Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Sociology
Supervisor
Adams, Tracey L.
2nd Supervisor
Livingstone, David W.
Affiliation
University of Toronto
Joint Supervisor
Abstract
Individuals do not always follow the rules at work, yet it is not entirely clear what conditions generally contribute to higher rates of misbehaviour. Much of the research on organizational misbehaviour is ethnographic or based on limited sample populations (single organization, single industry, etc.), so there remains a gap in the literature for findings representative of a wider population and comparison across occupational classes. Additionally, there has been an over-emphasis on the study of misbehaviour by employees, while employer misbehaviour remains relatively unexplored within the literature. Organizational misbehaviour is also often treated as an objective act with little recognition for how individual attitudes and structural position shape perceptions of what constitutes ‘proper’ behavior and, in turn, misbehaviour. This dissertation reconnects the study of organizational misbehaviour with Marxist class analysis and examines the connection between the structural conditions of work and employee and employer misbehaviour, also incorporating a study of how individual reporting of misbehaviour frequency is influenced by respondent class consciousness. Each integrated chapter uses nationally representative data for Canada from the 2016 Changing Workplaces in a Knowledge Economy (CWKE) survey (N=3007). Methods utilized include chi-square, gamma and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Findings contribute to a growing section of the literature focused on identifying the structural determinants of organizational misbehaviour, examine the link between individual subjectivity and perceptions of misbehaviour frequency and provide unique initial exploratory research into the phenomenon of employer misbehaviour.
Recommended Citation
Watts, Brendan S.J., "Canadians Misbehaving: A Quantitative Analysis of the Factors Contributing to Perceived Frequency of Organizational Misbehaviour by Employees and Employers" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5879.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5879
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.