The relationship between informal communication and authoritarian leadership and deviant behaviors: A study on health professionals

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of informal communication and authoritarian leadership among healthcare professionals on constructive and destructive deviant behavior of employees. The study consists of health staff working at hospitals in Kocaeli province. The sample of the study, in which the quantitative method was used, includes 503 health workers. In the study, statements to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants and a questionnaire consisting of four scales were used as data collection tools. In this study we used "Informal Communication Channels" developed by Johnson et al. (1994) to measure the contribution of using informal communication channels, "Constructive Deviation Behavior" developed by Galperin (2012) to measure constructive deviance behavior, and "Destructive Deviation Behavior" developed by Bennett and Robinson (2000) to measure destructive deviance behavior as well as "Authoritarian Leader Behavior" scales developed by Chiang (2012) to measure the perception of authoritarian leadership. The validity and reliability analyses of the data used in the study were performed and descriptive statistical methods, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and MANOVA analysis were used in the analysis of the data. According to the findings of the study, although there was no a significant relationship between informal communication and authoritarian leadership and destructive deviance behavior, there was no significant relationship between authoritarian leadership behavior and constructive deviance and destructive deviance. Similarly, although the use of informal communication channels positively affected constructive deviance, it did not have a significant effect on destructive deviance. In addition, authoritarian leadership behavior did not have a significant effect on constructive and destructive deviant behavior. Informal communication according to the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, education and profession variables; age, length of service, education, occupation and hospital type constructive deviance; There was a significant difference in destructive deviant behavior according to the length of service and education variables. The results of the study showed that authoritarian leadership did not affect constructive and destructive deviance behavior, whereas informal communication channels had a positive effect on constructive deviance. According to these results, it is suggested that health care professional should be encouraged to use informal communication channels to make them feel comfortable. Moreover, it is recommended to adopt leadership models appropriate for post-modern management understanding to enable employees to communicate more easily instead of authoritarian leadership.