The relationship between workplace deviant behaviors and organizational justice among nurses: A cross-sectional survey

The effect of perceived organizational justice on workplace deviant behavior of new nurses: the role of emotional labor and psychological capital

BACKGROUND

New nurses are prone to workplace deviant behavior in the constrained hospital environment, which will not only directly affect the safety of patients, but also reduce the work efficiency of nurses and bring negative results to the hospital. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived organizational justice, emotional labor, psychological capital, and workplace deviant behavior of new nurses.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was used in this study. A survey was conducted in 5 hospitals in Henan Province, Chain from February to April 2023. The sample size was 546. The questionnaire included general information, perceived organizational justice scale, emotional labor scale, psychological capital scale, and workplace deviant behavior scale. SPSS 26.0 and PROCESS Macro were used for data analysis. PROCESS Model 4 and Model 14 were used to verify the model.

RESULTS

This study displays that perceived organizational justice was negatively correlated with emotional labor and workplace deviant behavior, and emotional labor was positively correlated with workplace deviant behavior. Meanwhile, emotional labor plays a partial mediating role between perceived organizational justice and workplace deviant behavior, accounting for 32.7% of the total effect. Moreover, the path of emotional labor on workplace deviant behavior is moderated by psychological capital.

CONCLUSION

This study further understood the workplace deviant behavior of new nurses, and provided a new perspective for solving this problem. Nurse managers can reduce workplace deviant behavior by enhancing the perceived organizational justice and psychological capital of new nurses and improving emotional labor.

Relationship between workplace spirituality with organization-based self-esteem and workplace deviant behaviors among Iranian nurses

BACKGROUND

Despite the numerous studies conducted on workplace spirituality, there is still lack of studies that have explored the relationship between workplace spirituality with organization-based self-esteem and workplace deviant behaviors. This study aims to examine the relationship between workplace spirituality with organization-based self-esteem and workplace deviant behaviors among Iranian nurses.

METHODS

236 nurses from 5 hospitals participated in this descriptive, analytical, and cross-sectional study from August to December 2022. Data was gathered by four questionnaires: demographic information, workplace spirituality, organization-based self-steam, and workplace deviant behaviors. The data were analyzed by SPSS 26 based on descriptive and inferential statistics (Independent Two-sample t Test, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression).

RESULTS

Based on the findings, nurses had a moderate level of perception of workplace spirituality and organization-based self-esteem while having a low level of perception regarding the occurrence of workplace deviate behaviors. Results of Pearson correlation coefficient test showed a positive and statistically significant relationship between workplace spirituality and organization-based self-esteem. Additionally, there was an inverse and significant relationship between workplace spirituality and organization-based self-esteem with workplace deviant behaviors. Results of multiple regression analyses indicate that by controlling the demographic characteristics of nurses, the meaningful work and sense of community have a significant relationship with organization-based self-esteem. Furthermore, by controlling the demographic characteristics of nurses, permanent employment status, sense of community, alignment with the organization's values, and organization-based self-esteem have a significant relationship with workplace deviant behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

The study suggests that organizations must prioritize promoting workplace spirituality and organization-based self-esteem to ensure a healthy work environment and prevent workplace deviant behaviors.

Servant leadership in relation to organizational justice and workplace deviance in public hospitals

Purpose

Leadership literature has identified that the servant leadership style can reduce employee negative work outcomes, even in challenging work environments like the health-care sector as nurses play an important role in the performance of a hospital. That is why, the efficiency and effectiveness of the nurses are believed to be directly linked to improved health benefits to the public. So, this study aims to investigate the inter-relationship between servant leadership, organizational justice and workplace deviance of nurses in public sector hospitals.

Design/methodology/approach

A self-administrated questionnaire using a drop-and-collect method was used for collecting the data from nurses working in the public sector hospitals of Pakistan using a convenient sampling technique. In total, 370 questionnaires were distributed among the nursing staff, of which 201 completed and usable questionnaires were returned and used for data analysis. Further, the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach is used in this study using SmartPLS version 3 software to test the hypothesized model and determine the direct and indirect effects.

Findings

Results showed a negative relationship between servant leadership and workplace deviance, positive relationship between servant leadership and organizational justice, negative relationship between organizational justice and workplace deviance and that organizational justice mediates in the relationship between servant leadership and workplace deviance.

Practical implications

This study provides valuable recommendations and practical implications to address the nurses’ deviant workplace behaviors in the public sector hospitals of Pakistan.

Originality/value

This study is novel as it shows the significance of servant leadership behavior which has the ability to positively influence organizational justice perception leading to less likelihood of the emergence of nurses’ deviant workplace behavior, specifically in the context of public sector hospitals of Pakistan.

Organizational Justice and Health: A Survey in Hospital Workers

In complex systems such as hospitals, work organization can influence the level of occupational stress and, consequently, the physical and mental health of workers. Hospital healthcare workers were asked to complete a questionnaire during their regular occupational health examination, in order to assess the perceived level of organizational justice, and to verify whether it was associated with occupational stress, mental health, and absenteeism. The questionnaire included the Colquitt Organizational Justice (OJ) Scale, the Karasek/Theorell demand-control-support (DCS) questionnaire for occupational stress, and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) for mental health. Workers were also required to indicate whether they had been absent because of back pain in the past year. Organizational justice was a significant predictor of occupational stress. Stress was a mediator in the relationship between justice and mental health. Occupational stress was more closely related to perceptions of lack of distributive justice than to perceptions of procedural, informational, and interpersonal justice. Physicians perceived significantly less distributive justice than other workers. In adjusted univariate logistic regression models, the perceptions of organizational justice were associated with a significant reduction in the risk of sick leave for back pain (OR 0.96; CI95% 0.94−0.99; p < 0.001), whereas occupational stress was associated with an increased risk of sick leave (OR 6.73; CI95% 2.02−22.40; p < 0.002). Work organization is a strong predictor of occupational stress and of mental and physical health among hospital employees.