Employee Sabotage

Abstract

Employee sabotage occurs when people currently employed in an organization engage in intentional behaviors that effectively damage that organization's property, reputation, product, or service (Giacalone & Rosenfeld, 1987). From this perspective, individuals sometimes called "violent avengers" (Lee, 1989), whose aim is political and designed to bring about a change in an organizational function (e.g., alternatives to animal testing) or the very purpose of the organization itself (e.g., close an abortion clinic), would not be classified as employee saboteurs, either because they are not employees or because their aims originate from advocacy positions that often predate their employment.