Date

6-19-2024

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Chair

Patrick T. Slowinski

Keywords

passive-avoidant leadership, laissez-faire leadership, management-by-exception passive, job embeddedness, deviant workplace behaviors

Disciplines

Human Resources Management | Psychology

Abstract

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have experienced unprecedented changes in the workforce, including labor shortages and new legislation. As a result, many organizations, known as second-chance employers, proactively seek alternative talent sources to mitigate staffing shortages, including hiring candidates with criminal backgrounds, either voluntarily or as mandated by law. However, this approach has challenges; individuals with criminal records often lack essential support upon reentry and experience an increased risk of reoffending. Although existing literature indicates that the appropriate leadership style is crucial for behavior correction, there is a gap in the literature addressing employees who work for a second-chance employer. Additionally, research on job embeddedness and workplace deviance presents mixed results. This study addressed the gap in the existing literature by examining the relationship among passive-avoidant leadership, job embeddedness, and deviant workplace behaviors. Study limitations include potential social desirability bias, limited generalizability due to the focused context, and a cross-sectional design preventing causal conclusions. This study featured 217 participants recruited from a convenient sample of 16,186 LinkedIn contacts. Subjects completed the multifactor leadership questionnaire, the deviant behavior scale, and the global measure of job embeddedness scale. Findings indicate that job embeddedness does not moderate the relationship between passive-avoidant leadership and deviant workplace behaviors, but passive-avoidant leadership positively and significantly relates to deviant workplace behaviors. Additionally, there was no relationship found between job embeddedness and deviant workplace behaviors. This research has implications for leadership, organizational behavior, the Christian community, and human resources management, stressing the relationship between leadership and deviant workplace behaviors.

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