Effects on the Antecedents of Employee Misconduct Stress and Opportunity in the Royal Malaysian Police
Employee misconduct (EM) exists in every organization including law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement officers such as police officers can easily abuse their power or exploit their position for personal gains which subsequently will tarnish the image of the enforcement agencies as a whole. The main objective in this study is to examine the relationship between antecedents (i.e., self-control, integrity, organizational justice, organizational politics, salary, financial pressure and lifestyle), stress and EM among enforcement officers in Malaysia. This study also to examines the impacts of opportunity on the relationship between antecedents and EM as a moderator variable. This study adopted a cross-sectional survey and the data was collected from the police officers’ sample (n=428) in the area of Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Perak and Sabah. This study found that self-control, organizational justice, salary, financial pressure and stress contributes significantly to EM. However, integrity, organizational politics and lifestyle did not contribute significantly to EM. Findings also revealed that self-control, organizational justice, salary and financial pressure contributes significantly to stress. In addition, this study also supported the moderating effect of opportunity on the relationship between antecedents (i.e., self-control, integrity, organizational justice and salary) and EM.
