Explore antecedents of employee's soldiering in the public sector: A mix method approach

Employees’ soldiering is one of the most important challenges for managers in the public sector organizations. Soldiering, as one of the symbols of deviant behaviors in the organizations, will cause many destructive aftermaths for the managerial performance. This study aimed to investigate the antecedents of soldiering among employees in the public sector organizations considering a mix method approach. First, soldiering antecedents extracted in the public sector by using qualitative research, The use of exploratory interviews and grounded theory research strategy, and studing existing knowledge and then they were ranked according to its importance by quantitative research, numbering Instead of Likert scales and averaging. The results showed that among Thirty-Third factors extracted, the soldiering culture dominant in the society, managers incompetence, Lack of employees’ commitment, multi-job staff, poor supervision, compensation of injustices, personal relationships with managers and insufficient compensation are the most important factors having the average above 4 and political contrast between employees and managers is ranked Thirty-Third having the average below 3.3. Finally, with regard to the results, implications for practice are proposed.