Social Undermining and Deviant Organizational Behaviors: Investigating the Mediating Role of Organizational Silence and Emotional Exhaustion

Social undermining is a specific type of aggression in the workplace that has been investigated for more than two decades. However, it has not received as much attention as it should in the field of managerial research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of organizational silence and emotional exhaustion in the relationship between social undermining and organizational deviant behaviors. The study was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of data collection and analysis. The statistical population of the study consisted of 235 employees of the West Azerbaijan Electricity Company. For the evaluation of social undermining, emotional exhaustion, organizational silence, and organizational deviant behaviors, the questionnaires of Duffy et al. (2002), Maslach and Jackson (1981), Van Dyne et al. (2003), and Bennett and Robinson (2000) were used, respectively. Through simple random sampling, 160 questionnaires were distributed, out of which 134 questionnaires were completed and returned. Data analysis and testing of research hypotheses were performed by structural equation modeling and Amos software. The results showed that social undermining of the colleagues would lead to deviant organizational behaviors of employees. In addition, the mediating role of organizational silence and emotional exhaustion in this relationship was confirmed.