'Out of sight out of mind'... A multilevel model of job satisfaction, organizational trust, perceived isolation, professional deviance and deviant workplace behaviors in remote locations

Remote Health Care Practitioners (RHCP) work independently in remote and isolated locations across the globe. RHCPs' isolation and separation, coupled with reduced supervision and oversight may lead to deviant professional practices, which could result in broader workplace deviant behaviors. Such professional deviance and workplace deviant behaviors are likely to undermine the quality of healthcare provided by the organization, and generate significant risk exposure for patients as well as the health care provider. This research builds on studies emphasizing the effect of workplace situation and other "stressors" on workplace deviance (Robinson & Bennett, 1995; Christian & Ellis, 2011). I examined the phenomenon of professional deviance and the workplace deviant behaviors affecting employees operating in remote locations as a result of insufficient oversight as well as the psychological phenomenon known as perceived isolation. I tested a model that examined the relationships between job satisfaction, organizational trust, perceived isolation, professional deviance and broader workplace deviant behaviors. Data was collected from 142 participants who were working as RHCPs in the North Sea of the United Kingdom using self- reported electronic survey questionnaires. The results show that job satisfaction was negatively related to both professional deviance and broader workplace deviant behaviors and that perceived isolation mediated the relationship between professional deviance and broader workplace deviant behaviors.;Contrary to my hypotheses, I found a negative rather than positive relationship between professional deviance and broader workplace deviance showing that the two phenomena may be separate and need to be further examined in terms of their idiosyncrasies and interaction (for example, professional deviants could be taking pains not to engage in broader workplace deviance choosing to engage in harder to discover professional deviance). I also found that organizational trust was not significantly related to professional deviance. Although the study did not find a significant relationship between organizational trust and workplace deviant behavior this research has important organizational behavioral implications for the offshore oil and gas sector as well as a broader range of organizations operating in remote locations in terms of its examination of the antecedents of professional deviance and deviant workplace behavior, in general. Health care providers and managers should aim to minimize negative deviant workplace behavior by strengthening employees' satisfaction with their work, encouraging and building organizational trust and reducing employees' perceived isolation, as well as seeking to minimize professional deviance that may lead to broader workplace deviance behaviors.