International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 7, Special Issue - 4th International Conference on Educational Research and Practice 2017 ISSN: 2222-6990 25 www.hrmars.com Examining the Mediating Effect of Job Satisfaction on Individual Characteristics and Deviant Behavior among Support Staff in a Civil Service Organisation Mazni Alias, Intan Soraya Rosdi and Nasreen Khan Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Malaysia DOI: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v7-i14/3649 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v7-i14/3649 Abstract This research article aims to examine individual characteristics that influenced employees deviant behavior in one of the Malaysian Civil Service organisation. Mount’s model was used in this article as a basis to determine the influence of individual characteristics on employees’ deviant behavior. In this article, job satisfaction is identitied as the mediating variable. Four Hundred and twenty nine employees whom are support personnel were chosen as respondents. Findings indicated that all the tested individual characteristics except emotional intelligence predicted employees deviant behavior. The result also signified that job satisfaction mediates the relationships between employees deviant behavior and negative affectivity, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Keywords: Employees’ deviant behavior, individual characteristics, job satisfaction, civil service organisation Introduction Employees’ deviant behavior has long been emerged as a critical issue either in the civil or private organisations. Research has stipulated that due to the negative effects of employees’ deviant behavior, it implicates work performance and organisational effectiveness (Pearson et al., 2000) and high employee turnover (Tepper, 2000). This research article define employees’ deviant behavior as a negative voluntary act which against the policies and regulations of the organisation. Employees’ deviant behavior is identified as organisational issues which mostly are not unreported, unnoticed, or both (Bennett & Robinson, 2000). Western researchers have highlighted the issue of employees’ deviant behavior which are more higher in the civil compared to private sector. Mayhew and McCarthy (2005) postulated that support staff are highest in number compared to other categories of employes when mentioning the issue of deviant behavior. Yet, there seems to be lack of research studies which examine the individual characteristics that predict employees’ deviant behavior, especially among support staff in the Asian context. In the Tenth Malaysia Plan (2011 – 2015), integrity were captured as a central component for the civil service personnel to function ethically and professionally (Malaysia, 2010).