For Who and Why Organizational Dehumanization is Linked to Deviant and In-Role Behaviors

Abstract

“We are humans not robots !” This protest slogan denounces a working reality in which employees perceive that they are reduced to a mere tool or instrument at the service of the organization. Such an experience refers to organizational dehumanization. Researchers have recently indicated that organizational dehumanization may shape employee work behaviors. However, why, and for who, organizational dehumanization leads to maladaptive work behaviors remains unclear in this literature. Drawing upon social exchange theory, we first propose that employees who experience organizational dehumanization engage in negative reciprocity by first developing thoughts of revenge that, in turn, materialize into more organizational deviance and reduced in-role job performance. Building upon models of personality, we then argue that compliance mitigates the indirect effect of organizational dehumanization on workplace behaviors via thoughts of revenge. Overall, the combined results of an experimental study (based on the vignette procedure), a cross-sectional study and a three-wave study provide strong evidence for our hypothesized relationships. In showing this, our research suggests that organizational dehumanization promotes a negative exchange relationship between the employer and its employee. Furthermore, our paper conveys the idea that compliant employees may prefer conflict-avoidance strategies to conflict-assertion strategies.