Recent research highlights the importance of respect in the workplace (Grover, 2014; Rogers & Ashforth, 2014), yet has received little empirical examination, especially in the public sector in emerging economy such as Vietnam.... [ view full abstract ]
Recent research highlights the importance of respect in the workplace (Grover, 2014; Rogers & Ashforth, 2014), yet has received little empirical examination, especially in the public sector in emerging economy such as Vietnam. Additionally, negative workplace behaviour results in severe psychological impact to public sector employees (Fevre et al., 2011). The present study weaves together research on negative workplace behaviours and respect to examine how they relate to employee outcomes.
The culture of Vietnam highlights the importance of respect in two ways. First, the high power distance between managers and subordinates may encourage workplace bullying (Thang et al., 2007). Second, the cultural values of paternalism, harmony and respect for the position of legitimate authority encourage positive relationships between managers and subordinates (Truong & van der Heijden, 2009).
Respect theory suggests that "generalised respect" (being treated with the dignity that humans deserve) supports group membership. This is reflected in the results, which show that felt generalized respect from one’s supervisor was positively associated with work engagement and OCB. This type of respect also positively resulted in the respect of employees for their leaders that was negatively related to bullying. The second respect type, "particularistic respect" (the respect that subordinates held in their leaders for specific skills) was negatively related to bullying behaviours, which in turn resulted in less engagement and OCB. This study contributes to understanding in several ways. The differential role of respect is theorized but not well understood empirically, and we begin to develop the nomological net by showing how these different kinds of respect relate to other important constructs. Specifically, we advance previous research that shows "generalised" respect to be related to group membership and advance it toward workplace outcomes. We also show how "particularised" respect for supervisors relates to, and possibly elicits, bullying behaviour from supervisors.
References
Grover, S. L. (2014). Unraveling respect in organization studies. Human Relations, 67(1), 27-51.
Fevre, R., Lewis, D., Robinson, A. and Jones, T. (2011). Insight into ill-treatment in the workplace: Patterns, causes and solutions. Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University.
Rogers, K. M., & Ashforth, B. E. (2014, online first). Respect in organizations: Feeling valued as “we” and “me”. Journal of Management.
Thang, L. C., Rowley, C., Quang, T. & Warner, M. (2007). To what extent can management practices be transferred between countries? The case of human resource management in Vietnam. Journal of World Business, 42(1), 113-127.
Truong, Q. & van der Heijden, B. I. J. M. (2009). The changing face of human resource management in Vietnam. In Rowley, C. and Truong, Q. (ed.), The changing face of Vietnamese management, Routledge, London.
