The emergence of deviant behaviors in the physical work environment

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, the relationship between crowding perceptions (i.e. employees’ perceptions of insufficient personal space due to offices’ physical constraints) and deviant workplace behaviors (DWBs) directed at both the organization as a whole (DWB-O) and individuals (DWB-I); and second, privacy invasion from supervisors and peers as a mediator. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 299 respondents working in open-plan offices at four medium-to-large sized IT-based companies. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, the paper suggests that under crowding conditions employees can perceive the physical workspace as a space-related resource that is threatened leading them to engage in DWBs out of a conservation strategy. Findings Structural equation modeling results significantly supported main effects of employees’ crowding perceptions on the two types of DWBs, with privacy invasion from supervisors and peers as full mediator. Research limitations/implications The study could suffer from mono-method/source bias, and specificities of the studied IT-based companies and their work can raise concerns about the generalizability of the results. Practical implications The findings indicate that a proper physical office arrangement can be a useful tool for managers in combating employee DWB. Originality/value To date, the origin of workplace deviance has mainly been investigated in terms of the psychosocial work environment; however, the physical labor conditions (i.e. the layout of buildings, furniture, workspace, air conditioning, workplace density, etc.) have received little systematic attention.

How to Alleviate Feelings of Crowding in a Working from Home Environment: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Kim and de Dear also found that satisfaction with the amount of available workspace influences employees' overall perceptions of the workspace [59]. In addition to satisfaction and productivity, crowding affects deviant workplace behaviors, such as violent and antisocial behavior [60,61]. All of these results show that how workers feel about the amount of their workspace has a profound effect on their well-being and productivity.…”

“…As previously mentioned, there is ample evidence that crowding feelings in the workplace affect workers' perceptions and behaviors [44,[58][59][60][61]. Our second and third hypotheses were determined to examine these relationships in the WFH context.…”

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