat to delivery

of quality service in most Nigerian public

sector organisations (Fagbohungbe, Akinbode, & Ayodeji, 2012a; Osezua, Abah,

& Daniel, 2009).

The prevalence of workplace deviance

could be extremely harmful and detrimental

to public sector organisations if it continues unabated (Dunlop & Lee, 2004; Robinson &

Greenberg, 1998). For instance, Bowling and

Gruys (2010), Hollinger and Adams (2010),

and Jones (2009) reported that many

organisations lose billions of dollars every

year due to workplace deviance such as theft, sabotage, counterproductive work

behaviour, etc. Besides, workplace deviance

has been associated with low productivity,

decreased performance, time wasting, and

damage to the organization’s reputation (Peterson, 2002). Employees who are victims

of workplace deviance are likely to

experience stress-related problems, low

morale, suffer physical and psychological

pains, and are more likely to leave or quit the

organisation (Appelbaum, Laconi, & Matousek 2007; Penny & Spector, 2005).

Individual characteristics such as gender

may influence the extent to which public

sector employees engage in deviant

behaviours at workplace. Gender is a state of being male or female with reference to

social or cultural differences (Adebayo &

Osagu, 2013). Literature review on gender

and workplace deviance revealed that while

there is a plethora of research evidence on

the relationship between gender and workplace deviance in America, United

Kingdom, Europe, and some Asian countries

(for review see Anwar, Sarwar, Awan, & Arif,

2011; Santos & Eger, 2014; Wilkowski,

Hartung, Crowe, & Chai, 2012), few studies (such as Akinbode, 2009; Fagbohungbe et al., 2012a; Olabimitan et al., 2014;

Ogungbamila & Udegbe, 2014) have

examined gender difference in workplace

deviance in Nigeria. Besides, the findings of

the few available studies are mixed and

inconclusive.

For instance, Adebayo (2005) found that

male police officers displayed more unethical

behaviour than female police. In like manner, Ojedokun (2008) found that male

police personnel reported a positive attitude

towards unethical behaviour while their

female counterparts reported a negative

attitude towards unethical behaviour.

Similarly, Olabimitan and Alausa (2014) found that male nurses in public hospitals

in some Local Government Areas in Lagos

manifested higher deviant behaviour than

their female counterparts.

However, in a study conducted among employees in some industries in Lagos metropolis, Fagbohungbe et al. (2012a)

found that female employees at both

perceived controlled work environment and

permissive work environment reported

higher workplace deviant behaviour than their male counterparts. In another study,

Faghohungbe, Akinbode, and Ayodeji

(2012b) reported that fraudulent behaviour

was higher among male employees than

among females in some public and private

organisations in Lagos metropolis. Ogungbamila et al. (2014) found no gender

differences in employees’ tendencies to

engage in corruption and interpersonal

violence but reported that females who

perceived organisational injustice exhibited

as much organisational revenge, interpersonal revenge, interpersonal

violence, and corrupt tendencies as males

who perceived organisational injustice. Alolo

(2006) found that male and female

employees showed similar favourable attitudes toward workplace deviance such as

corruption, arguing that males were likely to

engage in corruption if they perceived that it

would lead to justice and fair-play while

females may have higher level of tolerance

for corruption if they perceived that it would provide opportunity to take care of more

people.

Going by the mixed and inconclusive

results on gender difference in workplace

deviance, there is a need to further investigate gender difference in workplace

deviance, especially in Local Government

Areas where employees’ deviant behaviours seem to be highly prevalent (Ogungbamila et al., 2014). Hence, the present study

examined gender difference in workplace

Balogun, A. G., & Komolafe, A.: Workplace Deviance

50

deviance among employees in the four Local

Governments in Akoko Areas of Ondo State,

Nigeria. It is hoped that the findings of this study will resolve the conflicting results in

gender-workplace deviance literature and

help Local Government managers identify

the gender category that are more likely to

exhibit higher workplace deviant

behaviours. This would consequently help them design appropriate intervention

strategies that would reduce workplace

deviance between the gender categories.

Hypothesis

1. There will be significant gender

difference in workplace deviance

among Local Government employees.

Method Design and Participants This is an ex-post facto survey research. The

dependent variable is workplace deviance

while the independent variable is gender.

Two hundred (200) employees purposively

selected from the four Local Governments in Akoko Areas of Ondo State, Nigeria,

participated in the study. The participants

comprised 100 (50.0%) males and 100

(50.0%) females. Their ages ranged between

21 and 57 years (M = 35.99; SD = 11.04).

Regarding marital status, 77 (38.5%) of the participants were single, 117 (58.5%) were

married, 2 (1.0%) were divorced while 4

(2.0%) were widowed. In terms of academic

qualification, 21 (10.5%) of the participants

had Secondary School Certificate, 14 (7.0%) had National Certificate in Education, 47

(23.5%) had Ordinary National Diploma, 45

(22.5%) had Higher National Diploma, 59

(29.5%) had first degree, and 14 (7%) had

Masters Degree. Amongst them, 115 (77.5%)

were Christians, 41 (20.5%) were Muslims while 4 (2.0%) reported to be worshiping

other religions. The length of the working

experience ranged between 3 and 11 years with a Mean of 6.36 years (SD = 2.08).

Measures Workplace Deviance: Workplace deviance

was measured using Workplace Deviance Scale developed by Bennett et al. (2000). The

scale was designed to measure the extent to

which an employee engaged in workplace

deviant behaviours that are harmful to the organization or other employees. The scale

was rated on a 7-point scale (1 = Never; 7 =

Daily). Twelve-item on the scale measure

deviant acts that target the organization.

Seven-item measures deviant acts that

target members of the organization. Bennett et al. (2000) reported a Cronbach’s alpha

coefficient of .81, and .78 for the

organizational deviance and interpersonal

deviance subscales respectively. Among Nigerian sample, Olabimitan et al. (2014)

obtained a Cronbach’s reliability coefficient of .77 and .75 for the two subscales. In this

study, Cronbach’s alpha of .71 and .77 were

obtained for the two subscales respectively

while a Cronbach’s alpha 94 was obtained

for the overall scale. High score on the scale

implied high workplace deviant behaviour while low score stated otherwise.

Procedure

Prior to the administration of the

questionnaire, permission was obtained from the human personnel managers of each

of the Local Governments that participated

in the study. The consent of the prospective

participants was sought after a brief

explanation of the purpose of the research.

Using a purposive sampling technique, those who consented were given a copy of the

questionnaire, and in a bid to reduce self-

report bias, confidentiality and anonymity

were provided through a highlighted

sentence at the top of the questionnaire that asked the participants not to identify

themselves in any way. A total of two

hundred and fifty (250) copies of

questionnaire were administered, 218 were

collected and 200 were properly filled and

found usable for the analysis, yielding a response rate of 87.2%.

Results

Independent t-test was used to analyse the

data to determine gender difference in workplace deviant behaviours. The results

are presented in Table 1 and 2.

Ife PsychologIA, 24(1), 2016

51

Table 1: Summary of independent t-test on Gender Difference in Organisational Deviance

Dependent Variable Gender N Mean SD df t p

Organisational deviance

Male 111 60.02 19.33

198

34.10

<.01

Female 89 28.48 8.32

As shown in Table 1, there was a significant

gender difference in organisational deviance

(t (198) = 34.10, p < .01), such that male Local Government employees (M = 60.02)

showed higher tendencies to exhibit

organisational deviant behaviour than their female counterparts (M = 28.48).

Table 2: Summary of independent t-test on Gender Difference in Interpersonal Deviance

Dependent Variable Gender N Mean SD df t p

Interpersonal deviance

Male 85 59.75 20.12 198

28.53

<.05

Female 115 33.27 10.64

Table 2 revealed that there was a significant

gender difference in interpersonal deviance

(t (198) = 28.53, p < .05), such that male Local Government employees (M = 59.75)

showed higher tendencies to exhibit

interpersonal deviant behaviour than their female counterparts (M = 33.27).

Discussion This study examined gender difference in

workplace deviance among employees in the

Local Governments Areas in Akoko, Ondo

State, Nigeria. As hypothesized, result

showed that there was a significant gender difference in workplace deviance, suggesting

that male Local Governments employees

showed higher tendencies to exhibit

workplace deviance than their female

counterparts. This finding contradicts the finding of Fagbohungbe et al. (2012a) who found that female employees in some public

and private industries in Lagos metropolis

exhibited higher workplace deviance than

males. The differences in findings may be

attributed to the settings and States where

the studies were conducted. However, the result supported the finding

of Ojedokun (2008) who found that male

police personnel reported a positive attitude

towards unethical work behaviour. The

finding is also in tandem with the findings of Adebayo (2005) who found that male police

officers displayed more unethical work

behaviours than females. The result also lent credence to the findings of Fagbohungbe et al. (2012b) who found that male employees

in public industries in Lagos metropolis

reported higher fraudulent behaviour than

their female counterparts. That male Local Government employees

showed higher tendencies to exhibit

workplace deviant behaviour than their

female counterparts is not surprising

considering Akoko culture and societal

norms. Akoko, like other town in Ondo State, is a patriarchal society. The socialization of

the child emphasises different roles and

expectations for both sexes. Males in Akoko

are generally socialized to be more

competitive, aggressive and vengeful and less submissive, tolerant, and nurturing

compared with their female counterparts

who are socialized to be soft, less competitive

and aggressive, more submissive, and

dependent on their male counterparts.

Since cultural and societal norms may be carried to workplace due to spill-over effects,

these cultural norms which expect men to be

less tolerant and express anger against any

perceive unfairness/injustice than women

may determine why male employees

exhibited higher workplace deviant behaviour than their female counterparts (Ogungbamila et al., 2014). Therefore, that

male Local Government employee reported

higher tendency to exhibit workplace

deviance than their female counterparts

might be connected with their cultural system that condones and promotes revenge

and aggressive behaviour more in males

than in females.

Moreover, the prevalent of workplace

deviant behaviours in males could be

Balogun, A. G., & Komolafe, A.: Workplace Deviance

52

explained by the male sex hormone called

testosterone—which is associated with an

aggressive personality. The female sex hormones (oestrogen and progesterone) on

the other hand, are associated with a more

passive personality.

Apart from biological factors, religiosity

may explain why male employees in this

setting showed higher tendencies to exhibit workplace deviance than their female

counterparts. The researchers interactions

with some male and female Local

Government employees and observation of

religion events in the research setting showed that women are highly religious than

men. Due to their consistent exposure to

religious teachings, women in these areas

are more likely to be faithful, obedient,

humble, kind, tolerant, and compassionate. Since according to spill-over effect, religious belief can be carried to the workplace, female

employees in these Local Government Areas

are more likely to show lower tendencies to

exhibit workplace deviant behaviours than

their male counterparts who seem to be less

religious. Unfortunately, the role of religiosity in the relationship between gender

and workplace deviance was not captured in

the present study; hence the need for future

studies to pay attention to this.

Conclusion and Limitations of the Study

In conclusion, this study has established

that male employees in the Local

Government Areas of Akoko, Ondo State,

Nigeria reported higher tendencies to exhibit

workplace deviant behaviour than their female counterparts. Based on this finding,

we recommended that Local Government

managers should place more emphasis on

addressing the issue of workplace deviance

among male public sector employees than their female counterparts.

In spite of its contributions, this study

was not without short-comings. The major

short-coming was that the study only relied

on self-report measures of workplace

deviance. This study may be prone to common method variance. For instance,

females may under-report workplace

deviance because of fear of being punished.

It may, therefore, be beneficial if future

studies use a non-self-report measure (see Stewart, Bing, Davison, Woehr, & McIntyre,

2009). The small sample size utilized and the

exclusive restriction to Local Government

workers only may affect the generalization of the finding to other public sector employees

in Nigeria.

References

Adebayo, D. O. (2005). Gender and attitudes

toward professional ethics: A Nigerian police perspective. African Security Review, 14(2), 93-100.

Adebayo, S. O., & Osagu, J. C. (2013).

Gender differences in burnout among

health workers in Ekiti State University

Teaching Hospital Ado Ekiti. International Journal of Social and

Behavioural Sciences, 1(6), 112-121.

Akinbode, G. A. (2009). Effects of gender and

organisational factors on workplace

deviant and fraudulent behaviours. Journal of Management and Entrepreneur, 2(1), 53-79.

Alolo, N. (2006). Ethic of care versus ethic of

justice? The gender-corruption nexus:

Testing the new conventional wisdom. Ethics and Economics, 4(2), 1-17.

Anwar, M. N., Sarwar, M., Awan, R. N., & Arif, I. (2011). Gender differences in

workplace deviant behaviour of university

teachers and modification techniques’, International Education Studies, 4(1),

193–197.

Appelbaum, S. H., Laconi, G. D., & Matousek, A. (2007). Positive and

negative deviant workplace behaviors:

causes, impacts, and solutions.

Corporate Governance, 7(5) 2007, 586-

598.

Bennett, R. J., & Robinson, S. L. (2000). Development of a measure of workplace deviance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 349-360.

Bowling, N. A., & Gruys, M. L. (2010).

Overlooked issues in the

conceptualization and measurement of counterproductive work behavior. Human Resource Management Review, 20(1), 54-

61.

Dunlop, P. D., & Lee, K. (2004). Workplace

deviance, organizational citizenship

behavior, and business unit performance:

the bad apples do spoil the whole barrel. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(1),

67-80.

Ife PsychologIA, 24(1), 2016

53

Fagbohungbe, B. O., Akinbode, G. A., &

Ayodeji (2012a). Organizational

determinants of workplace deviant behaviours: an empirical analysis in Nigeria. International Journal of Business and Management, 7(5), 207-221.

Fagbohungbe, B. O., Akinbode, G. A., &

Ayodeji, F. (2012b). Gender and

organizational factors as determinants of

workplace fraudulent behaviours in Nigeria: an empirical analysis. International Journal of Business Trends and Technology, 2(2), 11-21.

Gruys, M. L., & Sackett, P. R. (2003). The

dimensionality of counterproductive work behaviour. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 11(1), 897-

913.

Hakan, E., & Jamel, C. (2013). Effects of

trust and psychological contract violation

on authentic leadership and organizational deviance. Management Research Review, 36(9), 828-848.

Harper, D. (1990). Spotlight abuse-save profits. Industrial Distribution, 7, 47-51.

Hollinger, R. C., & Adams, A. (2010).

National Retail Security Survey Final

Report. Retrieved online on 15th June,

2015 from http://soccrim.clas.ufl.edu/criminology

/srp/finalreport_2010.pdf

Jones, D. A. (2009). Getting even with one’s

supervisor and one’s organization:

relationships among types of injustice, desires for revenge, and

counterproductive work behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 30,

525-542.

Ogungbamila, B., & Udegbe, I. B. (2014).

Gender differences in the effects of perception of organizational injustice on workplace reactivity. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 10(1), 150–167.

Ojedokun, O. A. (2008). Attitude towards

unethical work behaviour among police personnel: the role of emotions. Ibadan Journal of the Social Sciences, 6(3), 13-21.

Olabimitan, B., & Alausa, W. M. (2014). Psychological factors predicting

workplace deviance behaviour among

nurses in the public health sector in

Lagos. Nigerian Journal of Applied

Behavioural Sciences, 2, 137-152.

Onyeizugbo, E. U. (2010). Self-efficacy,

gender and trait anxiety as moderators of test anxiety. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 8(1),

299-312.

Osezua, M. E., Abah, E. O., & Daniel, E. G.,

(2009). Staff indiscipline and productivity in the public sector in Nigeria. African Research Review, 3(4), 461-471.

Penney, L. M., & Spector, P. E. (2005). Job

stress, incivility, and counterproductive

work behavior (CWB): The moderating role of negative affectivity. Journal of

Organizational Behavior, 26, 777-796.

Perterson, D. K. (2002). Deviant workplace

behaviour and the organisations ethical climate. Journal of Business Management, 17(1), 47-61.

Robinson, S. L., & Bennett, R. J. (1995). A

typology of deviant workplace behaviors:

a multidimensional scaling study. Academy of Management Journal, 38(2),

555-572. Robinson, S. L., & Greenberg, J. (1998).

Employees behaving badly: dimensions,

determinants, and dilemmas in the study

of workplace deviance. In C. L. Cooper & D. M. Rousseau (Eds.). (pp. 1-30), Trends in Organizational Behavior, Rousseau, New York, NY.

Santos, A., & Eger, A. (2014). Gender

differences and predictors of workplace

deviance behaviour: the role of job stress,

job satisfaction and personality on

interpersonal and organisational deviance. International Journal Management Practice, 7(1), 19-38.

Stewart, S. M., Bing, M. N., Davison, H. K.,

Woehr, D. J., & McIntyre, M. D. (2009). In

the eyes of the beholder: a non-self-report measure of workplace deviance. Journal

of Applied Psychology, 94(1), 207-215. Taiwo, A. O. (2004). Psychosocial factors

predicting school violence tendencies

among students of tertiary institutions in Ibadan. African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, 7(2),

220-236.

Copyright of IFE PsychologIA is the property of IFE Centre for Psychological Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.