Abstract:
The main objective of the present article is to explain the impact of group misconduct in shaping individual teacher misconduct. Additionally, the moderating roles of group cohesion, perception of injustice, and informal punitive rules have been closely examined. In terms of purpose, this research is applied; regarding data collection methods, it is descriptive-correlational; and in terms of nature, it is quantitative. All high school teachers in the city of Ilam (N=379) formed the statistical population of the research, from which 154 individuals were selected as a sample using the Krejcie and Morgan (1997) table and proportional cluster sampling. Data were collected using five standard questionnaires: the 9-item individual misconduct and 10-item group misconduct scale by Bent and Robinson (2000), the 20-item perception of injustice scale by Colquitt (2001), the 20-item group cohesion scale by Seashore (1954), and the 9-item informal rules scale by Holinger and Clark (1982). The reliability of the five research variables was obtained using Cronbach's alpha coefficient as 0.78, 0.79, 0.81, 0.73, and 0.83, respectively. Hypotheses were tested using SPSS version 20 software and hierarchical regression. Findings showed that direct observation of organizational misconduct plays a mediating role in the relationship between group misconduct and individual teacher misconduct. Misconduct at the group level has a direct, positive, and significant relationship with social information processes; among its three components, direct observation of misconduct and the prevalence of misconduct at the organizational level moderate the relationship between misconduct at the group level and misconduct at the individual level. When the level of group cohesion is high, indirect knowledge and the perception of the prevalence of misconduct at the organizational level are unlikely to cause misconduct at the individual level. Accordingly, the moderating role of group cohesion in the relationship between group and individual misconduct is rejected. Hierarchical regression results showed that at the group level, there is a significant interaction effect between direct observation of misconduct and informal rules and punishments. Regarding the interaction effect of indirect knowledge and informal rules, no statistically significant interaction was found. Finally, the results showed that at the group and organizational levels, the interaction effect of the perception of misconduct prevalence and informal rules is statistically significant. These results indicate that if informal rules regarding misconduct at the organizational level are low, direct knowledge and the prevalence of organizational misconduct are highly likely to increase the contagion and transfer of misconduct from the group level to the individual level.
Machine summary:
Numerous studies outside of Iran have been conducted on the phenomenon of misbehavior with various concepts such as theft (Hollinger, 1991), sabotage (Schminke & Ambrose, Seabright, 2002), inappropriate supervision (Tepper, 2000), dishonesty (Sheppard & Lewicki, Poland, Minton, 1997), lack of effort (Bennett & Kidwell, 1993), violence (Wegner & Pearson, Andersson, 2001), hostility toward science and art (Baron & Fisher, 1982), workplace bullying (Keashly & Rayner, 2005), and revenge (Tripp & Bies, 1998).
Given these descriptions, a new perspective on examining individual behaviors in organizations and organizational behavior management development programs is necessary and requires investigation, and the present research intends to examine the role of group misbehavior in school on the individual misbehavior of teachers through the following questions: First research question: Does the formation of organizational misbehavior have a significant relationship with the social information process (direct observation, indirect knowledge, and perception of the extent of misbehavior prevalence by school members)?
Fourth research question: Does the social information process (direct observation, indirect knowledge, and perception of the extent of organizational misbehavior prevalence) among those who have high group cohesion have more impact on the contagion of misbehavior among school members compared to those who have low group cohesion?
After controlling for the variables of job status, school size, and informal rules, the third step of the regression was performed for the three social information constructs, and the findings showed that direct observation, indirect knowledge, and the prevalence rate of organizational misbehavior partially mediate the effect of work group misbehavior on the probability of reference individuals' involvement in direct organizational misbehavior.
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