Anomie at public organizations: How can the quality of work life help?

• Author: Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi,Amin Dehghani
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1995
• Date: 01 May 2020
• Published date: 01 May 2020

ACADEMIC PAPER

Anomie at public organizations: How can the quality of work

life help?

Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi

1

| Amin Dehghani

2

1

CENTRUM Católica Graduate Business

School, Pontificia Universidad Católica del

Perú, Lima, Peru

2

Department of Management, Islamic Azad

University, Sirjan Branch, Kerman, Iran

Correspondence

Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi, CENTRUM Católica

Graduate Business School, Pontificia

Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima 15023,

Peru.

Email: afshar@pucp.edu.pe

Will enhancing the quality of work life impact the reduction of anomic behaviors at

work in public sector organizations? To answer this question, we examined the

impact of three structural, managerial, and social dimensions of the quality of work

life, including the employees' anomie behaviors at the workplace. A cross-sectional

survey data were collected from 250 employees working in the public sector organi-

zations located in the Kerman Province, (southeast) Iran. Our findings support the

negative effects that the three dimensions of quality of work life have on employees'

anomic behaviors. The results of this study highlighted the importance that the qual-

ity of work life has on reducing unethical and immoral behavior among employees in

public organizations.

1|INTRODUCTION

Anomie at work has received a high level of scholar attention in

recent years (Sypniewska, 2017; Tsahuridu, 2006; Zoghbi Manrique

de Lara & Espino Rodríguez, 2007). A higher level of anomie at the

workplace led employees to engage more frequently in deviant work-

place behavior (Choi, Myung, & Kim, 2018; Zoghbi, 2008) and show

less willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behavior at the

workplace (Zoghbi Manrique de Lara & Espino Rodríguez, 2007).

Moreover, anomie in the organizations gives rise to a huge sense of

futility, powerlessness, and mistrust to the employees (Cohen, 1993),

which eventually hurt their engagement and participation within the

organization (Hodson, 1999). Therefore, it is important to know which

organizational programs and activities are important for enabling orga-

nizations to avoid (or make it limited) anomie at work.

Moral behaviors and ethical values have always been one of the

important factors for public sector organizations (Tsahuridu, 2006).

Several internal and external factors contribute to moral behaviors

and anomie of employees in public sector organizations (Bersoff,

1999; Fassin, 2005; Sypniewska, 2017). Indeed, anomie is higher in

the organizations that have weak social norms (Durkheim, 1951). Such

weakness of norms or anomie is more likely to lead to negative conse-

quences, such as unethical and anti social behaviors (Choi et al.,

2018), lack of employees' motivation within workplace, and eventually

diminish the organizational performance and effectiveness (Hodson,

1999; Zoghbi Manrique de Lara & Espino Rodríguez, 2007). As a result

of the importance of anomie at work, in this paper, we are looking to

know how the quality of work life may have an effect on anomie.

Especially, the positive and negative impact of the quality of work life

on employees' behaviors at work has been less studied in the Middle-

east context. The majority of previous researchers analysed the ante-

cedents and consequences of the quality of work life in North Amer-

ica and European countries (Raj Adhikari & Gautam, 2010). To have a

more comprehensive outlook, this study aims to address this research

gap by studying the quality of work life in the Iranian public sector

organizations.

The quality of work life has been considered as a crucial factor to

enhance organizational performance through increasing the

employees' general well-being (Cvetic, Arsovski, Stefanovic, &

Djordjevic, 2016), satisfaction (Elmuti & Kathawala, 1997; Havlovic,

1991; Lawler, 1982), and mental health (Ferriss, 2010). Westley

(1979) believe that emphasizing humanized work may result in tack-

ling insecurity, inequity, and alienation within the workplace. Further-

more, quality of work life improves the employees' motivation at work

(Lawler, 1982), it makes the work more meaningful (Serey, 2006), and

it provides an appropriate working environment for all employees

(Arsovski, Pavlovi

c, Arsovski, & Mirovi

c, 2009; Noor & Abdullah,

2012). Quality of work life includes a set of principles that are essen-

tial for improving and maintaining employees' trustworthiness

(Kandasamy & Ancheri, 2009). Depending on the context of the study,

Received: 23 May 2019 Revised: 14 June 2019 Accepted: 22 June 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1995

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