Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies

I’ll do whatever I want … who are you to prohibit me? A tattle tale of workplace deviance
Jihad Mohammad, Farzana Quoquab, Norsyila Bt Rashid, Nur Azlina Bt Rashid, Fazilah Bt Osman, Wan Muhammad Hamka
Wan Shamsudin,
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Jihad Mohammad, Farzana Quoquab, Norsyila Bt Rashid, Nur Azlina Bt Rashid, Fazilah Bt Osman, Wan Muhammad Hamka
Wan Shamsudin, (2018) "I’ll do whatever I want … who are you to prohibit me? A tattle tale of workplace deviance", Emerald
Emerging Markets Case Studies, Vol. 8 Issue: 1, pp.1-14, https://doi.org/10.1108/EEMCS-06-2016-0124
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 I’ll do whatever I want . . . who are
you to prohibit me? A tattle tale
of workplace deviance
Jihad Mohammad, Farzana Quoquab, Norsyila Bt Rashid, Nur Azlina Bt Rashid,
Fazilah Bt Osman and Wan Muhammad Hamka Wan Shamsudin
Downloaded by Universiti Malaysia Sabah At 17:06 28 January 2019 (PT)

A very cloudy environment at EDU Solution Sdn Bhd Jihad Mohammad is

based at International
It was late evening on 7 April, 2016. All employees had already left the office apart from Siti Business School,
Hajar, the head of the supervision and monitoring unit, EDU Solution Sdn Bhd (ESSB). Universiti Teknologi
ESSB was involved in facilitating and providing consultations to Private Higher Educational Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur,
Institutions (IPTS) in Malaysia. Siti had been staring at her coffee cup for the past 10 min Malaysia.
without taking a single sip of coffee, she remembered her conversation with Adiba Amin, Farzana Quoquab is
Senior Lecturer at
the Executive Officer of ESSB. It was 10 a.m. and Siti was busy preparing slides for a
International Business
presentation when Adiba, an employee who Siti had managed for almost 5 years, knocked
School, Universiti
at her office door. “Madam Siti, are you available to talk now? I would like to discuss with you Teknologi Malaysia,
regarding the matter that I informed you last week. It is about Natacha, I need your advice”, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
added Adiba. Norsyila Bt Rashid,
Nur Azlina Bt Rashid,
Natacha was a relatively new employee at ESSB, she had worked there for about a year,
Fazilah Bt Osman,
since the very first day of her job at ESSB, her lifestyle and behaviour was a hot topic Wan Muhammad Hamka
of conversation amongst ESSB staff. They used to gossip about her appearance which Wan Shamsudin are MBA
they regarded as too provocative and not acceptable for Malaysian culture. She was Students at International
also caught by her colleagues cheating on her attendance, using the office internet to Business School,
sell her own products through social media, going out for 3 to 4 h during office hours Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur,
and so on.
Malaysia.
This was not the first time that Siti had heard about Natacha’s strange behaviour. Even, Siti
herself observed Natacha’s misconduct which created an unhealthy environment in the
office. However, Siti felt helpless as her boss Noman Ali ignored Natacha’s misconduct and
everybody in the office knew that Noman was too fond of pretty, female staff.
For three hours, Siti thought only about this issue. She was still in her office, stumped about
the decision she should make regarding Natacha’s misconduct. It appeared to be more
serious than she thought. She mumbled to herself:
Everybody is gossiping that they have fallen for each other, although Mr Noman is married with Disclaimer. This case is written
solely for educational
two kids [. . .] Oh my God! I have no idea about how to solve this critical issue. How to rectify purposes and is not intended
such unhealthy workplace environment? Haven’t Mr Noman my boss, I would not think so much to represent successful or
unsuccessful managerial
[. . .] Oh God. Please show me the way [. . .] No matter what it is, I have to make a decision as decision-making. The authors
soon as possible. Cause, the next employee performance appraisal has to be completed by the may have disguised names;
financial and other
end of this month [. . .] Should I report about Natacha’s unethical behaviour to Human Resource
recognizable information to
Department? Should I also report the romantic relationship between Natacha and Mr Noman? protect confidentiality.

DOI 10.1108/EEMCS-06-2016-0124 VOL. 8 NO. 1 2018, pp. 1-14, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 1
 Natacha: the imposter
Natacha Rosli was a 31-year-old single woman who came from a lower-middle income
family. Her parents were in their 60s. She had two siblings who were studying at university
level. She was the sole earning member of her family. Therefore, she had to work very hard,
sometimes having to do extra work to make sufficient money for the family’s survival.
Natacha joined ESSB in January 2015. She was very attractive and people noticed this, with
Noman, the Assistant Director, being no exception. Natacha used to take advantage of this
situation. She was not only reported for slacking off but also used to spend time watching
Korean dramas during office hours. Apart from this, it appeared that she was having an
affair with Noman who was married with two children.
Previously, Natacha worked at the Community College in Bentong. Siti made an effort to
investigate to find out more about Natacha’s previous work performance in the community
college. As Siti expected, Natacha’s former director Wan Zakaria informed her that
Natacha’s performance was below average and that was why the company gave her a
warning letter.
Although Natacha’s other colleagues tried to advise her about her misconduct, she paid
little attention to their advice. Even once shouting at Adiba saying, “Who are you to poke
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your nose in my personal matter?” Nothing changed in her behaviour. She always skipped
her work and sneaked out from the office.

The tittle of “Missing in action” (M.I.A.)

Natacha became a hot topic to be discussed among her colleagues at ESSB. Ruzanna,
one of Natacha’s colleagues knew more about Natacha’s activities because she shared the
same office with her. Ruzanna was shocked by observing that most of the time Natacha
was not performing her office duties; instead, she was busy managing her own online
business. Natacha was conducting an online business which was known as “Royal
Adeldia” via Instagram. She used to update her stock and checked orders from her
customers every day during working hours. Sometimes, she used to go to the post office
to post the parcels to her customers during office hours. The first time Ruzanna noticed this,
she could not but hold herself back from asking Natacha, “Where are you going Natacha?”
“Ohh, I’m going to take my stuff for my car at the basement car park”, Natacha answered.
And then she looked back to Ruzanna and added, “You don’t have anything to do? Why you
are spying on me?” It was a common answer given by Natacha when people saw her going
out from the office and most of the time she used to come back after 2/3 h. Thus, her
colleagues started to refer to her as “Miss Missing in Action”, in short M.I.A.
She was caught so many times, but no action was taken against her. She always had so
many readily available excuses in response to her colleagues’ queries. Once Siti called
Natacha’s mobile to find out the reason for her absence.
Siti: Natacha, where are you? Are you coming to work?
Natacha: I’m not feeling well. I’m not going to work today.
Siti: Are you on medical leave or emergency leave?
Natacha: O, yes. I will go and get the medical certificate. She smiled cynically.
ESSB implemented a Biometric System to record all the attendance for their staff. However,
Natacha used to cheat on her biometric access. One day, Ruzanna sent a message to Natacha
to find out whether she was coming to work or not when she noticed her absent. Natacha
replied to her in very rude manner: Why you are bothering me? As long I punch in and punch out,
who cares?
Ruzanna shared it with her colleague Farid and both of them planned to check Natacha’s
biometric system. With the help of the Administration Assistant, Ruzanna started her

PAGE 2 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 1 2018

 investigation by signing in to Natacha’s biometric system. Even though she knew that it was
not the right thing to do, she comforted herself by thinking that as long as she could find out
the truth, it would be fine. From the investigation, she realized that Natacha was cheating.
She was physically absent, but the system had recorded her attendance as completed with
eight working hours. Ruzanna informed Siti of this and they kept it as a secret between the
two of them. This was not the first time that Siti was made aware of Natacha’s misconduct,
but still she was helpless to take any action since Mr. Noman, the Assistant Director was in
Natacha’s favour lately. Siti did not know what she should do to make Natacha change her
ways.

Noman Ali, the Assistant Director

Noman Ali was 47 years old and married with two school-age children. He had been the
Assistant Director of the Enforcement and Inspectorate Division, ESSB since 2011 (see the
organization chart of “Edu Solution Sdn Bhd” and “Information and Inspectorate Division” in
Exhibits 1 and 2). Previously, Noman was an officer from the Immigration Department of
Malaysia. His experience helped him to join ESSB. Apparently, Noman was very firm to his
subordinates. However, he was a bit flexible towards the female staff who were pretty and
attractive. Not only this, he used to invite the good looking female staff for lunch or dinner
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from time to time. Due to his attraction towards female staff, he was known as a romance
leader among his staff.
At the beginning, Noman was very firm with Natacha. To prevent the image of ESSB from
being further tarnished and to prevent an unproductive environment among the staff of
ESSB, Noman suggested the HR Department give a stern warning to her and instructed her
to move closer to his room so that he could monitor her performance.
In the middle of 2015, Noman instructed Siti to relocate Natacha’s office near to his room.
All colleagues thought that Natacha would be punished by the Assistant Director and would
behave properly. They thought that Natacha would be more disciplined as she was under
direct monitoring from Noman. However, what they thought was proven wrong. Noman was
known as a hot tempered person. He used to scold his subordinates badly for small
mistakes. On the other hand, he behaved very softly with Natacha and started to overlook
her absenteeism and all other wrong doing.
“Siti, could you please arrange our schedule to visit Private Higher Educational Institution in
Sabah next month?” asked Noman. “O, sure. No problem boss. I will arrange the schedule
and submit to you by this afternoon”, replied Siti. Before Siti went out for lunch, she
submitted the schedule to Noman. “Hummm. I think you have to change the officer involved
in this visit. You should bring along Natacha”, Noman instructed. Siti was surprised and
asked:
Natacha is still new and she doesn’t know much about the rules and regulation regarding Private
Educational Institutions. Would it be wise to bring her together with us? She has to read the Act
before join any inspection.

Noman replied, “Just follow my instruction. I want her to join the inspection [. . .]”. Siti was
surprised because she knew that, Noman never liked the idea of bringing any newcomers
to accompany him for any inspection or visit to private institutions before. Instead, he used
to ask Siti and other senior officers to join the inspection. Siti shrugged her shoulders with
reluctance.
Not only Siti but other staff also noticed Noman’s biased behaviour towards Natacha. Even
though Noman received complaints about Natacha, he did not take any action against her.
Slowly, all staff started to talk about it, as it made them feel demoralized and demotivated.
One day, while Siti was going for lunch, she heard the conversation between Ruzanna and
Adib.

VOL. 8 NO. 1 2018 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 3

 Ruzanna: Did you see that how much our boss has changed lately?
Adib: Yeeaah [. . .] I know exactly what do you mean [. . .]
Ruzanna: If it is so, I think nobody needs to be punctual in his or her work and duty. Just
try to exploit your beauty! How disgusting it is [. . .]
Adib: Yup. I did not expect this from our boss [. . .]
Siti started to see the fire in her colleagues’ eyes. But nobody could do anything except put
up with the situation.

Siti Hajar, the Head of Supervision and Monitoring Unit

Siti Hajar was 43 years old and had 16 years of work experience in the public and private
sectors. It was her ninth year of working with ESSB. ESSB was established on 27 January
2003 as a subsidiary of the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. In line with the forth core
of Pelan Strategik Pendidikan Tinggi Negara (PSPTN) to strengthen institutions and the
second phase of action plan, ESSB played a significant role in ensuring the quality and
standard system of Private Higher Educational Institutions (IPTS) remained strong and able
to gain recognition among nations. The main role of ESSB was to regulate and facilitate
Private Higher Educational Institutions (IPTS) to ensure that all legal provisions for
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education are complied with.

Siti had been working as the Head of the Supervision and Monitoring Unit for the past three
years. She was known as a workaholic among her colleagues and subordinates. Everybody
used to praise her for her fairness and firm characteristics. Due to her firmness, her
subordinates used to feel afraid in her presence. One employee commented:
Although Madam Siti is very firm, I know that she is doing it for our betterment only. She just
wants us to perform better.

Siti showed consistently responsible behaviour throughout her career. She firmly believed
that a healthy working environment could lead to better work productivity and output. In the
past, when she worked with other institutions, due to her responsible behavioural pattern,
she gained higher authorities’ praise. She never felt afraid to speak out if she noticed any
misconduct be it her boss or subordinate. The director of the unit Dato’ Arafat also trusted
Siti’s responsible and trustworthy nature. If any issue aroused in this unit, he used to call Siti
and get her opinion in regard to the matter. The Director’s trust also made Siti obliged to
think about the issue pertaining to Natasha.
Siti did not want the top management to complain about her department, neither had she
wanted Dato’ Arafat to feel down about this unit. Noman’s position put Siti in a dilemma. She
was stuck in the middle of the situation between Assistant Director Noman Ali and Natacha
Rosli. Siti desperately wanted to find a solution to this unhealthy office environment and to
protect the image of her department.

Siti’s warning to Natacha

Based on Edu Solution’s client charter, all officers were required to complete and submit
their reports within three days after completing their inspections. However, Natacha got
special privileges in completing her report. Even though Siti reminded her to complete the
report as soon as possible, Natacha did not take it seriously and completed the report after
one week. Siti reminded Natacha about the code of conduct of Edu Solution (Exhibit 3) as
well as Malaysian law about the government servants’ workplace rules and regulations
(Exhibit 4). However, it seemed that Natacha did not care about it at all.
“I’m jealous,” joked Atika, one of the officers of the Supervision and Monitoring Unit. “I wish
I had special privilege from Mr Noman to get an excuse from joining any inspection. I really
exhausted doing this task” she expressed her grief to Farid, her colleague who was having
lunch with Atika and Ruzanna.

PAGE 4 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 1 2018

 No comment. I just don’t get it [. . .] Farid replied with anger.

“Hey Ruzanna, do you know what Natacha is busy for? She seems so cheerful and relaxed
without any special task to handle” Atika asked Ruzanna who was sitting next to her.
I feel like there is no harmony at this place anymore [. . .] very biased situation. Is there any end
of this story? Ruzanna vented her frustration.

They did not realize that Siti had come to the café to grab some drinks and was standing
at the counter to pay for her drink. Siti heard the conversation and left the place silently.
Noman went for an official tour to Singapore for three days. Siti decided to take this
opportunity to talk to Natacha. She wanted to discuss many things but finally stopped
herself by thinking that Noman could rebuke her once he was back from the office trip. She
casually informed Natacha that everybody was talking about her absence, sneaking out of
the office for long time and use of the office PC for her own business. She also mentioned
that it would affect the workplace environment and could affect other colleagues as well.
Natacha reluctantly mentioned that she would try to behave accordingly. However, Siti felt
that Natacha did not feel guilty at all which made her feel upset.

Recurring problem
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Although Natacha gave her word to Siti that she would follow the official code of conduct,
no changes were seen in Natacha’s behaviour. Siti looked at the calendar on the desk. Only
two weeks left for her to complete the next employee performance appraisal which was due
at the end of the month.
Based on her nine years’ experience in working at ESSB, Siti realized that Natacha needed
to be given a warning letter by the Human Resource Department. Similar cases that she
encountered in the past had resulted in receiving lower scores in their key performance
indicators during performance reviews, which caused them to receive less or no salary
increments and bonus.
Siti thought about discussing the whole thing with Noman. But after few minutes, she
cancelled the plan by thinking about his rough attitude and position in the hierarchy.
Moreover, there was a rumour on the floor that Noman was having affair with Natacha. She
sensed it too. However, without having any solid evidence, it would not be possible for her
to report the issue to the top management. Siti started to feel light headed by thinking about
all these unsolved issues.

At the crossroad
As the head of the unit, Siti felt guilty as the unfair situation in the office was due to
Natacha’s deviant behaviour and Noman’s discriminatory support. She realized that if this
situation continued to grow, her unit would face serious problems. Already the work culture
was polluted, backbiting, gossip, demoralization became daily activities. Before Natacha
joined, the work environment was completely different. At least nobody felt that they were
unfairly treated, and there was no backbiting. Nobody cheated on their daily attendance.
Nobody showed negligence towards their routine activities. Furthermore, Noman did not
have any workplace romance before which had made the situation worse.
Siti leaned back in her chair. She was determined to make things right. As the Assistant
Director himself was involved in polluting the workplace environment, she had to do
something to solve the issue. She realized that she had to work smartly and to investigate
more before she could take any step in this regard. She decided to investigate Natacha’s
Keywords:
performance appraisal given by Noman to see whether it was equal to or exceeded the
Organizational performance,
scores given to other staff.
Business ethics,
Siti was thinking about her next steps. Should she report the unethical behaviour in the Organizational behaviour,
department to the Human Resource Department? However, she was in a dilemma about Corporate culture

VOL. 8 NO. 1 2018 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 5

 whether to report Noman’s misconduct or to remain silent. She knew that, if she lodged a
complaint against Noman’s discriminatory behaviour as well as workplace romance; it
would negatively impact Noman’s life and career.

Source of information
Interview with Mr Rahman Bin Mohd Din, the Director of Enforcement and Inspectorate
Division, EDU Solution Sdn Bhd (ESSB).

Exhibit 1. Organizational chart of EDU solution SDN BHD

Figure E1
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PAGE 6 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 1 2018

 Exhibit 2. Organizational chart of information and inspectorate division unit

Figure E2

Enforcement & Inspectorate Division, ESSB

Director
Dato’ Arafat

Assistant Director
Mr Noman Ali

43 years old
Head of Supervision & 9 years working at ESSB
Monitoring Unit
Madam Siti Hajar

5 years working with

ESSB
1 year working with ESSB Executive Officer
Adiba Amin
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Main protagonist

Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer

Natacha Rosli Ruzanna Farid Atika Evas

Exhibit 3. Code of conduct of EDU solution

1. Sexual harassment at workplace
According to Malaysian penal code, section 509 that deal with issue of sexual harassment,
“Whoever, intending to insult the modesty of any women, utters any words, make any sound
or gesture or exhibit any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or such
gesture or object shall be seen by such women, shall be punished with imprisonment for a
term which may extend to 5 years or with fine, or both”.
2. Code of conduct for internet and email use
 Only use the intent and email for legitimate business purpose related to your work.
 Do not use internet or email to send defamatory, threatening message to other
employees or anyone outside organization.
 Do not use internet or email to send racially and or sexually harassing message.
3. Conflict of interest which refers to a situation where the own interests compete or
conflict with the interests of the organization in such a way that affect the
accomplishment of organizational goals. Therefore, public officer must avoid any
situation in which their personal interest conflict with the interest of company. Moreover,
public officer should be vigilant about recognizing potential conflict and must disclose
it to immediate supervisor and human resource management for review.
4. Values and principles
 public officers shall fulfill their lawful obligations with professionalism, integrity, and
loyalty.
 public officers shall perform their official duties honestly, faithfully and efficiently
5. Equal opportunity
Employees shall be treated with dignity and in accordance with the policy of
maintaining a work environment free from:
 all form of discrimination based on gender, race, religion, etc.
 all form of discrimination based on gender, race, religion, etc.
 all form of harassment, whether physical verbal or psychological.

VOL. 8 NO. 1 2018 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 7

 Exhibit 4. Malaysian Government’s law about the government servants’
workplace rules and regulations

Wearing indecent clothes at workplace

 In Malaysia Labour Law, there is no definite code or act on indecent clothes at
workplace. The law only covers the personal protective equipment under Occupational
Safety and Health act 1994.
 All private and government sector has their own workplace Dress Code which needs
to be followed by all employees. Most of the Dress Code are formal attire (Long
skirts/pants, office shirt, leather shoes) or company’s uniform at workplace and national
dress (Baju Kurung).
 Indecent clothes include see-through outfit, short skirts/pants, revealing clothes and
non-formal attire.
 Human Resources Department should brief employee on company’s Dress Code and
make proper judgement on their daily workplace outfit.
 If any regulation on Dress Code is violated, actions should be taken to the offender.

Absenteeism
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 According to Employment Act 1955, an employee shall be deemed to have broken, i.e.
breached his contract if he is absent from work for more than 2 consecutive working
days without permission or without reasonable excuse and without informing or
attempting to inform his employer.
 Absence from work without permission is an act of misconduct. Action should be taken
every time an employee is absent from work without permission and without a
reasonable excuse.
 When an employee is absent for one or two days without leave, an employer should
require the employee to explain the reason for his absence. If he is unable to provide
an acceptable reason for the absence, a warning letter should be issued. If the
employee repeats his behaviour of being absent without leave for a second time, a
second warning letter may be issued. Any further repetition of this behaviour should
lead to a serious penalty such as a suspension without pay, or a demotion or even a
dismissal.

Sneaking
 Sneaking from work is considered a misconduct.
 The Employment Act states that an employer may dismiss an employee “on the
grounds of misconduct which is inconsistent with the fulfilment of the express or implied
conditions of his service”. This means that any behaviour which conflicts with express
rules established by the employer or with implied conditions of service may be
considered misconduct. Misconduct may be defined as any action or behaviour which
conflicts with the interests of the employer.

Corresponding author
Jihad Mohammad can be contacted at: jihad@ibs.utm.my

PAGE 8 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 1 2018