Modeling
Jalil Hashemi; Amirhooshang Nazarpouri; Mohammad Hakkak; Seyed Najmeddin Mousavi
Abstract
Introduction
Organizations are complex social systems in which formal structures, informal relations, and hidden emotions continuously interact. Within these systems, perceived injustice, breaches of psychological contracts, and leadership failures often give rise to deviant responses from employees. ...
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Introduction
Organizations are complex social systems in which formal structures, informal relations, and hidden emotions continuously interact. Within these systems, perceived injustice, breaches of psychological contracts, and leadership failures often give rise to deviant responses from employees. While overt forms of workplace deviance; such as absenteeism, open conflict, or explicit resistance; have been widely studied, covert and subtle retaliatory behaviors remain understudied, despite their significant long-term impact. Among these covert forms, the phenomenon of silent revenge has emerged as a hidden but powerful behavioral response. Silent revenge refers to intentional but covert actions taken by employees to retaliate against perceived organizational mistreatment, unfairness, or neglect, without making these actions directly visible to supervisors or formal systems.
The purpose of this study was to design and explain a grounded theoretical model of silent revenge formation in public organizations. In the specific context of Iranian bureaucratic institutions, where voice channels are limited and hierarchical structures are rigid, employees often perceive that overt protest is risky or ineffective. Consequently, they resort to hidden strategies of retaliation that remain invisible on the surface but gradually erode organizational trust, efficiency, and legitimacy. This research therefore sought to uncover the antecedents, processes, and consequences of silent revenge and to provide a model that both scholars and practitioners can use to better understand and address this concealed threat.
The concept of retaliation in organizations has long been linked to theories of organizational justice, social exchange, and psychological contracts. Equity theory argues that perceived inequities generate pressures to restore balance, while social exchange theory highlights the norm of reciprocity—both positive and negative. When employees perceive breaches in distributive or procedural justice, they may feel compelled to reciprocate in ways that disadvantage the organization. However, existing literature has largely emphasized visible deviance or destructive behaviors such as theft, absenteeism, or overt aggression. Less attention has been paid to subtle, invisible behaviors that employees adopt when formal voice mechanisms are absent or ineffective. Silent revenge fills this gap by explaining how employees retaliate not by openly confronting management but by withdrawing effort, withholding cooperation, manipulating information, or subtly sabotaging organizational processes.
In public organizations, where bureaucratic routines, rigid hierarchies, and opaque procedures prevail, silent revenge can be especially destructive. It erodes the credibility of managerial authority, undermines service quality, and contributes to the erosion of trust between citizens and state institutions. This study thus offers both theoretical and practical significance: it extends organizational deviance literature by theorizing covert retaliation, and it provides public managers with insights into how to detect and mitigate these hidden behaviors.
Methodology
This research employed a qualitative design using grounded theory methodology. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews with a purposive and theoretically selected sample of 16 participants, including human resource managers, frontline employees, experienced observers, and retired senior managers from public organizations in Kurdistan province, Iran. Sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved: while saturation was evident after 14 interviews, two additional interviews were conducted to confirm completeness.
The interview protocol included open-ended questions regarding perceptions of unfairness, reactions to managerial behaviors, experiences with conflict or retaliation, and strategies used by employees when they felt powerless to voice concerns. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding procedures. NVivo software was employed to support coding and categorization. Trustworthiness was established through prolonged engagement in the field, member checking, peer debriefing, and the maintenance of reflexive journals. These measures enhanced the credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability of the findings.
Findings
The analysis produced a multi-layered model of silent revenge formation consisting of causal factors, contextual conditions, intervening variables, behavioral manifestations, and consequences.
Causal/Antecedent Conditions. Employees described a range of triggers that generated feelings of frustration and injustice, including unfair reward distribution, biased promotions, lack of recognition, prior negative encounters with managers, and the absence of welfare and support systems. These antecedents created emotional tension and a desire for retaliation.
Contextual Conditions. The organizational environment was shown to play a crucial role. Rigid bureaucratic structures, toxic organizational cultures, lack of empathy from leadership, and opaque communication channels limited the possibility of open dialogue. In such settings, employees perceived that overt resistance would not only be ineffective but might also endanger their career security.
Intervening/Moderating Factors. The transition from dissatisfaction to silent revenge was shaped by individual and cultural moderators. Employees with higher emotional sensitivity, lower resilience, or personal economic pressures were more likely to engage in silent revenge. Moreover, socio-cultural norms valuing silence, patience, or indirect resistance reinforced the adoption of covert strategies.
Behavioral Strategies of Silent Revenge. Participants described a variety of tactics, including withholding or distorting information, intentional work slowdowns, reduced quality of output, covert sabotage of resources, spreading rumors to undermine leaders, disengagement from team activities, and undermining managerial authority in subtle ways. Importantly, these behaviors were not random but calculated efforts to retaliate without detection.
Consequences. Silent revenge was shown to produce damaging outcomes at multiple levels. At the individual level, employees experienced burnout, emotional exhaustion, and declining organizational commitment. At the organizational level, consequences included reduced productivity, information breakdowns, declining service quality, and reputational harm. At the societal level, the erosion of trust in public institutions undermined citizen confidence and fostered cynicism toward state governance.
Discussion and Interpretation
The findings extend prior theories of organizational justice, psychological contracts, and organizational silence. While previous studies acknowledged that breaches of fairness can lead to deviance, this study shows that when formal complaint channels are absent, retaliation does not disappear; rather, it takes hidden and less detectable forms.
The model suggests that silent revenge functions as a form of “exit without leaving”-a way for employees to symbolically withdraw while remaining within the organization. This aligns with the literature on “quiet quitting,” but with a more retaliatory orientation. Furthermore, the study highlights the cultural context: in societies where direct confrontation with authority is discouraged, covert retaliation becomes an adaptive response.
By integrating individual, organizational, and cultural factors, the model advances the literature on deviant workplace behavior. It also offers a framework for future research to develop measurement scales, test causal dynamics, and compare cross-cultural differences in silent retaliation.
Practical Implications
The study offers several actionable recommendations for public organizations:
- Strengthening organizational justice: ensuring fairness in reward distribution, transparent promotion systems, and clear procedural guidelines.
- Developing safe voice channels: creating anonymous reporting mechanisms, independent grievance systems, and ombudsperson offices to provide employees with constructive outlets.
- Leadership training: equipping managers with skills in empathy, fair decision-making, and conflict resolution to reduce the likelihood of retaliatory perceptions.
- Early detection systems: using HR analytics and monitoring performance indicators (delays, errors, absenteeism) to identify patterns of silent revenge before escalation.
- Employee support: offering wellness programs, workload management, and professional development to reduce stressors that fuel retaliatory impulses.
Limitations and Future Research
As a qualitative study, the findings are context-specific and not intended for statistical generalization. Future research should develop quantitative instruments to measure silent revenge, conduct large-scale surveys, and employ longitudinal designs to trace the temporal evolution of covert retaliation. Comparative research across sectors and cultural contexts would further validate and refine the model.
This study provides one of the first systematic attempts to conceptualize and empirically model the phenomenon of silent revenge in organizations. By identifying its antecedents, processes, and consequences, the research highlights the hidden ways in which employees retaliate when they feel mistreated but lack safe avenues for voice. For public organizations, recognizing and addressing silent revenge is critical not only for preserving productivity and trust but also for maintaining the legitimacy of state institutions. The grounded theory model and recommendations presented here thus contribute to both academic theory and practical organizational reform.
Modeling
Hamed Ghasempour; Seyyed Najmaddin Mousavi; Ardeshir Shiri; Reza Sepahvand; Seyed Mehdi Veiseh
Abstract
The Expectancy Silence is the result of the barrage of unpleasant experiences from the poisoned arteries in the body of organizations, which forces some employees to continue office life by hiding expectations, strategies and tactics. Therefore, since about this phenomenon, a deep silence has covered ...
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The Expectancy Silence is the result of the barrage of unpleasant experiences from the poisoned arteries in the body of organizations, which forces some employees to continue office life by hiding expectations, strategies and tactics. Therefore, since about this phenomenon, a deep silence has covered the study space of organizational behavior management knowledge; This research aims to reveal the phenomenon of visible and invisible layers in the context of western governorates of the country (including Ilam, Kermanshah, Lorestan, Kurdistan and Hamedan) through morphology. This essay is based on exploratory mixed methodology. In the qualitative part, the basic theory of the systematic approach was used, and in the quantitative phase, the one-sample t-test was used for its validation and generalizability. The participants in the research were 18 students who were invited to participate in the research through the theoretical sampling method. The results of the research showed that in the deepest conceptual layer of the phenomenon of Expectancy Silence, the driving forces of administrative panic, quiet professions, strategic patience and shrewd situationalism are located, and the most superficial layer occurs in the form of behaviors such as radar avoidance, salaciousness and destructiveness. Also, the results of the validation of the model through the T-Tech test showed that, according to the experts, the conceptual model has theoretical validity.
Causation
Zeynab Amiri; Mahmmod Reza Esmaeli; Reza Sepahvand; Seyed Najmedin Mousavi
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to provide a behavioral entropy pattern in the organization. This research has been carried out in the framework of qualitative approach and using the research methodology of the Foundation. Data collection tools were semi-structured interviews and interviews were conducted ...
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The purpose of this study is to provide a behavioral entropy pattern in the organization. This research has been carried out in the framework of qualitative approach and using the research methodology of the Foundation. Data collection tools were semi-structured interviews and interviews were conducted using a targeted sampling method with 23 senior and middle managers of Isfahan municipality and academic experts familiar with organizational issues and organizational behaviors. Data analysis was performed in three stages: open coding, axial coding and selective coding. Based on this, a qualitative research model was designed. In this model, the most important causative factors were individual, organizational and environmental factors. The main phenomenon in entropy was the behavior of organizational injustice. The underlying factors included lack of organizational transparency, inappropriate socialization, lack of comparative leadership and organizational culture. The results showed that the weakness of communication systems, the silence of managers against the hackers and the hypocritical behaviors of managers and employees are the most important factors in intervention. Based on the results of the justification, the escape rule and the non-emotional-mental conflicts are the strategies of individuals in behavioral entropy. Finally, the entropy consequences of behavior were categorized in the form of five individual, organizational, group, family, and environmental consequences.
