Hosein Ali Mir; Naser Nastiezaie
Abstract
Extended AbstractAbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate the effect of toxic organizational climate on the management of teachers' imagery with the mediating role of negligence. The research method was descriptive-correlative. 223 teachers of Hamoon city (located in Sistan and Baluchestan province) ...
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Extended AbstractAbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate the effect of toxic organizational climate on the management of teachers' imagery with the mediating role of negligence. The research method was descriptive-correlative. 223 teachers of Hamoon city (located in Sistan and Baluchestan province) in the academic year 2021-2022 were studied by stratified-random sampling (by gender) through questionnaires of organizational toxic atmosphere, imagery management and negligence. Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling using SPSS21 and Smart PLS software were used to analyze the data. Findings showed that the toxic organizational climate has a direct and indirect positive and significant effect on teachers' imaging management, accompanied by the mediating role of negligenc. Therefore, it can be concluded that in a toxic atmosphere, teachers no longer have the initial enthusiasm and express negligence in various ways, such as delaying clients, delaying doing duties, and wasting time. Such actions force the individual to resort to imagery management strategies to justify the habits.IntroductionEmployees like to work in a healthy organizational environment, where their physical and mental health is as important as the organization's management and productivity. Several factors can change a healthy organizational environment to a stressful one. One of these cases is the toxic organizational atmosphere. Organizational climate refers to employees' perceptions, feelings, and values in their work environment, and toxic organizational climate is the product of injecting the concept of organizational toxicity into the body of organizational climate (Chamberlain & Hodson, 2010). Organizational climate affects employees' attitudes and behaviors both positively (such as productivity and job satisfaction) and negatively (such as absenteeism and leaving the service). Therefore, considering the effect that organizational climate has on teachers' behavior, principals should create a good atmosphere in schools (Amiri, 2020).Another negative consequence of the toxic organizational climate is negligence. Negligence is the deliberate procrastination of an action that a person intends to do despite being aware of its negative consequences, and often leads to dissatisfaction with performance (Zentall, 2021). Negligence is a special type of deviant work behavior that most people and organizations face today, so that the rate is reported to be about 95% (Onwuegbuzie, 2000). People who are procrastinating have symptoms of not being motivated enough to participate in team and group tasks, negligence, reasoning and excuses for not doing tasks; and usually consider factors such as fear of success, fear of failure, avoidance of things that the person is unwilling to do, lack of motivation to do work (reward), lack of knowledge and skills needed to do work, lethargy and immobility, unfavorable physical conditions effective in their negligence (Uysal & Yilmaz, 2020).Given the above, the main issue of the research is: what effect does the toxic atmosphere of the organization have on the management of teachers' imagery with a mediating role of negligence? Theoretical frameworkOrganizational climate refers to employees' perceptions, feelings and values in their work environment, and toxic atmosphere is the product of injecting the concept of organizational toxicity into the body of organizational climate (Chamberlain & Hodson, 2010) which has negative effects on mind, productivity, performance and decisions (Rasooli, 2014).The idea of imaging management was first proposed by Goffman in 1959. Imaging management is an individual's attempt to control the self-image that is present in social interactions (Tabarsa & Moeini Korbekandi, 2014). The primary motivation for imagery is that people want to avoid being negatively evaluated, both inside and outside the organization (Danayifard et al, 2014).Negligence can be defined as delaying tasks and planned activities to other times for a variety of reasons (Uysal & Yilmaz, 2020). Experts have proposed various theories regarding work negligence, such as behavioral problem (Leddy et al, 2013), cognitive problem (Pychyl & Flett, 2012), metacognitive problem (Bouman & Meijer, 1999), motivational problem (Steel & Konig, 2006), and personality disorder (Shehne Yailagh et al, 2006).Bagheri Ghajari et al (2021) in their research found that the components of performance appraisal, job status and position, role ambiguity (job stressors), leader-member exchange, organizational culture, political skills, hierarchy of accountability, self-control Personal attractiveness, self-confidence, need for power and conscientiousness have explained the personal circumstances affecting the management of mental imagery in Education staff.Eidouzahi & Nastiezaie (2020) in their research found that the narcissism of school principals both directly and indirectly and through the mediating variable of organizational hypocrisy has a positive and significant relationship with teachers' organizational silence.MethodologyThe research method is descriptive-correlative. The statistical population of the study included 528 teachers(267 females and 261 males) in Hamoon city (Sistan and Baluchestan province) in the academic year of 2021-2022. 223 teachers (113 females and 110 males) were studied by stratified random sampling (by sex) and based on the Cochran's sampling formula.To collect data related to the variable of organizational toxic atmosphere by Hadavinejad and Rustaii (2017), and the variable of imaging management strategies by Bolino and Turnelli (1999), and the variable of questionnaire of organizational negligence by Saffarinia and Amirkhani Razligi (2011) ) Was used.Discussion and ResultsThe structural equation model with the help of SPSS21 and Smart PLS software was used to test the research hypothesis and analyze the data. The results showed that the value of β factor of organizational toxic atmosphere on teachers' imagery management is 0.24. Given that the obtained value of T, which is equal to 4.21 and is greater than the standard value of 1.96, as a result, the toxic atmosphere of the organization has a positive and significant effect on the management of teachers' imagery. The value of β factor of organizational toxic atmosphere on teachers' negligence is 0.55. Given that the obtained value of T, which is equal to 10.41 and is greater than the standard value of 1.96, as a result, the toxic organizational climate has a positive and significant effect on teachers' negligence. The value of coefficient β of negligence on imagery is 0.62. Given that the obtained value of T, which is equal to 11.75 and is greater than the standard value of 1.96, as a result, negligence has a positive and significant effect on teachers' imagery management. According to the value of the following indicators:a) the value of the path coefficient of the independent variable on the mediator variable: a = 0.55,b) the value of the path coefficient of the mediator variable on the dependent variable: b = 0.62,c) the standard error of the path of both the independent and the mediator variable: Sa = 0.05,d) The standard error of the path of both mediator and dependent variable: Sb = 0.053,the obtained value of Z was equal to 7.60. Since this value of Z was greater than the value of 2.58, therefore, the indirect effect of organizational toxic atmosphere on the management of imagery mediated by organizational negligence (β = 0.34) is significant at the significance level of 0.01. To determine the intensity of the effect of the mediating variable, the VAF index is used, the value of which is between 0 and 1. The closer this value to 1, the stronger the effect of the mediating variable, and vice versa. According to the obtained VAF value (0.58), it can be said that the intensity of the effect of the mediating variable is moderate and the toxic organizational atmosphere has a positive and significant effect on the management of teachers' imagery with the mediating role of negligence.ConclusionThe aim of this study was to investigate the effect of organizational toxic atmosphere on imagery management mediated by organizational negligence. The findings of this hypothesis are consistent with the findings of Hadaninejad & Rustayi (2017); Zare et al., (2017); Hakkak et al., (2019). A toxic organizational atmosphere in which the staff, unable to express the ideas; take no part in decision-makings; even cannot protest against the various job and organizational issues; and only do the assigned tasks, no knowledge and no change will be produced. The staff in such a toxic atmosphere will not have the primary enthusias, and will be kind of indifferent. In this status, the organization's problems, prosperity, goals, and missions, as well as the client's view of the organization, become worthless to employees; therefore, they work only to the extent of receiving salaries and not being fired in the organization, resulting the occurrence of negligence exhibit in various forms such as aggression, distraction, disgust of duties, ambiguity and confusion in doing things (Neenan & Dryden, 2002), increasing absenteeism and failure, poor performance and efficiency, reduced productivity, dissatisfaction, customer procrastination, reduced employee motivation and increased employee substitution between units (Saleem & Rafique, 2012), delay in doing assigned duties, waste of time and negative attitudes (Ozer & Sachs, 2011) in the workplace. Such actions force the individual to give a number of reasons to justify the habits in question, so that he can resolve his mental conflicts and cognitive inconsistencies, among which will be the approach to imagery management.According to the present study, it is suggested that the management of the organization should act in a way that fits into the general belief of teachers that the organization values their services and arranges a suitable work environment and is concerned about their comfort. In addition, avoiding harsh and unkind treatment of teachers while criticizing management decisions, and respectful and appreciative behavior with teachers can improve the atmosphere of the organization. The principals can train the teachers by holding workshops, strategies and skills to deal with negligence, including clarifying goals, planning before work, time management, categorizing work activities (urgent and important, urgent, important), trying to motivate and avoiding laziness, avoiding justification, to indoctrination, punishment and evitable conditioning, changing the environment, creating love and affection, finding a disciplined friend, self-regulating, and not expecting rapid progress.
