The Role Of Top Management Support On The Relationship Between Workplace Deviance Dimensions And Job Satisfaction In Oman Universities

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to examine  the influence of workplace deviance dimensions on job satisfaction via Top Management support as a mediator in Omani universities. In this study, data is collected via random sampling method, and the number of respondents (population of the sample) is distributed among employees and academic staff of Oman universities. The sample of the present study consisted of a total of 380 analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (Smart-PLS) in order to examine causal relationships among the study's latent variables. The findings of this study indicated that workplace deviance factors (communication, training development, employee empowerment, diversity tolerance, employee motivation) were negative significant predictors of job satisfaction, but work stress did not have a significant effect on job satisfaction. Additionally, the lack of (communication, training development, and employee motivation) had a statistically negatively significant influence on top management support, while employee empowerment had a positive influence on top management. On the other hand, work stress and the lack of diversity tolerance were found to be insignificant for top management support. Moreover, top management support (TM) could mediate the link between workplace deviance and job satisfaction, and top management support was a partial mediating effect between the lack of (communication, training development, employee empowerment) and job satisfaction.  The major contribution of this research is statistically validating the workplace deviance factors influencing job satisfaction negatively in the higher education universities sector of Oman. This study provides a better understanding of the relationship between the six variables (workplace stress, communication, training development, diversity tolerance, and employee motivation) that may become an essential guideline for workplace deviance and future researchers, and at the same time, provides empirical support on the theories related to the study as mentioned above. Furthermore, the findings contribute to the ongoing discourse about the important top management support by examining the distinctive mediating effect of TM on workplace deviance and job satisfaction.