Organizational Disidentification Research Articles

Should I stay or should I go: how pay secrecy influences turnover intentions

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to extend the pay communication literature by examining the relationship between pay secrecy and turnover intentions with the inclusion of mediators. This study further analyzes the influence pay secrecy and organizational trust have on three key employee attitudinal variables that are directly related to turnover intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from participants that were recruited using Mechanical Turk, yielding a sample size of 496. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the hypotheses.FindingsFindings demonstrate pay secrecy positively influences turnover intentions. This relationship is double-mediated by organizational trust with organizational cynicism, organizational disidentification, and job embeddedness. All hypotheses were supported.Practical implicationsThis research shows that pay secrecy has negative effects on employee attitudes and behaviors. Based on the findings of this study, organizations should take steps toward pay openness to avoid employees becoming distrustful and more cynical of the organization, boost feelings of being embedded, and deter organizational disidentification.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the pay communication literature by further explaining the pay secrecy–turnover intentions relationship with the inclusion of mediators that have shown mixed results or have not been previously analyzed to the researchers' knowledge. Specifically, organizational trust, organizational cynicism, organizational disidentification, and job embeddedness were examined as mediators. Previous research has shown mixed results for the influence pay secrecy has on organizational trust, with some studies demonstrating pay secrecy to have a positive effect and others a negative effect. This study demonstrates support for pay secrecy's negative relationship with organizational trust.

Perceived organizational politics, organizational disidentification and counterproductive work behaviour: moderating role of external crisis threats to work

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to unpack the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational politics and their counterproductive work behaviour, by postulating a mediating role of organizational disidentification and a moderating role of perceived external crisis threats to work.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical assessment of the hypotheses relies on survey data collected among employees who work in a large banking organization.FindingsPerceptions that organizational decision-making is marked by self-serving behaviour increase the probability that employees seek to cause harm to their employer, because they feel embarrassed by their organizational membership. This mediating role of organizational disidentification is especially prominent when they ruminate about the negative impact of external crises on their work.Practical implicationsThis study details an important danger for employees who feel upset with dysfunctional politics: They psychologically distance themselves from their employer, which then prompts them to formulate counterproductive responses that likely make it more difficult to take on the problem in a credible manner. This detrimental dynamic is particularly risky if an external crisis negatively interferes with their work functioning.Originality/valueThis study adds to prior research by detailing an unexplored but relevant mechanism (organizational disidentification) and moderator (external crisis threats) by which perceived organizational politics translates into enhanced counterproductive work behaviour.

The lived experience of organizational disidentification: how soldiers feel betrayed, dissociate, and suffer

ABSTRACT Organizational identification has received much scholarly attention, while disidentification remains understudied. Existing studies on disidentification examined people who never identified with an organization in the first place or rely on (cross-sectional) survey data. This means that there is little research on the lived experience of the disidentification process. Based on an analysis of ten fictional war novels by veterans who disidentified, this study offers insights into the antecedents, manifestations, and effects of their disidentification. Organizational members disidentify from their organization after feeling betrayed by it, because their expectations have been violated. They disidentify through dissociating from organizational leadership, practices, bureaucracy, mission, and values. As a result, they suffer from psychological distress, identity loss, and loneliness. The article contributes to the literature by offering a qualitative, processual account of the deeply personal experiences around disidentification.

Cronies, procrastinators, and leaders: A conservation of resources perspective on employees’ responses to organizational cronyism

ABSTRACT This article draws from conservation of resources theory to detail a critical mediating role of organizational disidentification in the connection between employees’ perceptions of organizational cronyism and their procrastination, as well as a buffering role of leader–member exchange in this process. Three-wave, time-lagged data collected from employees across multiple industry sectors indicate that an important reason that beliefs about favouritism-based organizational practices escalate into enhanced procrastination behaviour is that employees feel embarrassed about their organizational membership. Yet this mediating role of organizational disidentification is less prominent to the extent that employees can draw from high-quality relationships with their immediate supervisor. For organizations, this study reveals a key mechanism – employees’ psychological distancing from their employing organization – by which dysfunctional organizational favouritism can escalate into a tendency to slack off in their job tasks, and it pinpoints how this risk can be contained by high-quality supervisor exchanges.

Organizational disidentification and change-oriented citizenship behavior

This study proposes that the extent to which employees have disidentified with their organization might reduce the likelihood that they undertake change-oriented citizenship behavior, though this negative link might be buffered by employees’ access to two personal resources (self-enhancement motive and benevolence) and two contextual resources (citizenship climate and job involvement). To test these theoretical predictions, the study gathers survey data from employees in the telecommunications sector in Canada. The results show that prior organizational disidentification curtails voluntary efforts to improve current organizational practices, but this effect is weaker when employees (1) find it important to make a good impression on others, (2) are benevolent toward others, (3) perceive that their organization encourages voluntary efforts, and (4) are highly involved with their jobs. These four factors accordingly diminish the risk that the extent to which employees have cognitively separated from their employer escalates into a reluctance to add to organizational effectiveness on a voluntary basis.

Workplace silence behavior and its consequences on nurses: A new Egyptian validation scale of nursing motives

Background Workplace silence behavior is a social collective phenomenon. It refers to nurses choosing to withhold their ideas, opinions and concerns about critical issues in their workplace. Workplace silence behavior poses a threat to organizational ethics and success. It also has adverse effects on the performance of nurses in health organizations. Underlying nursing causes of silence behaviors could be related to individual, social and organizational attributes in health care settings. Objectives The study aimed to develop a new Egyptian validation scale for measuring nursing motives of workplace silence behavior and identify consequences of workplace silence behavior on nurses. Methods A cross-sectional correlational study was implemented using questionnaires on workplace silence behavior, nursing motives and nurses' consequences, collected from 332 nurses working in critical and toxicology care settings of Alexandria Main University Hospital. Results Egyptian scale was shown to be a good fit model of exploratory (36 nursing motives emerged in six dimensions with total variance of 73.3%) and confirmatory factor analysis tests (X2 = 1381.47, NNFI =0. 90, CFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.057). It also had high reliability tests with coefficient of alpha (0.85), Pearson (0.75) and Kendall coefficient of 0.72. High level of workplace silence behaviors showed a negative association with organizational dis-identification, fair citizenship behavior, and fair nurses' performance and declined reporting of patient adverse events. It also appeared to be in a positive association with higher levels of cynicism. Conclusion The Egyptian scale was proved to be reliable and valid for measuring the underlying nursing causes of silence behaviors in the hospital workplace. Measuring nursing motives of workplace silence behaviors will help nurse managers to reduce negative outcomes of workplace silence behaviors and improve organizational outcomes.

Modified scales for organizational identification and organizational disidentification for the foodservice industry.

This study is to test whether social identity theory can be applied to employees in the foodservice industry. Modified measures of OI and ODI using a mixed-method developed and tested and presented empirical evidence for the reliability and validity of the scales. To specify the domain of construct, the existing measures of social identification varied across studies were reviewed. A preliminary list of OI and ODI measurement scales were generated based on previous measures and data from personal interviews with foodservice workers. An expert group reviewed items and removed irrelevant and redundant ones. Also, two online surveys were conducted to validate the measurements and identify the underlying structures of the constructs. The findings of this study suggest that the final measures of OI and ODI using the categorical dimension approach are one-dimensional, reliable, and valid.

Accepting, Justifying, and Resisting Identity Separation: Disidentification Processes During Layoffs

While organizational identity change has for long generated interest among researchers, the process of individual-level organizational disidentification remains largely an unexamined topic. Through a longitudinal interview study, we examine how Nokia layoff victims disidentified themselves from the organization during an assisted layoff process. We conducted an in-depth longitudinal study. Analysis Based on interviews of 20 assisted layoff victims (and additional 100 single interviews to be incorporatedreveals ), we identity four distinct paths of disidentification paths (accepting, justi-fying, ambivalent, and resisting) and thatexplain how people with different pre-layoff identity pro-files respond to job loss, engage in different sensemaking and utilization of layoff assistance, and develop different post-layoff identities.

Organizational injustice and knowledge hiding: the roles of organizational dis-identification and benevolence

PurposeWith a basis in social identity and equity theories, this study investigates the relationship between employees' perceptions of organizational injustice and their knowledge hiding, along with the mediating role of organizational dis-identification and the potential moderating role of benevolence.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses were tested with three-wave survey data collected from employees in Pakistani organizations.FindingsThe experience of organizational injustice enhances knowledge hiding because employees psychologically disconnect from their organization. This mediation by organizational dis-identification is buffered by benevolence or tolerance for inequity, which reduces employees' likelihood of reacting negatively to the unfavourable experience of injustice.Practical implicationsFor practitioners, this study identifies organizational dis-identification as a key mechanism through which employees' perceptions of organizational injustice spur their propensity to conceal knowledge, and it reveals how this process might be mitigated by a sense of obligation to contribute or “give” to organizational well-being.Originality/valueThis study establishes a more complete understanding of the connection between employees' perceptions of organizational injustice and their knowledge hiding, with particular attention devoted to hitherto unspecified factors that explain or influence this process.

Stereotype threat and older worker’s attitudes: a mediation model

PurposeTaking a social identity approach, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which age-based stereotype threat mediates the relationships between older workers’ negative age-based metastereotypes and two negative work attitudes: organizational disidentification and work disengagement.Design/methodology/approachA two-wave cross-sectional design was adopted to collect data from 423 blue-collar older workers of the Portuguese manufacturing sector. Structural equation modeling was used to test the mediation model.FindingsThe analyses show that age-based stereotype threat partially mediates the relationship between negative age-based metastereotypes and negative work attitudes. Moreover, findings suggest that older workers respond to negative age-based metastereotypes through threat reactions, and undesirable work attitudes.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by showing the importance of negative age-based metastereotypes and age-based stereotype threat in workplace dynamics. It also provides evidence that age threats impair the relationship older workers keep with their organization and their work.

Buffers or Boosters? The Role of HRM Practices in Older Workers' Experience of Stereotype Threat

ABSTRACTBuilding on the social identity approach and the HRM literature, this two-wave cross-sectional study examined the effects of negative age-based metastereotypes on the age-based stereotype threat experience of older workers and on organizational disidentification. The moderator role of HRM practices in the relationship between negative age-based metastereotypes and age-based stereotype threat was also investigated. Older workers survey results (n = 469) from 14 manufacturing companies indicated that negative age-based metastereotypes correlate positively with stereotype threat. Moderation results showed that age-awareness HRM practices (training for older workers) reinforced age-based stereotype threat, whereas general HRM practices (recognition and respect) impaired it. The article suggests that the combination of age-based metastereotypes with a stereotype threat framework contributes to further understand older workers' beliefs and attitudes. It also indicates that to be effective, HRM practices should emphasize positive social identities older workers share with their colleagues, rather than giving older workers special treatment that may, after all, reinforce stigmatization.

Interplay between trust and distrust in the workplace: examining the effect of psychological contract breach on organizational disidentification

PurposeThis study aims to examine the effect of psychological contract breach on organizational disidentification through the “affect-based” mediating mechanisms of trust and distrust.Design/methodology/approachUsing a convenient sampling technique, cross-sectional data were collected from 281 doctors working in public sector health-care organizations in Pakistan. After initial data screening, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test the measurement models’ validity and reliability. The hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS.FindingsThe results of this study showed that psychological contract breach had significant direct and indirect positive effects through the mediating mechanism of distrust on organizational identification. However, trust was not supported as a mediator in that relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThis study uses cross-sectional data. Other researchers should use longitudinal design with two or three time lags. This study uses a sample of doctors from different cities of Pakistan, as this is a global era, so results cannot be generalized; this opens the future avenue for other scholars to select a broad sample from multiple organizations like businesses and NGOs from different countries or to use it in different context. The authors have used single source (questionnaires) and quantitative method to collect data for this study, so there is a probability of self-report bias. As future is of mixed method, so future researchers should use mixed method for deep and thorough understanding of different selected phenomena.Practical implicationsDue to the experiences of breach of psychological contract, the doctors may either lose trust or may experience distrust which may further reduce their level of identification in an organization. Their contribution toward best interest of hospital decreases and their willingness to identify with their working place declines. Practically, the authors have compared that it is either the trust or distrust which can lead to organizational disidentification among doctors.Social implicationsThe findings will help employers and hospital authorities to understand that doctors are the most important strategic element of every hospital. Having sound financial, physical and informational capital is incomplete and worthless if there is no “doctor”. Because they have to deal directly with patients, so in this case, they are most important and crucial. A doctor’s identification and their loyalty with high level of trust directly on employer and indirectly on hospital all contributes toward an organization’s long-term success, and ultimately for the success of society.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature on the consequences of employees’ psychological contract breach by simultaneously testing trust and distrust as the two competing affect-based mediating mechanisms between psychological contract breach and organizational disidentification.

Psychological contract breach, organizational disidentification, and employees' unethical behavior: Organizational ethical climate as moderator

We explored the effect of psychological contract breach on employees' unethical behavior and examined the mediating and moderating roles of organizational disidentification and organizational ethical climate, respectively, using data from 362 paired questionnaires. The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that psychological contract breach was positively related to employees' unethical behavior and also that organizational disidentification completely mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees' unethical behavior. In addition, organizational ethical climate moderated the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees' unethical behavior by weakening the mediating role of organizational disidentification. The results demonstrated that avoidance of organizational disidentification and cultivation of a higher level of organizational ethical climate were conducive to the reduction of employees' unethical behavior.

Conflicted Identification in the Sex Education Classroom: Balancing Professional Values With Organizational Mandates.

Despite enormous resources spent on sex education, the United States faces an epidemic of unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections among young people. Little research has examined the role sex educators play in alleviating or exacerbating this problem. In this study, we interviewed 50 sex educators employed by public schools throughout a Midwestern, U.S. state about their experiences in the sex education classroom. Twenty-two interviewees communicated feelings of conflicted identification and provided examples of the ways in which they experienced this subjectivity in the context of their employment. We find these interviews shed light on the as-yet-understudied communicative experience of conflicted identification by delineating key sources of such conflict and discursive strategies used in its negotiation. Our results suggest that those who experience conflicted identification and who have a sense of multiple or nested identifications within their overarching professional identity may be safeguarded to some extent from eventual organizational disidentification.

Consume Less and Be Happy? Consume Less to Be Happy! An Introduction to the Special Issue on Anti‐Consumption and Consumer Well‐Being

In the last two decades of the new millennium, we have seen consumer well-being affected in two vastly opposing ways. On one hand, we see an ever-increasing conglomeration of corporations, leading to larger, more ubiquitous, and hegemonic companies--often resulting in a reduction of consumer On the other hand, with the advent of Web 2.0, ever-improving mobile technology, the increasing use and proliferation of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and numerous consumer advocacy and review websites, we see an augmentation of consumers' abilities to fight back, and in many cases, increase their These two diametrically opposing developments (larger and more powerful companies versus increasingly empowered and connected consumers) are in a constant battle, and consumer well-being is the issue at the core. BACKGROUND In this special issue of the Journal of Consumer Affairs, we suggest as one lens by which scholars, practitioners, and policymakers can look at these current and ongoing events. Anti-consumption centers on the reasons against consumption (Chatzidakis and Lee 2012; Lee et al. 2011); relevant topics include, but are not limited to: boycotting, consumer resistance, activism, culture jamming, dissatisfaction, complaining behavior, undesired self, organizational disidentification, voluntary simplification, and brand avoidance. When consumer well-being is negatively impacted by markets, corporations, or brands, may occur as one consequence. Likewise, when instances of occur, researchers should look at the possible causes from the consumers' points of view. To provide a forum for researchers to discuss the relationship between consumer well-being and anti-consumption, the 5th ICAR (International Centre of Anti-Consumption Research) Symposium was hosted by the University of Kiel, Germany, on July 4-5, 2014 with the theme of anti-consumption and consumer well-being. A number of the papers in this special issue were first presented and discussed at this lively and stimulating meeting. It is heartening to see that they were improved by the subsequent double-blind review process and are now published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, the premier journal devoted to peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary research on the interests of consumers in the marketplace. A CATEGORIZING FRAMEWORK The papers included in this special issue cover a wide spectrum of specific research questions centered on the relationship between and consumer It is apparent that there are several dominant perspectives. While some papers put a special focus on one or many forms of anti-consumption, other papers contrast practices with aspects of excessive consumption, over-consumption, and materialism. With regard to well-being, the second major concept in this special issue, some papers focus on well-being on a micro level (including happiness, life satisfaction, and subjective and objective well-being), others focus on well-being on a macro level (including societal, environmental, and political issues), and others yet focus on both. Therefore, we categorize the papers in this issue according to (anti- vs. over)consumption and (micro vs. macro) well-being (Figure 1). For example, Cherrier's article contrasts the micromotivations of nudists against the macroexcessive consumption of fashion by mainstream society, while Amos et al.'s paper contrasts the macrolevel of environmentalists with the macrolevel motivations for anti-environmentalism. In contrast, Cova and D'Antone's paper explores the tensions that occur when consumers love a brand at the micro level, but due to macrolevel of the same environmentally damaging brand, they begin to hate that brand from their own microperspective. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] As will become apparent when reading this special issue, there is a multitude of ways in which and well-being can be combined and interrelated. …

Defining who you are not: The roles of moral dirtiness and occupational and organizational disidentification in affecting casino employee turnover intention

Based on social identity and cognitive dissonance theories, this study examines the roles that occupational and organizational disidentification play in the relationship between perceived moral dirtiness and intention to quit in a sample of 152 casino dealers. The results indicate that the more casino dealers perceive their work to be morally dirty, the higher their levels of occupational and organizational disidentification. Analyses further show that both types of disidentification are positively related to turnover intention. Moreover, occupational status weakens the relationship between occupational disidentification and intention to quit, whereas perceived organizational support alleviates the negative impact that organizational disidentification has on intention to quit. This paper concludes with implications of these findings and directions for future research.

The Moderating Effect of Machiavellianism on the Psychological Contract Breach–Organizational Identification/Disidentification Relationships

We explore whether Machiavellianism—a personality trait which describes the extent to which individuals ignore values and ethical considerations when the ends justify the means—will influence their responses to their employing organizations’ failure to fulfil promised obligations (psychological contracts). Specifically, we draw on psychological contracts theory and the group value model to argue that Machiavellianism will moderate the relationships between psychological contract breach and (1) organizational identification; and (2) organizational disidentification. We tested our hypotheses in a study of 262 employees from various organizations at two points in time. We found that psychological contract breach was negatively related to organizational identification and positively related to organizational disidentification. Furthermore, employees with higher levels of Machiavellianism tended to disidentify with their organizations to a greater extent (at Time 2) in response to psychological contract breach (at Time 1) than did employees with low levels of Machiavellianism. Machiavellianism did not moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and organizational identification. Our study contributes to extant research exploring the importance of Machiavellianism in the workplace. Specifically, we show that employees with high levels of Machiavellianism are more likely to disidentify in response to psychological contract breach but do not tend to identify to a lesser degree. This study builds on the extant research exploring individual differences in the psychological contract dynamics by considering Machiavellianism as a moderator of the breach–outcome relationship.

Counterproductive Work Behaviours in Response to Emotional Exhaustion: A Moderated Mediational Approach

Drawing from the conservation of resources framework and self-control principles, we proposed a moderated mediational model through which emotional exhaustion may be linked to counterproductive work behaviours (CWBs). Analyses conducted with 175 Midwestern government workers revealed that both depersonalization (i.e. detachment from one's work, customers or co-workers) and organizational disidentification (i.e. cognitive opposition to an organization) were viable predictors of deviancy. Further, depersonalization and disidentification mediated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and CWBs, although disidentification drove these findings. Lastly, trait self-control moderated most variations of this relationship, in that this mediational model only applied to individuals with low and moderate self-control but not high self-control. Consistent with the conservation of resources framework, this study suggests that in a state of depleted emotional resources, heightened depersonalization and disidentification together provide the necessary levels of psychological/emotional withdrawal and justification for CWBs to emerge.

Psychological Contracts and Organizational Identification: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Organizational Support

Understanding the processes through which employees incorporate the organization’s identity into their own identity is critical to building positive employer-employee relationships. We draw primarily on organizational support theory to advance the argument that psychological contract breach is negatively related to organizational identification and positively related to organizational disidentification because it makes employees believe that their organizations do not value their contributions or care about their well-being (reduces perceived organizational support). Results from two studies generally provide support for our hypotheses: in Study 1, perceived organizational support fully mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and organizational identification. In Study 2, Time 2 perceived organizational support fully mediated the relationship between Time 1 relational psychological contract breach (e.g., promises related to training, development, job security) and organizational identification, but not the relationship between transactional psychological contract breach (e.g., promises related to pay and work hours) and organizational identification. Time 2 perceived organizational support partially mediated the relationship between relational psychological contract breach and organizational disidentification, but not the relationship between transactional psychological contract breach and organizational disidentification. We conclude that organizations should be concerned with this erosion of the positive employer-employee relationship (organizational identification) and fostering of a negative employer-employee relationship (disidentification).

Being the Same and Being the Different Simultaneously: Identifying (or not) with the Organization

This paper analyzes the theoretical foundations for organizational disidentification and tests the validity of organizational disidentification in a structural equation model. Organizational disidentification is defined as (1) a cognitive separation between one's identity and the identity of an organization, and (2) a negative relational categorization of oneself and the organization (Elsbach & Bhattacharya, 2001: 397). In other words, defining oneself in terms of separateness or as different from the characteristics and values of the organization. Juxtaposing organizational identification and disidentification and differentiating their antecedents and consequences enhances our understanding how workers identify with or separate themselves from their organizations. Survey data strongly supported the hypothesized model implying that identification and disidentification are different constructs rather than two ends of a continuum, as suggested by Dukerich, Kramer and McLean Parks (1998). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.