Social Concern as a Means of Understanding the Risk of Workplace Deviance

Abstract

Agnew recently conceptualized social concern theory has started to gain empirical attention. However, none of the previous tests have applied social concern theory to deviance unique to the workplace. This dearth in the literature is likely partly due to the comprehensive nature of the theory and lack of concise measurement tools. The current study sought to help fill these gaps in the literature by using a modified version of Shadmanfaat et al.'s recent social concern scale to test the utility of social concern theory for explaining work deviance. Original data was collected from a sample of 301 employees of private banks in Rasht, Iran. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and regression analysis were used to test the direct, indirect, conditioning, and mediating effects of social concern on work deviance. Results generally support the propositions derived from social concern theory for work deviance by showing that all four components of social concern (e.g., conformity to others) are significantly associated with work deviance and that social concern can mediate and moderate the relationships between other causes (e.g., low self-control) and work deviance. Theoretical implications are discussed within.