Broken windows in Turkish organizations: The effect of a VUCA environment on counterproductive work behaviors through moral disengagement

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of moral disengagement in the effect of public employees’ VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) perceptions on counterproductive work behaviors, within the framework of Broken Windows Theory. The study included 438 public employees working in Istanbul. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results of the research showed that VUCA perception significantly and positively increased both moral disengagement and counterproductive work behaviors. Furthermore, it was found that increased moral disengagement also significantly increased counterproductive work behaviors. The most significant finding of the model is that moral disengagement plays a strong and significant mediating role in the effect of VUCA perception on counterproductive work behaviors. This finding reveals that an uncertain and turbulent environment like VUCA paves the way for the emergence of counterproductive work behaviors primarily by weakening employees’ moral self-regulation mechanisms, rather than directly pushing them towards destructive actions. In conclusion, by applying Broken Windows Theory to the organizational context, this study has empirically demonstrated that moral disengagement is the fundamental cognitive mechanism explaining increased unethical behaviors in a VUCA environment and has offered a holistic model to the literature.