Shareholders Enjoy Growth at Dick's Sporting Goods Assignment - 30

Shareholders Enjoy Growth at Dick's Sporting Goods - Assignment Example As the paper outlines, one of the key successes of Dick's Sporting Goods is the fact that products are stocked according to a local area's seasons. This can reduce costs, which in turn the company can pass onto the customers in the form of cheaper yet high-quality products. Another reason why business has flourished is that Ed Stack has placed key emphasis on the customer experience. For any business that is struggling to establish itself in the marketplace, developing strong relationships with customers is one of the few things that can be controlled. There are so many other variables that can change depending on different factors, but being nice and courteous to customers is something that is attainable. Ed Stack has realized this and the result has been that many repeat customers have been created.  The reason why rapid growth can sometimes be a bad thing for a company is that it has not prepared to expand business operations. Few experts can predict when a company will take off , so when it does it often happens by surprise. This causes the firm to adjust its strategic goals and objectives, and sometimes it does not have long enough to accurately form these. Another reason why rapid growth is not such a good idea is that expenses tend to rise faster than revenue, creating a short-term loss. While this may not prove to be fatal to a company, it can mean that the company has to secure external financing in order to break even and doing this can strain company finances and resources. It is often the case that steady growth is better than rapid growth for the long term because the company can adapt its strategies at a pace that keeps up with the company's growth. Trying to accomplish this feat when the company is expanding rapidly is difficult to do because simple mistakes can cause damage to the company in the long term.

Tax allowable deductions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Tax allowable deductions - Essay Example These qualify at lower rates than ordinary dividends. For the two categories, the rates of dividend are given according to tax brackets. 10. Taxable refunds, credits, or offsets of state and local income taxes IRS sec. 6050(e) it says any person who makes refunds of $10 or more in the year on behalf of the state shall be liable to fill the form for refunds. 13 Salaries and wages (less employment credit) - Treasury Regulation section 1.47(1-4) – any wages and/ or salaries paid to any employee is allowable for tax purposes. The employment credit should be deducted therefrom. 17 Taxes and licenses- Treasury Regulation section 26(1) taxes from the corporate are paid to the treasury as well as any licenses. Very high amounts of taxes are remitted directly to the treasury officials 20 Depreciation from Form 4562 not claimed on Schedule A or elsewhere on return (attach Form 4562) - Treasury Regulation section 1.167(a) and (b) states that there is no time that depreciation shall be charged above a figure so reasonable than its salvage value. 23 Pension, profit-sharing, etc., plans  ­- Treasury Regulation section 1.401-1 states that these plans should withhold 10% of the contribution in early remittances and such contributions by employees are tax allowable. 28 Taxable incomes, before net operating loss deduction and special deductions. Subtract line 27 from line 11- Treasury Regulation section 1.861.8 says that the taxable income so determined is from operations in the United States. 29a Less: a Net operating loss deduction (see instructions) - Treasury Regulation section 1.904.3 losses are carried forward from previous years and profits are taxed with the existing rate. (James et al,

Organization Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Organization Theory - Essay Example Therefore the role of the leader is to find a compromise between all of his employees to perform the organization objectives. "The resource base view of the firm infers that firms create competitive advantage by implementing unique combinations of resources and business practices that are difficult (or impossible) for competitors to imitate" from this viewpoint, Human resource practices are key components of overall firm strategy. In fact, the success of some well-known firms has been attributed to their HR practices as a competitive advantage (e.g. Southwest Airlines and SAS" (Porter 1990). This paper addresses three important themes addressed in three chapters in the course focusing on Tesco as the case study institution. In the first part of the paper, an overview of the institution under analysis is presented. Part two of the paper presents the strength weaknesses opportunities and threats of TESCO. The part of the paper, evaluate the motivational strategies of Tesco, in relation to chapter ten of the study. Part four focuses on corporate social responsibilities of Tesco, while the last section focuses on Tesco decision making. Founded by Jack Cohen in 1919, Tesco Plc has come a long way and has established itself as the largest super store in Europe. At the turn of the century, Tesco became very proactive in coming up to the requirements of the new ear and tesco.com was launched, followed by aggressive entry into international markets like Malaysia, Japan & Turkey, China & the US. Today, the international operations of Tesco yield more profit as compared to the profits in the Europe market. More than half of Tesco's selling space is in markets outside Europe. The Tesco Plc website states "shareholders. Today the Group operates in 12 markets outside the UK, in Europe, Asia and North America. Over 160,000 employees work in our international businesses, serving over 28 million customers and generating 13.8 billion sales and over 700 million profit." Tesco denotes its success to an aggressive global strategy of geographic diversification. In its attempt to renew the brand and keep it in sync with changing customer tastes and keeping up the growth figures in future, Tesco follows various strategies including international diversification, providing value to customers, product diversification, innovation, and umbrella branding 1.2 SWOT Analysis of Tesco 1.2.1 Strengths Premium location, centre of primary target market catchments. High exposure to foot and vehicular traffic. Better value in the form of lower prices Fresher Merchandise Unique service offering to this market and highly recognized in UK. High level of qualified resources and their professional capabilities to

The Kingdom of Ends Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Kingdom of Ends - Essay Example "In the kingdom of ends everything has either a price or dignity. Whatever has a price can be replaced by something else as its equivalent; on the other hand, whatever is above all price, and therefore admits of no equivalent, has a dignity." (Kant 42) In this statement above, Kant mentions that morality which is attributed as a universal requirement for every person in the society has a price, a price which is placed on virtue or vice. In this sense, morality can have a price if it is inclined to a good thing or a bad thing. The price of a bad thing or a vice is tantamount to a sin according to the laws of God. And the price of a sin is an eternal life in hell with Satan. On the other hand, a good thing or a virtue is rewarded by a promise of a happy after life. This is associated to the life in heaven with God where the price is happiness and joy in an eternal life. Therefore the human person in his nature can choose to do whatever he or she likes. This can be in the form of something that is not considered of ethical standards or one that is justified as being good. However, in the kingdom of ends, the virtuous side is only considered by Kant where the moral nature of man is at play. This moral aspect is the one that provides the creation of a universal law, a law that every one is supposed to be conversant with and obey its directions. In another aspect however, morality is correlated to dignity. Dignity as it is known is the term that means an ethical inclination of a person where he or she accords respect to others and also accorded respect in return. Hence, dignity is something that has no direct price because it is inwardly developed in someone. Due to this inward development of dignity, it does not have an equivalent of it because it is unique in each and every human. Thus moral value of dignity can not be measured in terms of price as it is not visible for one to measure. The level of dignity that is given to somebody is probably the only measure that can be used to determine morality. In this sense, Kant mentions, "For when moral value is being considered, the concern is not with the actions, which are seen, but rather with the inner principles, which are not seen." (Kant 19) Human nature which is exhibited in dignity is correlated to an art in the kingdom of ends. An art or talent is something that is God given. This means that it can not be created by the human being but only by the supernatural being God. Because of this, it can not be tagged a price that can be purchased by anyone. Just like one can not buy another human being, dignity can not be bought. It is something non-tangible. Art can be something that can be fostered in someone through learning and continuous practice. One can involve him or herself in continuous practice that with time perfects this ability in a specific field. Likewise in dignity, it can be practiced so that one can gain a high level of respect from others. However, in the Kingdom of ends, it can only be practiced by obeying and constantly following the universal law. The universal law acts as the

Homelessness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Homelessness - Essay Example His name is John Doe and I have seen him before near Wal-Mart about five blocks away. I have read somewhere that the homeless tend to shy away from public contact. So I was a bit hesitant to approach John. I was, hence, quite surprised and thankful that he was accommodating to my pleasantries. And so, after introducing myself and declaring my intentions, I immediately asked him about his attitudes about other people, if it’s true that they avoid contact or that if he asked for help. He replied that it was obvious: â€Å"You see us, yes? I am not exactly proud of my condition. Even if I am like this, I am ashamed to ask for help. Being homeless is bad enough but being refused help is worse. Dignity is all I have left.† He added that the other homeless he knows have experienced being driven out by relatives and friends while there are those who have simply lost contact with them or that some have simply died. â€Å"Just gone, and we’re alone. That’s the fact.† We chatted further and I found that he has a daughter living in San Diego. He was not keen on talking about her and from the most I could understand from bits of information he was willing to share was that she doesn’t know about his plight and he does not want to trouble her with the new family she’s starting. There was this faraway look in his eyes that perhaps again saw the past regrets. So I asked about more mundane things such as how they eat, sleep and socialize with other homeless people. He told me it depends. Since he is constantly on the move, there is no opportunity for friendship or socialization. â€Å"It is sad that most of the time the only relationship I have with them is driven by competition.† He was referring about food. Also, it appears that there is no social hierarchy among the homeless and that the closest to this would be the kind of territoriality that comes in foraging food and in asking for alms. The

Access Database Essay Example for Free

Access Database Essay Problem: Create a computerised relational database using Microsoft Access for a library close by because the library has too many papers and lose many of them, so they want a database that solves all their problems. Users: The Librarian will be going to use the database, and the assistance will also use it, the assistance might not be an expert so the assistance must take classes on how to use the database because it has to be used carefully. I will also make it user friendly Objectives: * Must have more than one table (entity) to create relationships * Each table has a primary key to uniquely identify each record * Each table is linked through primary/foreign keys * The database will be normalised so each table has its appropriate data * Create Forms to gather data/reduce mistakes * Create Queries to search for data * Create Reports to show the output from your queries * Make database user friendly so it can be used * To show the stock of the videos in the library * Age group of videos Alternative solutions: I could have used a flat file database or Microsoft Excel but I used a Computerised relational database because if I use flat file database there will be lots of paper, too much space will be used unnecessarily and too much to carry. And I couldnt use Microsoft Excel because the librarian doesnt have that software so I used Microsoft Access. Software: The database managing system is Microsoft Access and the desktop publishing is Microsoft Word in this very project. Hardware: In this project, I will use a Windows Based PC because all computers in School support them, I will also use a Printer to print out all evidence and paper work. I will also use a memory stick as a backup for my project so if it is lost I always have my memory stick. Security: For security I will save my work regularly so this would reduce the risk of it not being saved. I will also save it in several places for example: school computer, computer at home and USB. This will make sure I wont lose my work. I will also regularly print out pages of the project, this will assure the examiner I have done the project, and this will come very handy if all my work is lost. Input method: I will input data in design view using Microsoft Access to create tables, fields. And when my system will be complete, when I hand it over to my customers they will input data via the forms (in fields) Output method: The output is when you run a Query on a PC, its result or output will come onto a report, that is that is the output method. Process: When query runs it searches fro a database that is an example of a process. Verify: Verification is the process of checking that input data is correct. It is normally carried out by a human who visually compares the data with the source document. To site check, is an example of verification. For example, to check that the fields work. Validate: Verification is the process of checking that input data is correct. It is normally carried out by a human who visually compares the data with the source document. Input masks, is an example of validation. Questionnaire 1. What do you think I could improve in my hand drawn plans? 2. What do you think is good in my hand drawn plans? 3. Do you think my database looks user-friendly, if not why? 4. What do you think of the layout of my hand drawn plans? 5. Is the colour combination used good, is the style of the page good? 6. Overall, what do you think of the hand drawn plans, should I redo do them, or keep it as it is? 7. Out of a rating of 5 being the highest, what do you rate this database? Test Plan OBJECTIVES TEST * Must have more than one table (entity) to create relationships I will check that the relationships work because if they work that means I have more than one table * Each table has a primary key to uniquely identify each record I will check that the primary key is working in Microsoft Access * Each table is linked through primary/foreign keys I will check that I connect the Invoice table with Customer and Video table and check it in E-R diagram * The database will be normalised so each table has its appropriate data I will check that each table has its own headings so that it is user friendly and will check it in design view * Create Forms to gather data/reduce mistakes I will open the forms and check if they work properly in Microsoft Access * Create Queries to search for data I will open the queries and check if they work properly in Microsoft Access * Create Reports to show the output from your queries I will open the reports and check if they work properly in Microsoft Access * Make database user friendly so it can be used I will ask people about my database by giving them a questionnaire, if they think it user friendly * To show the stock of the videos in the library I will check in my forms that there is a field for the stock of the videos * Age group of videos I will check in my forms that there is a field for age group of videos Objectives What should happen? What actually happened? 1. Must have more than one table (entity) to create relationships The tables should have relationships + must work They worked as I expected them to 2. Each table has a primary key to uniquely identify each record The table has a primary key, the main one The tables didnt work because it had no primary key 3. Each table is linked through primary/foreign keys The tables should be linked through primary keys They worked as I expected them to 4. The database will be normalised so each table has its appropriate data The tables should have its appropriate fields according to their table They all had the appropriate fields 5. Create Forms to gather data/reduce mistakes When I open the forms they should work and look like the ones as I designed them to be They did work but did not like the ones I designed 6. Create Queries to search for data When I open the queries they should work and look like the ones as I designed them to be They worked as I expected 7. Create Reports to show the output from your queries When I open the reports they should work and look like the ones as I designed them to be They did work but did not like the ones I designed 8. Make database user friendly so it can be used From user feedback they should tell me its user friendly From user feedback I got told that my database is user friendly 9. To show the stock of the videos in the library When I open the library, there should be a field called Stock of Videos There was not the field, which I wanted 10. Age group of videos There should be a field called Age group of videos in video form There was the field, which I wanted Testing Table 11. To have a customized When I open up database A switch board did Switch board customized switch board not open up should open up Evaluation of objectives * Must have more than one table (entity) to create relationships I kept more than one table, in order to input more data. With more tables, there could be more forms. More different subjects, and so the database can be made. The main reason was so I can create relationships. The reason for the relationships are so I can relate or link the tables with each other. This is very helpful. For example: I can add the field name Customer_ID from the Customer form, and the field name Video_ID from the Video form to the Invoice from. In the end, I managed to achieve the objective. * Each table has a primary key to uniquely identify each record Each table has to have a primary key to uniquely identify each record because without it the table would not work, they are also needed for relationships, if you want to create relationships between several tables. At first it did not work but later after many attempts I achieved the objective. * Each table is linked through primary/foreign keys All the tables are supposed to be linked through the primary/foreign keys or else they will not work. I did this on the E-R diagram and also did it on the database and I achieved the objective. * The database will be normalised so each table has its appropriate data I normalised the data, for each table. I did 3 normalisations. In the first one, I just kept any field names I thought would be useful in my database. In the second one, I put them in tables and in third normalisation I took out the extra field names that were not relevant. Most of it was good; except one field name was wrong, I edited it and achieved the objective. * Create Forms to gather data/reduce mistakes I created forms for the database so I can input data. Then I created them at first they did not work, but later I fixed them and achieved the objective. * Create Queries to search for data I created queries for the database so I can search for data and they worked the first time I tried. I achieved the objective. * Create Reports to show the output from your queries I created reports to show the output and it can be very helpful to the customer or librarian. At first when I created the reports, they were not same as my hand drawn plans, but then in edited them again and I achieved the objective. * Make database user friendly so it can be used I made the database user friendly so it is easy to navigate. And I achieved the objective. * To show the stock of the videos in the library I made the field name of stock of videos in the library, at first the field was missing but then I added the field name and achieved the objective. * Age group of videos To show the field name of age group of videos and I achieved the objective. To have a customized switchboard At start it did not open up, but then I achieved the objective. Data Collection In this project data will be collected in different kinds of forms. The invoice form, the customer form and the video form. The librarian will give the customer the customer form for him or her to fill in. For the invoice form and video form the librarian will be expected to fill in the data for those forms. There will also be reports and queries made for some the data. Designs Explained I have kept my forms very user friendly so it easy for the librarian, the assistant and for the customer to use. For the forms I have kept a simple colour combination. In the forms, in the fields the background colour is yellow and the handwriting colour is blue because yellow and blue go well with each other, the colours are also bright and easy to read. For filling in the data, in those blocks the background colour will be red and the handwriting colour will be black because red and black are a good colour combination and will be easy to read. I have kept the handwriting size fairly big so it is easy for the customer and librarian to read or fill in. I have decided to use the font Arial because it is very clear and big. Also for the field names I have decided to keep them bold because they are very important. My reports are also very user friendly and attractive. User feedback From the user feedback I have decided to keep my hand drawn plans as my final designs because of the feedback I got. They have said everything in my hand drawn plans is good. They also said it is very user friendly, clear and the colour combination used goes very well together. However, one person said to add buttons and maybe an image. So I decided to add a video cover image and buttons to all my hand drawn plans.

Individual And Situational Factors On Workplace Deviance Psychology Essay

Individual And Situational Factors On Workplace Deviance Psychology Essay Workplace deviance has emerged as a major area of attention among human resource management and organizational behavior researchers (Bennett Robinson, 2000, 2003; Griffin, OLeary-Kelly Collins). It is regularly performed in the workplace by a spectrum of employees ranging from blue collar employees, in both profit and non-profit organisation to white collar employees (Giacalone and Greenberg, 1997). In the perspective of Bennett and Robinsons (2003), organizational deviance research contends a broader conceptualization of deviance which has occurred over the last ten years and an agreement on a definition has been difficult (Kidwell et al, 2005). It has spawned a variety of concepts and related definitions. For example, in Robinson and Bennett (1995), they defined workplace deviance as voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms, and in so doing, threatens the well-being of the organization and/or its members (p. 556), and this definition has been adopted by other organizational research too such as Lee Allen, 2002; Martinko, Gundlach and Douglas, 2002; and Sackett, 2002; Mount, Ilies and Johnson, 2006). Other researchers studied workplace deviance also use different distinct terminology such as retaliation (Skarlicki and Foldger, 1997), aggression (Douglas and Martinko, 2001; Fox Spector, 1999; Neuman Baron, 1997; OLeary-Kelly, Griffin, Glew, 1996), revenge (Bies, Tripp, Kramer, 1997), counterproductive behavior (Spector et al, 2005 and Sackett, 2002), antisocial behaviour (Giacolone Greenberg 1997), dysfunctional behaviour and organizational misbehaviour (Vardi Weitz, 2003). Conceptually, workplace deviance is generally used to describe specific incidences of deviant behaviour in the workplace; therefore, the actions of individual employees serve as the basic unit of analysis (Robinson Greenberg, 1998). For this research the term workplace deviance by Robinson and Bennet (1995) will be use because it appears as one of the popular terms among researchers nowadays in this area. This includes local researcher for example Faridahwati (2003), Samsuddin and Rahman (2006) and Abdul Rahman (2008) who used this terminology. Behaviors labeled deviant include unsafe work practices, drug abuse, stealing, dishonesty, volitional absenteeism, alcohol abuse, destruction of an organizations property (Griffin OLeary-Kelly, 2004), employee theft, withholding effort, violence, insubordination, sabotage, whistle-blowing, poor attendance, misuse of information, alcohol use and abuse, gambling, inappropriate internet use, littering (Mount, Ilies and Johnson, 2006) and harassment (Jixia Yang, 2008). In addition, with technology advancement and internet in the workplaces, browsing the web and checking personal emails are some of the diversity of workplace deviance acts (Nguyen, 2008). Scholars have estimated that up to 75 percent (Harper, 1990), 85 percent (Harris and Ogbonna, 2002), and 95 percent (Slora, 1991) of employee routinely behave in a manner that can be described as deviance (cited in Harris and Ogbonna, 2006). Over the past decade, there has been an increase in attention to workplace deviance including violence, stealing, dishonesty, volitional absenteeism, drug and alcohol abuse many of which have been addressed in this special issue. In Malaysia, the evidence of workplace deviance had begin to soar. KPMG Fraud Survey 2004 (Ngui, 2005) shows 83% of Malaysian public and private limited companies have experienced fraud which is also a form of workplace deviance. This is an increase of 33% from 2002 survey. Another survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers Global Economic Crime Survey 2005 (Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 2006) reveals that 23% out of 100 Malaysian large companies surveyed have been subjected to fraud, and 70% of the cases reported was committed by employees (Zauwiyah and Mariati, 2008). Other evidence in Malaysia from the public media involve dishonesty and poor work attitude cases (New Strait Times, 2005), fraudulence, (Utusan Malaysia, 2004), underperformed and lazy (Star, October 2009) and the issue of fake medical certificate which these behaviors are labeled under forms of workplace deviance (Utusan Malaysia, 2003 cited from Abdul Rahman and Aizat, 2008). Other forms of deviance including corruption (New Stra its Times, 2009) which is also a growing problem in Malaysia that highly involves employees in the public sector. For example base on a research done by Global Corruption Barometer which was announced by the Transparency International indicates that corruption percentage is high among employees in the public sectors (Berita Harian, June 2009). Deviance act was also reported to the police and 27 disciplinary cases involving the public sector were reported by the Public Service Department (Abdul Rahman, 2008). In the Malaysian Current Law journal from 2000 until 2005 also reported a review of dismissal cases from the Malaysian Industrial Relations Department (Abdul Rahman, 2008). Samsuddin and Rahman (2006) also had highlighted the presence of workplace deviance in Malaysia. Substance abuse for example also becomes a significant problem among public and private organizations in Malaysia. The National Drug Agency under the Malaysian Ministry of Internal Affairs registered a total of 250,045 drug addicts in government and private sectors between January 1995 and February 2005 (Abdul Rahman, 2008). Other forms of deviance behavior including sabotage, threatening a pay cut, antagonising and showing disrespect of an employees religious belief was also reported to the Labour Deparment (Faridahwati, 2004). Whether the deviance is explicit or subconscious, it has negative consequences for the entity and affiliates. It affect organizational performance, safety and health of the employees (Kidwell and Kochanowski, 2005) and enormous costs associated with such behavior (Peterson, 2002). For example, nearly 95 percent of all companies in United States reported some deviance-related experience within their respective organizations (Henle et al., 2005) and the estimated impact of widespread workplace deviance has also been reported to be $50 billion annually on the United States economy (Henle et al., 2005b). It is continue to soar out of control with nearly 95 percent of all companies reporting some deviance-related experience within their respective organizations (Case, 2000; Henle et al., 2005). Infact, employee theft and fraud is the fastest growing type of crime in the United States (Coffin, 2003) Researchers have addressed the consequences of deviant behaviours in some detail. It is reported that workplace deviance gives a financial impact on the organizations and victims of workplace deviance are more likely to suffer from stress-related problems and show a relatively decreased productivity, lost work time and a relatively high turnover rate (Henle et al., 2005). The impact of workplace deviance can also be translated into turnover, lower productivity, employee morale, higher rates of absenteeism and turnover (Hoel, Einarsen, and Cooper, 2003; Keashly and Jagatic, 2003). Therefore, given the growing prevalence of detrimental behaviors and the associated costs, it is beneficial to organizations and researchers to determine which variables contribute to such behavior, or identify potential factors that can predict the occurrence of various types of workplace deviance. Thus, there is great incentive, financial and otherwise, for organizations to prevent and discourage any negative workplace deviance within their walls. For these reasons, it is a great interest in understanding the antecedents of workplace deviance (Hogan and Hogan, 1989; Robinson and Greenberg, 1998; Henle, 2005; Mount 2006). Base on the findings of past empirical research it shows that certain factors are vulnerable to deviant behaviors by employees such as job stressors (e.g.. Fox et al, 2001), organizational frustration, (e.g., Spector, 1975), lack of control, over the work environment (e.g., Bennett, 1998), weak sanctions for rule violations (e.g., Hollinger and Cjiark, 1983), and organizational changes such as downsizing (e.g.Baron and Neuman, 1996). Some researchers had suggested that situational or organizational factors might be responsible for workplace deviance. Appelbaum et al. (2005) suggested that operational environment rather than individual personality characteristics is a good predictor of employees engaging in negative deviant workplace behavior. This is opined by Henle (2005) that employees will commit deviant behavior in the organization depending on the situational environment in workplace regardless of their individual characteristics. However, Martinko (2002) suggested that individu al difference variables is an important antecedent to workplace deviance because of the influence these individual differences are likely to have on attribution process. Previous research also has demonstrated that there are meaningful linkages between employees individual characteristics and deviant behavior at work (e.g., BennettRobinson, 2003; Dalal, 2005; Douglas Martinko, 2001; Salgado, 2002). However, Robinson and Greenberg (1998) point out that no clear picture emerges of a deviant personality type and that personality traits seem to only account for a small percentage of the variance in predicting deviant behaviour (Browing, 2008). Previous empirical research however did demonstrated that certain organizational factors also make companies more vulnerable to deviant behaviors by employees such as joh stressors (e.g.. Fox et al, 2001), organizational frustration (e.g., Spector, 1975), lack of control over the work environment (e.g., Bennett, 1998), weak sanctions for rule violations (e.g., Hollinger and C;iark, 1983), and organizational chauges such as downsizing (e.g.Baron and Neuman, 1996). Thus, base on this perspective, only indicates that deviant acts at work depending on the work environment regardless of their individual characteristics. Base on various researchers perspective, there has been a controversial either individual characteristics or situational environment of the organization contributes to workplace deviance. In fact, there are also other researchers that suggested that various antecedents of workplace deviance from situational and individual difference. There are findings indicated that there are meaningful linkage between personality characteristics and workplace deviance (e.g., Bennett and Robinson, 2003; Dalal, 2005; Douglas and Martinko, 2001; Salgado, 2002). This issue had been continue to be controversial and there had been little disagreement on the antecedent correlated to workplace deviance and consensus regarding which situational and individual differences correlated to workplace deviance. However, Colbert et al. (2004); Henle (2005) suggested that future research should identify both situation and person-based explanations of workplace deviance so that organizations could predict and ultimately, minimize the occurrence of workplace deviance. Even, more than a decade, apparently still very few studies have assessed both personal and organizational correlates (actual or self-reported) workplace deviance (Lefkowitz, 2009). In Malaysia itself, studies on workplace deviance had been done previously by Shamsudin (2003), Faridahwati (2004), Razali (2005), Radzi and Din (2005), Sien (2006) and Abdul Rahman (2008). Various studies had been done using various units of analysis, for example, studies on workplace deviance done by Faridahwati (2004), Samsuddin (2003) and Sien use hotel employees as sample, Radzi and Din (2005) in a high technology multinational companies in the northern region, Razali (2005) focus on production workers in Penang and Abdul Rahman (2008) use production employees in manufacturing companies in various states in Malaysia. Base on this comparison, the existing local studies however fall short using public sector employees as unit of analysis. 2.0 Problem Statement There is a growing problem of workplace deviance in the workplace that should not be ignored. Evidence from newspapers and other public media indicates various forms of workplace deviance exists in Malaysia such cases of dishonesty, poor work attitudes, fraudulence, and the issue of fake medical certificate (Abdul Rahman, 2008). A number of regional Labour Department in Malaysia also had indicated that at least twenty to 30 cases in a month have been reported by employees and employers. Findings from Faridahwati (2003) revealed that saying hurtful things and making fun of someone at work stands out to be common forms of deviance act in workplace. In addition, the acts of deviance behavior at workplace had been documented increase in the number of reported incidents in workplace (Faridahwati, 2004). For example, corruption (Utusan online, October, 2009), theft, sabotage, harassment, cursed someone at work and publicly being embarrassed at workplace (Kosmo, October 2009), putting little effort at work (Utusan, August 2009), taking breaks during office hours which had become a culture among public sector employees (Arkib, 2008). All these behaviors are various forms of deviant behavior that had been reported by published media in public sectors. Apparently, there are proofs of problems rooted in the poor performance among the public sector employees (Johari et al., 2009). This is supported by Siddique (2006), who claimed that public service agencies in Malaysia has long been criticized for its inflexibility, ineffective accountability, and poor performance among the officials. The bleak picture is evident when the Malaysian Public Service has recorded 58 percent increase in formal complaints from the public (Siddique, 2006). In 2005, a total of 2,707 complaints were received with regard to the public service poor performance, such as delays in service provision, unfair actions/decisions of the administrators, abuse of power, misconduct of the officials, and failure to enforce rules which all these are forms of deviant behaviors.. Added to this, the chief secretary of the Malaysian government, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan (2009) mentioned that the number of disciplinary cases against civil servants is on the rise. For example, there were 3,383 such cases last year compared with 2,159 in year 2007. Such form of deviant cases being reported are absenteeism, tardiness and sexual harassment. This is also opined by Abdul Rahman (2008) that disciplinary cases involving employees in the public sector had been highly reported. Absenteeism which also a form of workplace deviance had become a significant issue where there are cases of employees in public sectors did not turn up for work for almost three months without the knowledge of their supervisors and employers (Ministry of Human Resource, 2009). A report from January till September 2009 indicated that 129 public employees in Selangor were absent without reason or permission and 49% of the 129 public sector employees are from the support staff level (Bernama, 13 Septe mber, 2009). This was also supported by Cuepecs Secretary, Ahmad Shah (2009) that most of them are in the category of supporting staff and is station outside the office. It also had been reported that absenteeism had been the four highest principal of offense cases which 7,688 cases or 55 percent, followed by code of conduct and prohibition case, court cases and abuse or dangerous drug ownership (Utusan, June 2007). Apart from the above, there has been an increase of 36.2% offense cases from public sector employees at various levels in year 2009 and 3,383 offense cases are committed compared to 2,159 cases in year 2007 (Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, Utusan dated October, 2009). Added to this, rules violation cases involve officers from the public service were reported to be increasing each year and as many as 2,955 in year 2006 compared to 1,943 at 2002 (Utusan, June 2008). Vardi and Weitz (2004) stated that there are two major costs that come with workplace deviance , financial costs (e.g., destruction of organizational property, violation of laws, codes and regulations, etc.) and social costs (e.g., destructive political behaviors, harassment, and sustained suboptimal performance) (Griffin OLeary-Kelly, 2004). Thus, the pervasiveness of workplace deviance in public sector made it an important area to study. Apart from the above, despite the increasing forms of workplace deviance reported in the public sector, there had been little studies or no attention to investigate workplace deviance in the perspective of public sector employees. In fact, workplace deviance had been received less attention among organizational scholars (Vardi and Weist, 2004; Abdul Rahim and Abdul Rahman, 2008). 3.0 Research Objectives The purpose of this study is to contributed to the workplace deviance literature by adopting an interaction approach to empirically examine how both person- and situation-based variables interact to explain workplace deviance. The research objectives are as follows: i) To identify typical forms of workplace deviance that exists in the public sector. ii) To investigate the determinants of workplace deviance that exists in the public sector. iii) To measure workplace deviance behavior in the public sector. iv) To determine whether individual variables (gender, negative affectivity, trait anger) influence workplace deviance in the public sector. v) To determine whether situational variables (job sastisfaction, work group norms and organizational justice) influence workplace deviance in the public sectors. 4.0 Significance contribution This research makes contributions to both the theory and practice of management. Although scholars have recognized that deviance can be socially constructed, there has been a death of research that has specifically addressed this issue especially in the perspective of public sector employees. Further to this, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the workplace deviance literature by adopting an interactional approach to empirically examine how both individual-and situation-based variables interact to explain workplace deviance. On the implication, it benefits the superiors and managers. This study will contribute to a better understanding on deviant behaviors in the workplace and contributed to the literature examining complex antecedents of workplace deviance. Furthermore, there is paucity for empirical study of workplace deviance especially in the context of public sector in Malaysia. Also, looking at the perspective of academic level, the result of this study will give more insight in the contribution and development of knowledge in the areas of human resource management and public administration concerning workplace deviance. It is also expected that the result from this proposed study will assist policy makers and practitioners to reduce the occurrences of workplace deviance issues related to organizational and individual factors. By understanding, the factors that influence workplace deviance, the government would also in a better position to plan and implement complementary and an integrated of publi c administration policies and practices to enhance the effectiveness of the employees in the public sector thus reduce the existence of workplace deviance. The result of the study is also expected to assist government sectors to use the information from the study to implement training and development related to this issue. It will also contribute to all fields which in turn enhance the theoretical and academic integration of several branches (organization behavior and human resource management) and their mother field of public administration. Finally, the most ultimate objective is to reduce workplace deviance which contributes tangible and intangible costs to the victims and organization. 5.0 Scope of study This study is an explanatory in nature and adopts a cross-sectional design. This study will targeted the support staff as sample. Support staff was chosen as it had been reported in the media that 10,438 civil servants had been given disciplinary action from year 2003 till 2006 and 92 percent are from the support staff (Utusan, June 2007). Moreover, it has been suggested that those who have the lower status may be the most prone to exhibiting deviant behavior (e.g., Gilligan, 1996; Wicklund Gollwitzer, 1982). Employees from the Royal Malaysian Custom department will be chosen as sample as this department interact and liaise widely with various customers. The study will fill the gap in terms of providing research findings that integrate the respondents perception on situation variables (job satisfaction, workgroup norms and organizational justice) and individual variables (Gender, trait anger and negative affectivity) which all were conceptualize as independent variables. The focus of this study is to determine the individual and situational factors of workplace deviance in a public organization. 6.0 Operational Definition: Workplace Deviance: Voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of an organization, its members, or both. This definition includes non serious (e.g. tardiness) as well as more serious types of workpalce deviance (e.g. theft of cash and harassment) (Robinson and Bennet, 1995). Trait Anger: Trait anger is described as a disposition to experience state anger overtime and context overtime (Speilberger, 1996). Negative affectivity: Negative affectivity reflects the extent to which individuals experience distressing emotions such as hostility, fear, and anxiety (Watson Clark, 1984). Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction reveals the degree to which an employee is content with their job as a whole and encompasses multiple aspects of ones job ranging from the work itself, the quality of interpersonal relationships, compensation and career advancement opportunities (Bruck, Allen Spector, 2002). Work Group Norms: Group Norms are informal rules that group adopts to regulate and regularize group members behavior (Fieldman, 1984). Organizational injustice: Three types of fairness perceptions: distributive, procedural, and interactional injustice. Judgements concerning distributive revolve around the employees evaluations of outcome fairness, that is, whether the individual has received a fair share of rewards given his or her relative contribution to a societal exchange (Adam, 1965). Distributive injustice typically refers to fairness evaluations regarding work outcomes such as pay, benefits, promotions, and so on. Procedural injustice includes judgments about the processes and procedures used to make decisions and to determine ones outcome (Greenberg, 1990, Lind Tyler, 1988). Chapter 2 Review of Literature 2.0 Introduction A large body of literature on the topics of workplace deviance and its antecedents provides will be reviewed in this chapter. An extensive search process was conducted by utilizing numerous database. This chapter will provide contemporary literature regarding workplace deviance as discussed in the previous chapter. 2.1 Workplace deviance Researchers have given these behaviors many different names including workplace deviance (Bennett and Robinson, 2003), counterproductive behavior (Mangione and Quinn, 1975), and antisocial behavior (Giacolone and Greenberg, 1997). In essence, behavior is deemed deviant when an organizations customs, policies, or internal regulations are violated by an individual or a group that may jeopardize the well-being of the organization or its citizens (Robinson and Bennett, 1995). This proposed study will used the definition of workplace deviance by Robinson and Bennett (1995) as voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and in so doing threatens the well-being of an organization, its members, or both. Organizational norms in this definition assume a managerial orientation about expectations of employee behaviors without excluding adoption of this perspective by other employees. This definition also focuses on violations of norms that apply across a broad spectrum of employees, rather than violations of norms around specific duties. Employee deviance, then, consists of acts that violate norms encouraging respect for organizational property and norms that encourage respect for other individuals. Workplace deviance ranges from a milder forms, such as rudeness and tardiness, to more extreme forms, such as theft, workplace deviance is considered part of the performance domain (Rotundo Sackett, 2002; Sackett, 2002; Viswesvaran Ones, 2000). .Behaviors that have been identified as deviant in previous research include subtle expressions of rebellion (e.g., gossiping, taking unapproved breaks), as well as more aggressive actions (e.g., theft, verbal abuse; Robinson Bennett, 1995). Keashly, Trott, and MacLean (1994), in their study of abusive behavior in the workplace which is also a form of workplace deviance found that, found that all participants had experienced at least one incident of nonsexual, nonphysical abusive behavior. Relatedly, 32% of participants in Bjorkqvist, Osterman, and Hjelt-Backs (1994) study of harassment (also one of the forms of deviance) at work reported that they had observed others being mistreated. Workplace deviance can be divided further into two subcategories (Bennett Robinson, 2000; Robinson Bennett, 1995). The first category, referred to as interpersonal deviance, consists of acts that inflict harm upon individuals (e.g., verbal harassment, assault, spreading rumors). Organizational deviance is defined as acts directed against the company or its systems (e.g., sabotaging equipment, theft, wasting resources). The prevalence and costs of deviance in the workplace make its study imperative (Robinson and Lawrence, 2007). Psychological reactions to workplace deviance include feelings of depression and anxiety (Bjorkvist et al., 1994). Psychosocial problems (Kaukiainen, Salmivalli, Bjorkqvist, Osterman, Lahtinen, Kostamo, Lagerspetz, 2001); emotional exhaustion (OBrien Vandello, 2005; Tepper, 2000); life dissatisfaction (Tepper, 2000); and decrements in emotional well-being (LeBlanc Kelloway, 2002; Schat Kelloway, 2000), self-esteem, and self-confidence (Price Spratlen, 1995) are other psychological strains. Work-related psychological reactions are job dissatisfaction, work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict (Tepper, 2000), and decrements. in job-related affect (Schat Kelloway, 2003), normative commitment, and affective commitment (Tepper, 2000). Physical reactions include physical symptoms (Kaukiainen et al., 2001) and decrements in psychosomatic well-being (LeBlanc Kelloway, 2 002; Schat Kelloway, 2003). Due to the impact, workplace deviance has increasingly received researchers attention, in part because of the alarming statistics indicating its pervasiveness in the workplace. The financial and non financial costs associated with workplace deviance warrant attention from both researchers and practitioners. Much research attention has been given to the damaging effects of workplace deviance within organizations. However, as yet, little research has been conducted to try to understand whether and how the presence of workplace deviance is associated with a deterioration in public administration. Research regarding workplace deviance often investigates personality (e.g., Douglas and Martinko, 2001; Salgado, 2002) or situational (e.g. Greenhcrg, 1990; Skarlicki and Folger, 1997) predictors while neglecting the interaction between the personality and situational variables. Consistent with other research areas and calls to examine the joint influences of situational and individual variables on deviant workplace behavior (Sackett DeVore, 2001), some researchers have begun to empirically investigate interactionist hypotheses in the deviance literature (e.g., Colbert, Mount, Harter, Witt, Barrick; 2004, Henle, 2005). Colbert et al. (2004) noted that future research should examine the joint relationship of perceptions of the work situation and personality with both organizational and interpersonal deviance. As suggested by Mickaulay (2001) that understanding the independent effects of situational and individual variables may lead to more effective control of workplace deviance. Th erefore, this proposed research will look into the situation and personality as well as the interaction between the two as empirical research on this dynamic between the individual and situation has been limited (Mickaulay, 2001). 2.2 Individual and situational factors of workplace deviance Workplace deviance is influenced by situational as well as individual factors (Colbert et al., 2004; Douglas Martinko, 2001; Marcus Schuler, 2004). Individual factors may have a direct effect on workplace deviance. For example, Douglas and Martinko found that a combination of individual difference measures (e.g., trait anger, attribution style, and self-control) accounted for 62% of variance in self-reported workplace aggression which is also a form of workplace deviance (Tang et al., 2008). Other individual characteristics are related to workplace deviance (e.g., conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability; Colbert et al., 2004). Workplace deviance is also influenced by situational as well as individual factors (Colbert et al., 2004; Douglas Martinko, 2001; Marcus Schuler, 2004). Individual factors may have a direct effect on workplace deviance. .For example, Skarlicki et al. (1999) found that negative affectivity interacted with perceptions of distributive and interactional justice in the prediction of retaliatory behaviors. When situational factors investigate deviant behaviors, individual factors may amplify this effect (as in the case of trait anger; Hepworth Towler, 2004) (as in the case of self-control; Brown et al., 2005). Base on the above perspective on individual and situational variables towards workplace deviance, this study contributed to the workplace deviance literature by examining the importance of situation- and person-based explanations in addition to their interactions. Although many have advocated for an interactional approach to studying deviant work behaviors, few studies have done so (Henle, 2005). The organizational and social psychology literature demonstrate that individual differences constitute an important explanation for workplace deviance. However, it appears that workplace deviance cannot be attributed to individual traits alone. Langton et al. (2006) also assert that no single factor or theory that can account for each and every occurrence. For example, even an employee working in the same company and having the same demographic characteristics, are not both necessarily going to commit workplace deviants act. As such, Langton (2006) opined that there must be internal traits that predispose a worker to workplace deviance. It is also more likely that deviant behavior may be best predicted based on a combination of individual variables and the situational nature of the workplace situation (Peterson, 2002). For this research, individual variables (gender, trait anger and self control) and situational variables (job satisfaction, stress (work stress and general life stress ), work group norms and perceive justice) will be used as independent variables for this study. 2.3 Individual variables 2.3.1 Gender Various researchers had indicated that male tend to be more deviant behavior at work (Baron et al., 1999), absenteeism (Johns, 1997), theft (Hollinger and Clark, 1983), substance abuse (Hollinger, 1988), and vandalism (DeMore et al., 1988). Researchers also