The DOI matches its Crossref record; 3 of the 3 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Defensive Behavior in Organizations: A Preliminary Model
Abstract
The literature on organizational politics has focused on the proactive promotion of self-interests but has neglected the reactive defense of self-interests. Defensive behaviors are argued to: (1) avoid action, via over-conforming, passing the buck, playing dumb, depersonalizing, smoothing and stretching, and stalling, (2) avoid blame via buffing, playing safe, justifying, scapegoating, misrepresenting, and escalating commitment, and (3) avoid change via resisting change and protecting turf. Organizational antecedents of defensiveness include bureaucratic rationality and various stressors, and individual antecedents include insecurity and anxiety, emotional exhaustion, work alienation, self-monitoring, and low self-efficacy. The effects of defensiveness on the individual, recipients, and organization are discussed, and directions for future research are presented.
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Cites
Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services
Lipsky, M. (1981) · Michigan Law Review · doi:10.2307/1288305 · Cited by 8,981
Knee-deep in the big muddy: a study of escalating commitment to a chosen course of action
Staw, B. M. (1976) · Organizational Behavior and Human Performance · doi:10.1016/0030-5073(76)90005-2 · Cited by 2,061
Self-efficacy: implications for organizational behavior and human resource management
Gist, M. E. (1987) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.1987.4306562 · Cited by 1,447
Cited by
Affect and Cognition Based Trust as Foundations for Interpersonal Cooperation in Organizations
McAllister, D. J. (1995) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.2307/256727 · Cited by 7,346
Organizational Silence: A Barrier to Change and Development in a Pluralistic World
Morrison, E. W., & Milliken, F. J. (2000) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/259200 · Cited by 2,776
Trust in Management and Performance: Who Minds the Shop While the Employees Watch the Boss?
Mayer, R. C., & Gavin, M. B. (2005) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.5465/amj.2005.18803928 · Cited by 1,200
Procrastination: self-regulation in initiating aversive goals.
Van Eerde, W. (2000) · Applied Psychology · doi:10.1111/1464-0597.00021 · Cited by 231
Artinger, F. M., Marx-Fleck, S., Junker, N. M., Gigerenzer, G., Artinger, S., & van Dick, R. (2025) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115240 · Cited by 29
Metadata
- Authors
- Ashforth, B. E., & Lee, R. T.
- Venue
- Human Relations
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1990-07
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 621-648
- ISSN
- 0018-7267 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-282X
- OpenAlex
- W2144335947
- Cited by
- 333
- References
- 3
- FWCI
- 7.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
