Research Article
BibTex RIS Cite

RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Year 2020, , 228 - 238, 31.12.2020
https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2020.1320

Abstract

Purpose – The number of retaliation charges filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been increasing dramatically over last decade. This analysis is grounded on the USA regulations and a merged city and a county local government in the USA. Organizational analysis was based on the work of Bolman and Deal (2008). This study's aim was to explore the relationships between organizational behavior and retaliation against employees in the USA and increase attention among scholars for further research as well. Although retaliation is classified under discrimination it is taken as a special charge.
Methodology– The recent lawsuit examples demonstrate the apparent costly conflict within the local government, organizational structure and its systems are reviewed to explore if they are causing negative conflicts in the organization. Bolman and Deal's (2008) strategy is applied to the studied local government in the USA. To be able to understand the relationships between the local governmental structure and retaliation problems is deeply analyzed on structural, human resources, political, and symbolic frames. Most of the retaliation cases took place at the Division of Community Correction. To explore if there are internal contributors’ effects to the problem requirements for a job application and job descriptions of a correction officer are investigated and compared with other organizations’ job description for the same position, as well as training requirements.
Findings – This study revealed several problems that the studied local government needs to address to prevent retaliation cases. First of all, the local government doesn’t have an established culture, and because of that, the employees are not sure how to behave or act when they face challenges. Although organizational symbols exist to eliminate confusion, ambiguity to provide direction, to secure hope and faith in organizations, the local government doesn’t have clear symbols. While stories convey values and serve as powerful modes from the tyranny of facts and logic, the local government’s employees are afraid of speaking out about some issues, and bad stories pass from employees to employees. In terms of policies, the study discovered that whatever stated officially is not in use. Harassment training is given to new beginners and never reoffered to current employees. Broken and unclear communication is another finding that might be leading to organizational problems.
Conclusion – The increasing number of costly retaliation cases in the United States needs more attention to the causes to solve this problem. Public agencies are funded by taxes paid by households and companies to the government to receive services such as water, roads, education etc. Public agencies’ high lawsuit settlement payments jeopardize the public’s rights to have services. These problems have some indirect costs which should be taken into account. Currently, little attention is paid to the subject by scholars, and therefore it needs to be explored more. The results of the study would apply to many organizations including public and private sector.

References

  • Archer, R. M., & Lanctot, S. T. (2007). Are your hands tied? A Practical look at employee claims of retaliation. Employee Relations Law Journal 33, no. 1 (53-64)
  • Balaji et al. (2020). Letting go or getting back: How organization culture shapes frontline employee response to customer incivility. Journal of Business Research 111 (2020) 1–11
  • Bavika, A., & Bavik, Y. L, (2015). Effect of employee incivility on customer retaliation through psychological contract breach: The moderating role of moral identity. International Journal of Hospitality Management 50 (2015) 66–76
  • Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T. E., (2008), Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, 4e, Jossey-Bass.
  • Camerer, C. & Vepsalainen, A, (1988). The economic efficiency of corporate culture. Strategic Management Journal, 9,115-126.
  • Charness, G. and Levine, D. I. (2010). When is employee retaliation acceptable at work? Evidence from quasi-experiments. Industrial Relations, Vol. 49, No. 4, 499-504
  • Coff, R.W. (2002). Human capital, shared expertise, and the likelihood of impasse in corporate acquisitions. Journal of Management. 28, 107–128.
  • Cortina, L. M., & Magley, V. J. (2003). Raising voice, risking retaliation: Events following interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 8(4), 247–265. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.8.4.247
  • Cortina, L.M., Magley, V.J. (2009). Patterns and profiles of response to incivility in the workplace. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 14 (3), 272–288.
  • Cortina et al. (2001). Incivility in the workplace: incidence and impact. J. Occup. Health Psychol. 6 (1), 64–80.
  • Edmans, A. (2011) Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices. Journal of Financial Economics, 101 (2011) 621–640
  • Ethics Resource Center (2010), Retaliation: The cost to your company and its employees, retrieved from http://www.ethics.org/files/u5/Retaliation.pdf
  • Ethics & Compliance Initiative (2016). 2016 measuring risk and promoting workplace integrity Global Business
  • Ethics Survey. Ethics Research Center (ERC). ISBN 978-0-916152-28-4
  • Hennequin E., What motivates internal whistleblowing? A typology adapted to the French context, European Management Journal (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.emj.2020.03.005.
  • Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
  • Kaufman, B. E. (2015). Theorising determinants of employee voice: an integrative model across disciplines and levels of analysis. Human Resources Management Journal, Volume 25, Issue 1, p. 19-40 https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12056
  • Kern, J.H., Grandey, A.A., 2009. Customer incivility as a social stressor: the role of race and racial identity for service employees. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 14 (1), 46–57.
  • Klaas, B. S., Olson-Buchanan, J. B., & Ward, A.-K. (2012). The Determinants of Alternative Forms of Workplace Voice: An Integrative Perspective. Journal of Management, 38(1), 314-345. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311423823
  • Kwon, B. and Farndale, E. (2020), Employee voice viewed through a cross-cultural lens. Human Resource Management Review, Volume 30, Issue 1, March 2020, 100653
  • Medeiros, C. R. O. & Alcapadipani R. (2016). In the corporate backstage, the taste of revenge: Misbehaviour and humor as form of resistance and subversion. Revista de Administração. Volume 51, Issue 2, April–June 2016, Pages 123-136. https://doi.org/10.5700/rausp1229
  • Mowbray, P. K. et al. (2015). An integrative review of employee voice: identifying a common conceptualization and research agenda. International Journal of Management Review, Volume 17, Issue 3 p. 382-400. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12045
  • Nechanska, E., et al. (2020). Towards an integration of employee voice and silence. Human Resource Management Review, Volume 30, Issue 1, March 2020, 100674
  • Open Jurist, retrieved from, http://openjurist.org/407/f3d/755
  • Porath, C., Pearson, C., (2013). The price of incivility. Harvard Business Review. 91 (1–2), 115–121.
  • Porter, Michael E., and Mark R. Kramer. "Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility." Harvard Business Review 84, no. 12 (December 2006): 78–92.
  • Saeed, T., et al. (2010), Knowledge management practices: Role of organizational culture, Annual Conference: Las Vegas, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1027-1036
  • Sincoff, M. Z., Slonaker, W. M. and Wendt, A. C. (2006), Retaliation: The form of 21st century employment discrimination, Business Horizons, (pp. 443-450).
  • The hard facts about employment lawsuits, retrieved from http://www.xcelhr.com/blog/Home/entryid/52/The-Facts-about-Employment-Lawsuits.aspx
  • Twomey, D. P., (2011), Employee retaliation claims under the Supreme Court’s Burlington, Crawford and Thompson decisions; important implications for employer, Labor Law Journal, Vol. 62 Issue 2, (pp. 57-66)
  • Unsal, O. (2019). Employee relations and firm risk: Evidence from court rooms. Research in International Business and Finance. 48 (pp, 1-16). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2018.11.003
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/charges.cfm
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm
  • The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2020). EEOC Releases Fiscal Year. 2019 Enforcement and Litigation Data Press Release 01-24-2020. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-releases-fiscal-year-2019-enforcement-and-litigation-data
  • The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (n.d.). Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964
  • Valenti, A., and Burke, L., (2010) Post-Burlington: What employers and employees need to know about retaliation, Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal, Vol. 22 Issue 3, (pp. 235-251).
  • Wright, R. G., (2011), Retaliation and the rule of law in today’s workplace, Creighton Law Review, Apr 2011, Vol. 44 Issue 3, (pp. 749-768).
  • Zhu, L. et al., (2020). Lead the horse to water, but don’t make him drink: The effects of moral identity symbolization on coworker behavior depend on perceptions of proselytization. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 156, 53–68
Year 2020, , 228 - 238, 31.12.2020
https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2020.1320

Abstract

References

  • Archer, R. M., & Lanctot, S. T. (2007). Are your hands tied? A Practical look at employee claims of retaliation. Employee Relations Law Journal 33, no. 1 (53-64)
  • Balaji et al. (2020). Letting go or getting back: How organization culture shapes frontline employee response to customer incivility. Journal of Business Research 111 (2020) 1–11
  • Bavika, A., & Bavik, Y. L, (2015). Effect of employee incivility on customer retaliation through psychological contract breach: The moderating role of moral identity. International Journal of Hospitality Management 50 (2015) 66–76
  • Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T. E., (2008), Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, 4e, Jossey-Bass.
  • Camerer, C. & Vepsalainen, A, (1988). The economic efficiency of corporate culture. Strategic Management Journal, 9,115-126.
  • Charness, G. and Levine, D. I. (2010). When is employee retaliation acceptable at work? Evidence from quasi-experiments. Industrial Relations, Vol. 49, No. 4, 499-504
  • Coff, R.W. (2002). Human capital, shared expertise, and the likelihood of impasse in corporate acquisitions. Journal of Management. 28, 107–128.
  • Cortina, L. M., & Magley, V. J. (2003). Raising voice, risking retaliation: Events following interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 8(4), 247–265. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.8.4.247
  • Cortina, L.M., Magley, V.J. (2009). Patterns and profiles of response to incivility in the workplace. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 14 (3), 272–288.
  • Cortina et al. (2001). Incivility in the workplace: incidence and impact. J. Occup. Health Psychol. 6 (1), 64–80.
  • Edmans, A. (2011) Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices. Journal of Financial Economics, 101 (2011) 621–640
  • Ethics Resource Center (2010), Retaliation: The cost to your company and its employees, retrieved from http://www.ethics.org/files/u5/Retaliation.pdf
  • Ethics & Compliance Initiative (2016). 2016 measuring risk and promoting workplace integrity Global Business
  • Ethics Survey. Ethics Research Center (ERC). ISBN 978-0-916152-28-4
  • Hennequin E., What motivates internal whistleblowing? A typology adapted to the French context, European Management Journal (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.emj.2020.03.005.
  • Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
  • Kaufman, B. E. (2015). Theorising determinants of employee voice: an integrative model across disciplines and levels of analysis. Human Resources Management Journal, Volume 25, Issue 1, p. 19-40 https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12056
  • Kern, J.H., Grandey, A.A., 2009. Customer incivility as a social stressor: the role of race and racial identity for service employees. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 14 (1), 46–57.
  • Klaas, B. S., Olson-Buchanan, J. B., & Ward, A.-K. (2012). The Determinants of Alternative Forms of Workplace Voice: An Integrative Perspective. Journal of Management, 38(1), 314-345. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311423823
  • Kwon, B. and Farndale, E. (2020), Employee voice viewed through a cross-cultural lens. Human Resource Management Review, Volume 30, Issue 1, March 2020, 100653
  • Medeiros, C. R. O. & Alcapadipani R. (2016). In the corporate backstage, the taste of revenge: Misbehaviour and humor as form of resistance and subversion. Revista de Administração. Volume 51, Issue 2, April–June 2016, Pages 123-136. https://doi.org/10.5700/rausp1229
  • Mowbray, P. K. et al. (2015). An integrative review of employee voice: identifying a common conceptualization and research agenda. International Journal of Management Review, Volume 17, Issue 3 p. 382-400. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12045
  • Nechanska, E., et al. (2020). Towards an integration of employee voice and silence. Human Resource Management Review, Volume 30, Issue 1, March 2020, 100674
  • Open Jurist, retrieved from, http://openjurist.org/407/f3d/755
  • Porath, C., Pearson, C., (2013). The price of incivility. Harvard Business Review. 91 (1–2), 115–121.
  • Porter, Michael E., and Mark R. Kramer. "Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility." Harvard Business Review 84, no. 12 (December 2006): 78–92.
  • Saeed, T., et al. (2010), Knowledge management practices: Role of organizational culture, Annual Conference: Las Vegas, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1027-1036
  • Sincoff, M. Z., Slonaker, W. M. and Wendt, A. C. (2006), Retaliation: The form of 21st century employment discrimination, Business Horizons, (pp. 443-450).
  • The hard facts about employment lawsuits, retrieved from http://www.xcelhr.com/blog/Home/entryid/52/The-Facts-about-Employment-Lawsuits.aspx
  • Twomey, D. P., (2011), Employee retaliation claims under the Supreme Court’s Burlington, Crawford and Thompson decisions; important implications for employer, Labor Law Journal, Vol. 62 Issue 2, (pp. 57-66)
  • Unsal, O. (2019). Employee relations and firm risk: Evidence from court rooms. Research in International Business and Finance. 48 (pp, 1-16). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2018.11.003
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/charges.cfm
  • U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm
  • The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2020). EEOC Releases Fiscal Year. 2019 Enforcement and Litigation Data Press Release 01-24-2020. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-releases-fiscal-year-2019-enforcement-and-litigation-data
  • The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (n.d.). Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964
  • Valenti, A., and Burke, L., (2010) Post-Burlington: What employers and employees need to know about retaliation, Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal, Vol. 22 Issue 3, (pp. 235-251).
  • Wright, R. G., (2011), Retaliation and the rule of law in today’s workplace, Creighton Law Review, Apr 2011, Vol. 44 Issue 3, (pp. 749-768).
  • Zhu, L. et al., (2020). Lead the horse to water, but don’t make him drink: The effects of moral identity symbolization on coworker behavior depend on perceptions of proselytization. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 156, 53–68
There are 38 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Business Administration
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Harika Suklun This is me 0000-0003-1016-268X

Publication Date December 31, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020

Cite

APA Suklun, H. (2020). RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. Research Journal of Business and Management, 7(4), 228-238. https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2020.1320
AMA Suklun H. RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. RJBM. December 2020;7(4):228-238. doi:10.17261/Pressacademia.2020.1320
Chicago Suklun, Harika. “RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR”. Research Journal of Business and Management 7, no. 4 (December 2020): 228-38. https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2020.1320.
EndNote Suklun H (December 1, 2020) RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. Research Journal of Business and Management 7 4 228–238.
IEEE H. Suklun, “RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR”, RJBM, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 228–238, 2020, doi: 10.17261/Pressacademia.2020.1320.
ISNAD Suklun, Harika. “RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR”. Research Journal of Business and Management 7/4 (December 2020), 228-238. https://doi.org/10.17261/Pressacademia.2020.1320.
JAMA Suklun H. RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. RJBM. 2020;7:228–238.
MLA Suklun, Harika. “RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR”. Research Journal of Business and Management, vol. 7, no. 4, 2020, pp. 228-3, doi:10.17261/Pressacademia.2020.1320.
Vancouver Suklun H. RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES IN THE USA: AN ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. RJBM. 2020;7(4):228-3.

Research Journal of Business and Management (RJBM) is a scientific, academic, double blind peer-reviewed, quarterly and open-access online journal. The journal publishes four issues a year. The issuing months are March, June, September and December. The publication languages of the Journal are English and Turkish. RJBM aims to provide a research source for all practitioners, policy makers, professionals and researchers working in all related areas of business, management and organizations. The editor in chief of RJBM invites all manuscripts that cover theoretical and/or applied researches on topics related to the interest areas of the Journal. RJBM publishes academic research studies only. RJBM charges no submission or publication fee.

Ethics Policy - RJBM applies the standards of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). RJBM is committed to the academic community ensuring ethics and quality of manuscripts in publications. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden and the manuscripts found to be plagiarized will not be accepted or if published will be removed from the publication. Authors must certify that their manuscripts are their original work. Plagiarism, duplicate, data fabrication and redundant publications are forbidden. The manuscripts are subject to plagiarism check by iThenticate or similar. All manuscript submissions must provide a similarity report (up to 15% excluding quotes, bibliography, abstract, method).

Open Access - All research articles published in PressAcademia Journals are fully open access; immediately freely available to read, download and share. Articles are published under the terms of a Creative Commons license which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Open access is a property of individual works, not necessarily journals or publishers. Community standards, rather than copyright law, will continue to provide the mechanism for enforcement of proper attribution and responsible use of the published work, as they do now.