JOURNAL OF BUSINESS AND PSYCHOLOGY Volume 1, No. 4, Summer 1987 REASONS FOR EMPLOYEE SABOTAGE IN THE WORKPLACE Robert A. Giacalone Department of Management University of Southwestern Louisiana Paul Rosenfeld Navy Personnel Research and Development Center San Diego, California ABSTRACT: Unionized workers at a factory were asked to rate a variety of reasons which would justify the use of sabotage in an organization, as well as the justifiability of four general methods of sabotage (slowdowns, destructiveness, dishonesty, and causing chaos). Results showed that as compared to those who didn't accept a wide variety of reasons for sabotage, those who accepted a variety of reasons would more readily justify all forms of sabotage except dishonesty. The data is discussed in terms of the reasons for the lack of justification that dishon- esty receives, as well as future directions for the study of sabotage. Organizational sabotage can be defined as any behavior by a payroll employee which is intended to inflict a production or profit loss for the targeted organization. Although the cost of sabotage is difficult to ascer- tain, it is believed to be on the increase (Dubois, 1980). With only one ma- jor research work written, it is an area whose investigation is difficult for a variety of reasons. Since sabotage is often performed via anti-social means (violence and destructiveness), a primary problem in the investi- gation of sabotage is an association with criminal activity. Investigating sabotage, therefore, may bring legal authorities into the research picture. Secondly, sabotage is an activity which, because of legal implications, employees prefer not to discuss with outsiders, or insiders. Reporting in- formation to researchers regarding sabotage may mean the job of a co- worker or one's own job. Thus, it can be expected that many individuals who are involved in sabotage or aware of it would refuse to divulge ira- Address requests for reprints to: Robert A. Giacalone, Ph.D., Department of Manage- ment, University of Southwestern Louisiana. Lafayette, LA 70504. 367 v 1987HumanSciences Press