The Provision of a Social Undermining Model Within the Public Organizations’ Culture Based on the Organizational Experts’ Opinion

Organizational culture is one of the most prominent factors in the formation of individual and organizational performance. If it is contaminated with negative and destructive issues, it will have harmful consequences. One of the harmful consequences that has cultural traces and can have significant effects on the individual and organizational performance is social undermining. Social undermining is an organizational phenomenon that implies negative behaviors in the social interactions and communications among the individuals in an organization, and is known as a serious threat against the effectiveness of organization. Accordingly, the study at hand was carried out to provide a social undermining model within the public organizations’ culture based on the organizational experts’ opinion. This study is an exploratory qualitative research project. The statistical population was comprised of the human resource managers of public organizations and university professors functioning as the study experts who were selected through snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were used as data collection instrument whose reliability and validity were confirmed through content validity and intra- and inter-rater coding. The obtained results were analyzed using grounded theory and coding method as well as Atlas.ti software, and the social undermining model was then developed. The results of the study involved the identification of causal factors, intervening factors, contextual factors, axial phenomenon, strategies, and consequences of social undermining. For instance, the individual and social causal factors related to social undermining include wrath, envy, expression of negative feelings, character assassination, sell-out, rumor mongering, ineffective management, ineffective punishment system, lack of trust and respect in the organization, competitive atmosphere, and conflict-bearing atmosphere.