A conceptual model of employee self reported rationale for engaging in deviant acts

Abstract

When an employee is accused of engaging in a deviant act by his/her employer, natural justice affords the employee the right to respond to the allegation. In this study, the texts of unfair dismissal arbitration decisions of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission are examined to identify the defences raised by workers (or their union representatives) to accusations of serious misconduct that ultimately resulted in their immediate dismissal. These defences provide the foundation of a conceptual model of three categories of ‘rationale’ that employees offer in their defence: personal-inside; personal-outside; and workplace related. The model further conceptualises a ‘conflated reason’ in which categories are not mutually exclusive and can result in the employer dealing with a complexity of contexts and issues. The value of this paper is that it provides insight into the range of defences that employees provide for behaviours that cut to the core of damaging the employer-employee relationship.