INTRODUCTION
Organizations, to take part in the competitive market in the 21st century, see human resources as assets that are compatible with the business that can act in line with the business needs of the future, and that need to be carefully managed (Schuler & Jackson, 1996). Human, an important and valuable resource of modern organizations, plays an extremely important role in achieving organizational goals and organizational success (Riggio, 2018). Organizational behavior, which is a field of science that examines internal processes and practices to determine the effectiveness of individuals and groups in the working environment (Hellrieger & Slocum, 2011), aims to understand the behavior of people in the organization. Thus, it aimed to find ways to make them more successful and effective.
On the other hand, employees of the organization, who try to respond to the politicized business life, job diversity, and the expectations of the organization in an increasingly competitive environment, may have the desire to be included in a certain group, to have a career, and advancement opportunities, and to shine within the working group. As a result of competition and ambition, conflicts occur among employees, a working environment cannot be created as a team, and stress and pressure increase by breaking off communication (Yeşilada & Yeniceri, 2020). This situation may cause various syndromes that can be examined within the scope of the discipline of organizational behavior in the work-life (not included in a psychological disorder group) due to the reasons arising from both themselves and the organizational functioning of the employees (Gündüz, 2017). Crab Barrel Syndrome (CBS), which is one of the most important syndromes seen in the working environment, can be expressed as a situation that employees encounter within the discipline of organizational behavior and can affect the entire career life of an organizational employee.
People-oriented service concept, which is one of the structural features of the tourism sector, causes the destructive behaviors of employees to have more negative consequences in terms of work efficiency and effectiveness. At this point, the detection and prevention of destructive behaviors are of great importance in this area. The most important requirement of this study is the lack of a relevant scale measuring the behaviors of employees with crab syndrome who tend to engage in unethical behavior in tourism. So it is aimed to develop and validate a crab behavior scale to detect the crabs and to determine the difference between these crabs in terms of demographic characteristics. This study provides a solid foundation for a better understanding of intra- organizational crab syndrome behavior and relationships between employees. It facilitates the determination of the negative
behaviors of the employees in advance and taking the necessary measures, especially for the service sectors such as tourism, where the effect of employee behavior on the quality of service is observed instantly. In addition, one of the reasons for the emergence of this study is that the results of the crab syndrome in this study help in the selection and placement of personnel in the recruitment of human resources personnel. With a recruitment test created with the feedback received from here, personnel with crab syndrome can be distinguished and personnel can be recruited per the corporate culture and not disrupt the order.
LITERATURE REVIEW
CBS is a situation in which the individual tries to bring down the employees who perform better than himself in the organization, and every time the person who performs well makes progress, he continues to be pulled down by another employee (Sampath, 1997; Soubhari & Kumar, 2014; Spacey, 2015; Bulloch, 2017). The presence of employees with crab syndrome in organizations can negatively affect the peaceful working environment, teamwork, and productivity, and can significantly increase the stress experienced by employees at work (Aydın & Oğuzhan, 2019).
Fishermen who catch crabs in the Philippines close the bucket after throwing the first crab into the bucket, they do not need to close the cover of the bucket after catching the second crab. Because even if the crab is in the act of getting out of the bucket, the crab at the bottom does not allow it to come out and pulls it down. This phenomenon, which emerged from these actions of crabs and is widely used among Filipinos; although it is expressed in different ways in the literature as crab mentality (Abrugar, 2014; Aydın & Oğuzhan, 2019), pulls sb down (Gündüz, 2017), crab basket syndrome, crab-bucket effect (Soubhari & Kumar, 2014) or crabs in a bucket (Miller, 2019), it was first used as crabs in a basket by the author Ninotchka Rosca (Tokdemir Reis, 2018). Explained by the social comparison theory and the conservation of resources theory, CBS manifests itself in behaviors such as the punishment of the successful and the different from the others (Üzüm et al, 2021). As it is known, less successful people with selfish personalities consciously try to bring down successful, unique, and unique-style individuals, and failure with anxiety on their faces precedes individuals who can be considered successful. CBS, which manifests itself in these situations, is a situation that can be encountered at every stage of life (Tokdemir Reis, 2018; Royeca, 2010).
CBS manifested by behaviors such as punishment of the successful and different by the other, less successful people with selfish personalities consciously try to bring down individuals who are successful, unique, and have a style of their own, and with the anxiety experienced in the face of failure, prevent individuals who can be considered successful. The CBS, which manifests itself in these situations, is a situation that can be encountered at every stage of life (Royeca, 2010; Tokdemir Reis, 2018).
Before moving on to the definition of CBS, it would be appropriate to explain the concept of the “syndrome”. According to the Cambridge Dictionary (2022), the syndrome is defined as “a type of negative behavior or mental state unique to a person in a particular condition”. According to the general opinion, the crab mentality; is a human habit similar to the behavior of crabs after being placed in the basket (Royeca, 2010). There is no drive when crabs exhibit this behavior. However, people exhibiting the CBS behavior are often motivated by negatively perceived emotions such as jealousy, grudge, and envy (Edama, 2021). In CBS, which is seen as a kind of jealousy or hatred (Spacey, 2015), the person in a certain group is tried to be brought down by other group members because of the stance, his superior performance, he displays (Sampath, 1997; Spacey, 2015; Keuthen, 2006).
Considering the literature review regarding crab syndrome, there are studies on educational performance (Spacey, 2015), discrimination (Aaron & Smith, 1992; Sampath, 1997; Bulloch, 2017; Katherine et al., 2018), management (Miller, 2019), job stress (Soubhari & Kumar, 2014), innovative behavior effect (Özkan et al., 2022), the effect of crab syndrome on dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and motivation (Aydın & Oğuzhan, 2019). However, despite the assumption that workers in labor-intensive businesses operating in the field of tourism, where the human factor plays a fundamental role, may be exposed to crab syndrome, no study could be found as a result of our research on the subject. Undesirable behaviors are seen as an attitude in which tourism sector employees behave humiliatingly towards their colleagues and the workplace, and these negative behaviors can cause employees to exhibit low performance (Kuo et al., 2015), leave the job, and unethical work behaviors (Guo et al., 2022).
As it is known, the success of organizations operating in the tourism sector largely depends on their employees who provide the highest quality service to their customers (Yavas et al., 2013). Determining positive/negative employee attitudes and behaviors is of vital importance in the tourism sector, where service quality depends on its employees. (Castro-Casal et al., 2019; Grobelna, 2021).
In order not to encounter these negative situations regarding the attitudes and behaviors of tourism employees, which are the key elements in the quality of service in the tourism sector, and to take the necessary precautions if encountered, the presence and detection of employees with crab syndrome, in other words, it is important to determine the presence and level of crab syndrome in lower, middle and upper-level workers, and also to determine whether the levels of crab basket syndrome differ according to demographic variables. It should not be forgotten that the most important difficulty in the syndrome is that individuals with this syndrome do not fully accept or define it (Abrugar, 2014; Aydın & Oğuzhan, 2019).
METHODOLOGY
In the study, it was tried to determine the CBS levels of the lower, middle, and upper-level managers of the tourism sector employees. “Can the levels of CBS differ according to the hierarchical level (lower, middle, and upper level) of the managers working in the tourism sector?” based on the problem of the research, the research hypotheses were determined as follows:
H1: There is a significant difference between the levels of CBS according to the level (lower, middle, and upper level), of the tourism sector employees.
H2: There is a significant difference between the levels of CBS according to the age, of the tourism sector employees. H3:There is a significant difference between the levels of CBS according to the length of service, of the tourism sector employees.
H4:There is a significant difference between the levels of CBS according to the educational status, of the tourism sector employees.
H5: There is a significant difference between the levels of CBS according to the marital status, of the tourism sector employees.
H6: There is a significant difference between the levels of CBS according to, the gender, of the tourism sector employees. H7: There is a significant difference between the levels of CBS according to the institution they work for (public/ private), of the tourism sector employees.
To test the research hypotheses, it was seen that there was no scale measuring the crab syndrome levels of the tourism sector employees as a result of the literature review. For this reason, the (Study1) crab syndrome scale was developed first.
Research Population and Sample
The population of the research was determined as 1,138,147 people working in the tourism sector in Turkey, as stated in the May 2022 data of TUIK. Data were collected from 310 people through an online questionnaire created face-to-face and via Google form for the lower, middle, and upper-level managers working in the tourism sector, which was determined by the convenience sampling method.
As the details can be seen in Study1, 114 people working in the tourism sector were first reached for the pilot analysis. Afterward, 119 more people were reached, and the exploratory factor analysis of the scale was performed on the data obtained from a total of 233 people, including the data of 114 people used for the pilot analysis. 77 more people were reached and by adding 233 data, confirmatory factor analysis of the scale was carried out on the data obtained from a total of 310 tourism sector employees, and the scale was finalized. Research hypotheses were tested on the data obtained from these 310 tourism workers reached in Study
2. Although a survey link was sent to approximately 1000 tourism employees in total, the data collected at each stage of the research were added on top of each other, and the study was finalized because the number of responses was limited.
3. STUDY 1
The research design consisted of three stages to ensure rigorous scale development. As it is known, the first stage of scale development studies is the creation of scale expressions to evaluate the structure under investigation. There are different methods such as induction and deduction in forming the first statements (Hinkin, 1998). In this study, the inductive method was used to create the first items to measure crab behavior.
In the first stage, the first item pool consisting of 31 expressions was created using the deductive method, based on the data obtained as a result of the literature review (Abrugar, 2014; Soubhari & Kumar, 2014; Miller, 2019; Aydın & Oğuzhan, 2019). To evaluate the suitability and applicability of the first item pool, an expert evaluation form including the first item questions was sent to 60 people, who are experts in the fields of organizational behavior, human resources, and psychology, via the Google form on April 29, 2021. 30 experts, including 20 academicians, 2 psychologists, and 8 human resources experts, gave their opinions. Three expert opinions were not taken into consideration due to incomplete coding.
In scale development studies, different methods have been developed in the literature to make the results more reliable, since the expert opinions we refer to ensure the content validity of the scale are subjective (Lawshe, 1975; Davis, 1992; Lindell & Brandt, 1999). The Lawshe method, which is the most known and used method among these methods (Ayre & Sclally, 2014), was used in determining the content validity of the scale in the study.
Each scale item consisting of 31 statements created as a result of the literature review was evaluated by field experts according to one of the options “Item measures the targeted structure”, “The item is related to the structure, but it should be corrected”, “The item does not measure the targeted structure”. The content validity rate was specific to each item was calculated with the data obtained after the evaluation. Content Validity Ratio (CVR) according to Lawshe (1975);
CVR=[NG / (N / 2)] -1 is calculated by the formula. NG refers to the number of experts who say that the substance is measuring the targeted structure; N indicates the number of all experts.
After the Content Validity Ratio (CVR) is calculated, it is compared with the criteria and it is decided whether the item will continue to be found in the scale. At this stage, in cases where the Content Validity Ratio (CVR) is 0 and -1, it can be concluded that the item does not measure the intended structure and a decision may be made to exclude it from the scale (Lawshe, 1975, 568).
Since the total number of experts whose opinions were obtained in the study was 28, statements with a content validity ratio of 0.357 and above were accepted (Ayre & Scally, 2014). In addition, the items accepted but requested to be corrected were arranged following expert opinions.
As can be seen in Table 2, it was deemed appropriate to remove the expressions specified in Item.10 (-0,071) and Item.29 (0,071) since the Content Validity Ratio (CVR) is below 0,357. Since Item.17 was a reverse question and Item.19 was a similar question, it was removed within the scope of expert opinions.
The expressions in Item.23 was corrected in line with expert opinions and included in the scale expressions. Thus, 27 of the 31 statements were accepted as scale expressions. Content Validity Index (CVI) was found to be 0.630 by taking the average of the Content Validity Ratio (CVR) of 27 accepted expressions. Eventually, 27 items were used in the subsequent questionnaire survey.
Instrument Development and Data Collection
The pilot application of the questionnaire consisting of 27 statements prepared as a result of submitting the statements created as a result of the literature review to the expert opinions were carried out on 114 employees between May 12 and May 16, 2021. The candidate participants, which can be reached through the easy sampling method, are above the age of 18, lower level, middle level, and senior-level managers in the tourism sector in Turkey. The data has been collected through an online questionnaire via a Google form. The questionnaire form created over the Google form was sent to the participants via e-mail and WhatsApp application.
The questionnaire was created in two parts. The first part includes items of the Crabs in the Barrel Syndrome Scale, which consists of 27 items. Scale expressions are structured with a five-point Likert scale. The scales rated with a five-point Likert are structured as 1 = Strongly Disagree … 5 = Strongly Agree. Starting from the formula 4/5 = 0,80; 1.00-1.79 Strongly Disagree (fairly low), 1.80-2.59 Disagree (low), 2.60 - 3.39 Neither Agree / Neither Disagree (medium), 3.40-4.19 Agree (high), 4.20-
5.00 Strongly Agree (quite high). Participants were asked to choose the expressions appropriate to their opinions from the expressions structured with the five-point Likert scale.
In the second part of the questionnaire, which is the pilot application, in addition to the 27 items obtained as a result of expert opinions, questions were included to collect demographic information such as gender, age, educational status, marital status, and working time.
The normality of the data obtained as a result of the pilot application was first tested. The kurtosis value of the items is 0,504 and the skewness value is 0,601. According to Tabachnick and Fidell (2013), the skewness and kurtosis values between -1.5 and +1.5 are an indication of the normal distribution of the data.
Since the data were distributed normally, the item-total correlations of the items and the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for the whole scale were calculated, and the Cronbach’s Alpha value was found to be 0,826.
Kim & Mueller, quoted from 1978, Hinkin (1998) stated that any variable with less than .40 correlation can be deleted from the analysis of variables without conducting the correlation analysis between variables before performing factor analysis. The correlations between the statements of the pilot statement and the items were examined and the statements less than .40 were not accepted and they were expressed with 18 statements.
As a result of the reliability analysis of the data obtained as a result of the pilot application and the examination of the correlations between the items, 18 statements were accepted as the CBS scale.
Reliability and Validity of The Instrument
Exploratory factor analysis was performed on the CBS scale consisting of 18 statements as a result of the pilot application, to explain the correlations between the scale statements by determining or confirming the basic factors explaining these correlations. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied to 233 (N=233) people working in the lower, middle, and upper levels of the tourism sector.
Demographic characteristics related to the data collected as a result of the questionnaire applied to perform the exploratory factor analysis of the scale are given in Table 1.
Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the participants (n=233)
The normality of the data obtained as a result of the application was first tested. The kurtosis value of the items is 0,380 and the skewness value is 0,664. It is seen that the data are normally distributed.
The data obtained were subjected to exploratory factor analysis with a statistical program to discover the factors underlying the variables showing the CBS (Yang, 2009: 183-184). During the factor analysis, direct oblimin rotation principal components analysis was applied. The maximum likelihood method was used for the factor extraction method. As factor loadings, factors with no significant loading above 0.40 were removed, and items with cross-loading above 0.40 were defined during the exploratory factor analysis. The remaining 12 items were subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis. As shown in Table 2, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin sampling adequacy measure is 0.823, Bartlett’s test of sphericity is significant (chi-square = 934.245; df
= 66 p<.001).
Table 2: Results of exploratory factor analysis with 12 items (n = 233).
Four factors were identified that collectively explained 54.625% of the total variance. Based on the semantic meanings of the component items, the four related factors are Arrogance/Selfishness, Insensitivity, inability to accept, and not working with others labeled (see Table 2).
Confirmatory factor analyses
After determining the factor structure displayed in Table 2, CFA was applied to the factor structure of the CBS scale, which consists of four factors and 12 statements (n=310).
According to the results of confirmatory factor analysis model fit indices (chi-square = 145.472, df = 48, p < .001; CMIN/DF= 3.031; RMSEA = 0.081; GFI =0.931; NFI = 0.882; IFI = 0.918; TLI = 0.885; CFI = 0.917), the model was found to fit the data
relatively well. Modification indices suggested error covariance between the items e1(I don’t care if my co-workers fail) and e3 (I don’t try to solve problems that are not directly related to me) (MI = 11.472) and items e9 (I think that the concept of “me” represents more success than the concept of “we” in the workplace ) and e10 (If I can’t do a job, I would prefer my co- workers not to do it either) (MI = 9.006). Confirmatory factor analysis was performed again by combining the error variances of the mentioned items for the values of the goodness of fit in line with the modification indices suggestions. Model fit indices obtained as a result of the analysis (chi-square = 112.248 df =46; p <.001; CMIN/DF= 2.440; RMSEA = 0.068; GFI = 0.945; NFI = 0.909; IFI = 0.944; TLI = 0.919; CFI = 0.943) ) values indicate that the four-factor model fits well with the data and is acceptable.
DFA results are shown in Table 3. All items have a load of over 0.500, each being significant at the 0,001 level. The mean variance-extracted (AVE) score for the three factors is slightly lower but very close to 0.500. Considering that the AVE is a conservative indicator and composite reliability is all above 0.700 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981), we conclude that the identified factor structure has sufficient reliability and convergent validity.
Table 4 shows the correlations of the scale factors. As can be seen in Table 4, the sub-factors of the crab basket syndrome are moderately related. It is expected that these factors are moderately related to each other. CBS arises with the coexistence of these 4 factors. If one of these factors is missing, it will not be possible to fully express the attitude of individuals with CBS.
F1: Insensitivity
F2: Inability to accept
Pearson Correlation 1
Sig. (2-tailed)
Pearson Correlation ,301 ** 1
F3: Arrogance / Selfishness F4:Not working with others
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
In summary, based on the quantitative data from the questionnaire, a stable 4-factor CBS scale with 12 measurement items was determined. The first factor of the scale is “ Insensitivity”, which consists of three statements and can be explained as the indifference of employees with crab syndrome to the problems of their colleagues. The second factor is “ Inability to accept”, which consists of three statements and refers to the fact that employees with CBS cannot accept the success of their colleagues, whom they think are more successful than themselves, that they want all the attention to be on them, and that they even attribute the success to themselves (burden). The third factor is “ Arrogance / Selfishness”, which consists of four statements and represents the motto of the crab syndrome, that if I can’t do it, you shouldn’t either. The fourth factor is “ not working with others”, which we can explain as the Crab syndrome employees are not willing to share information with their peers, and they do not observe the rights of their colleagues to achieve their personal goals. The fourth factor of the scale consists of two statements.
Demographic characteristics of the participants are given in Table 5. Table 5: Demographic characteristics of the participants (n=310)
Before the analysis of the research data, the normality tests of the data were made. As can be seen in Table 6, the data are normally distributed.
Table 6: Normality tests of scales
Kolmogorov-Smirnov
The Cronbach Alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the scale used in the research. The Cronbach Alpha reliability level of the Crab Barrel Syndrome Scale was .843, insensitivity from the sub-dimensions, .660; inability to accept
.738; arrogance/selfishness .763; Not working with others was found to be .605. The reliability level of the scale is high.
Findings
As can be seen in Table 7, it is seen that the crab basket syndrome levels of the participants are at a low level with an average of 1.9368.
To analyze whether the crab basket syndrome levels of the employees differ according to the hierarchical levels (lower, middle, and upper level) of the tourism sector employees -because the hierarchical level has three levels as lower, middle, and upper levels- One-Way ANOVA analysis was made.
Table 8: One-Way Anova Test Result for the Evaluation of the Difference in CBS Levels by Hierarchical Levels of Tour- ism Sector Employees (Lower, Middle, Upper Level Managers)
|
Group | N |
Mean |
S.D. |
F P |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Crab Barrel Syndrome |
Lower level manager | 152 |
1,8520 |
,62289 |
|
Middle manager |
48 |
1,9271 |
,57955 | |
|
Senior manager | 110 |
2,0583 |
,52274 |
4,013 ,019 |
|
Total | 310 |
1,9368 |
,58813 |
As can be seen in Table 8, as the sig value (p<0.05) was statistically significant as a result of the analysis, it was found that the levels of CBS showed a significant difference according to the hierarchical levels (lower, middle, and upper levels) of the tourism sector employees. With this result, the H1 hypothesis was supported statistically.
To determine between which groups the difference was, Scheffe’s test, one of the Post-Hoc tests, was used because the group variances were homogeneously distributed. As can be seen in Table 9, according to the Scheffe test results, it is seen that the CBS levels of the lower-level managers differ significantly compared to the CBS levels of the upper-level managers. When the CBS averages are examined, it is seen that the lower-level managers have an average of 2,0583, and the upper-level managers have an average of 1,8520. In this case, it is seen that the lower-level managers working in the tourism sector have the highest level of CBS, and the level of CBS experienced will decrease as the organizational hierarchy rises.
Table 9: Scheffe Test Results on Differences in CBS Levels in Terms of Hierarchical Levels of Tourism Sector Employees Level (I) Level (J) Mean Difference (I-J) Std. Error P
Middle Manager -,07511 ,09644 ,739
Lower level
Middle Manager
Senior Manager
Senior Manager -,20636 * ,07291 ,019
Lower level ,07511 ,09644 ,739
Senior Manager -,13125 ,10076 ,429
Lower level ,20636 * ,07291 ,019
Middle Manager ,13125 ,10076 ,429
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
To analyze whether the levels of Crab Basket Syndrome differ according to gender, institution, and marital status of tourism sector employees, an independent sample t-test was conducted since each factor has two levels.
Crab Barrel Syndrome
Institution Marital Status
As can be seen in Table 10, as the sig value (p>0.05) was not statistically significant as a result of the analysis, it was found that the CBS of the participants did not show a significant difference depending on the gender and the institution they worked for. With this result, H 6 and H 7 hypotheses could not be supported statistically.
The sig value (p=.001 and <0.05) was found to be statistically significant according to the results of the independent sample t-test, which was conducted to determine that the levels of CBS did not show a significant difference according to the marital status of the tourism sector employees. With this result, the H 5 hypothesis was accepted and it can be said that single workers have higher levels of CBS.
One-Way ANOVA Analysis was conducted to analyze whether the CBS levels of the employees differ according to the age of the tourism sector employees.
Table 11: One-Way Anova Test Result for the Evaluation of the Differences in CBS Levels by Ages of Tourism Sector Employees
|
Grup |
N |
Mean |
S.E. |
F |
P | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
<= 21 |
11 | 2,1515 |
,61894 | |||
|
Crab | Barrel |
22-40 |
182 | 2,0343 |
,58743 | |
|
Syndrome |
41-56 |
105 | 1,7849 |
,56185 |
6,176 |
,000 |
|
57-75 |
12 | 1,5903 |
,38837 | |||
|
Total |
310 | 1,9368 |
,58813 |
As can be seen in Table 11, as the sig value (p<0.05) was statistically significant as a result of the analysis, it was found that the CBS levels of the tourism sector employees showed a significant difference according to their age. With this result, the H2 hypothesis was supported statistically.
To determine between which age groups the difference was, Hochberg’s GT2 test was used as one of the Post-Hoc tests, since the group variances were homogeneously distributed and there was too much difference between the sample numbers of the groups. As can be seen in Table 12, according to the results of Hochberg’s GT2 test, it is seen that the CBS levels of employees aged 20-40 differ significantly from the levels of CBS of employees aged 41-56. When the CBS averages are examined, it is seen that the employees between the ages of 20-40 have an average of 2.0343, while those between the ages of 41-56 have an average of 1.7849. This shows that the level of CBS will decrease as the age of the employees in the tourism sector increases.
Table 12: Hochberg’s GT2 Test Results on the Differences in CBS Levels in terms of Ages of Tourism Industry Employees
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
One-Way ANOVA Analysis was conducted to analyze whether the CBS levels of the employees differ according to their working time in the tourism sector. As can be seen in Table 13, as the sig value (p<0.05) was statistically significant as a result of the analysis, it was found that the CBS levels of the tourism sector employees showed a significant difference according to the working time in the sector. With this result, hypothesis H3 was supported statistically.
Table 13: One-Way Anova Test Result for the Evaluation of the Differences in the Levels of CBS According to the Work- ing Times of the Tourism Sector Employees in the Tourism Sector
Crab Barrel Syndrome
To determine between which study periods the difference was, the Games Howell test, one of the post-hoc tests, was used because the group variances were not homogeneously distributed. As can be seen in Table 14, according to the Games Howell test results, it is seen that the levels of crab basket syndrome of employees of 20 years or more differ significantly compared to the levels of CBS of employees between 1-3 years, 4-7 years and 8-11 years. When the average of the CBS is examined, it is concluded that the level of CBS will decrease as the working time in the tourism sector increases.
Table 14: Games Howell Test Results on the Differences in CBS Levels in Terms of Working Hours in the Tourism Sector Employees
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
One-Way ANOVA Analysis was conducted to analyze whether the CBS levels of the employees differ according to the educational status of the tourism sector employees.
As can be seen in Table 15, as the sig value (p>0.05) was not statistically significant as a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the levels of CBS did not show a significant difference according to the education level of the tourism sector employees. With this result, the H4 hypothesis could not be supported statistically.
Table 15: One-Way Anova Test Result for the Evaluation of the Differences in CBS Levels According to the Educational Status of Tourism Sector Employees
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
In the study, which aimed to determine the CBS and its levels in the tourism sector, a four-dimensional CBS scale with sufficient reliability and validity was developed to determine the CBS levels of the employees. The developed and approved CBS scale will enable the examination of the relationships between various behavioral structures of tourism sector employees such as organizational cynicism, organizational silence, job satisfaction, motivation, organizational citizenship, employee performance, mobbing, and its effect on career development. On the other hand, the developed scale will enable tourism practitioners to detect these undesirable behaviors, as well as to understand the behaviors and causes of crabs that they have not been able to identify until now and to take the necessary precautions. Undoubtedly, the effects of the CBS on the service sector will be different from the industrial production factories. Because the behavior of the employee in the tourism sector, which puts people at the center, is of great importance. In other words, employee behaviors have a direct effect on perceived quality in terms of tourists. Perceived quality also points to vital aspects of the business such as tourist purchasing behavior and sustainable competitive advantage. For this reason, with the implementation and dissemination of the scale, it will be easier to identify tourism personnel with CBS by using this scale in the HR processes of tourism enterprises. Especially in the recruitment process, it will be possible to avoid candidates who will exhibit such behaviors. Thus, while preventing performance deficiencies that may occur in the future, it will enable the emergence of effective, harmonious, and productive teams.
According to the findings obtained as a result of the research we conducted on the lower, middle, and upper-level managers working in the tourism sector, it was found that the crab basket syndrome levels of the tourism sector managers were low. CBS levels were significantly different according to their hierarchical levels, and the lower-level managers’ CBS levels were the highest. It was concluded that the levels of CBS did not show a significant difference depending on the demographic variables of the participants, such as gender, educational status, and the institution they worked at, and that single workers had higher levels of CBS compared to the marital status variable. In addition, it was concluded that the CBS levels of young workers and those who have just started the sector are high, and the CBS levels will decrease as the age of the employees and the working time in the sector increase.
In extremely competitive and politicized work environments, equality, diversity, inclusion in the group and/or work, and the inability to have an equal opportunity, especially in the field of career and advancement, are new challenges for employees. CBS is also a metaphorical representative that can express this problem, which explains the negative feelings and behaviors of employees towards each other, that is, their mentality and behavior. When those who are the target of the CBS gain areas of advancement and success, they are faced with those who deter opportunities they seize, and they may be subjected to maltreatment.
CBS is a socially undesirable phenomenon. When those who are the target of this behavior gain areas of progress and success, they face those who deter opportunities they seize, and they may be subjected to ill-treatment. CBS is included in the dark behaviors in organizations such as the perception of injustice, low job satisfaction, lack of organizational commitment, mobbing, careerism, organizational silence, and cynical behaviors, which have recently increased in working life. It can be seen that CBS causes negative effects on employees such as exclusion and bullying. It is possible that the tourism personnel who are under the influence of the syndrome will have difficulties in communicating with the tourist, and that these problems will hurt tourist satisfaction and business output. As a result, since the employee, who is the most important tool in communication with the tourist, cannot establish effective communication with the tourist, the tourism businesses that are in the middle of the syndrome will also have difficulties in reaching quality service that they aim for.
Struggle against the existing/possible CBS in tourism businesses, the biggest task falls to the leaders and managers. Leaders need to be aware that the success achieved will be again for the employees of the organization and that the success in question will protect the organizational interests. It will also be beneficial to support its employees who are trying to develop and make a difference in their work in the organization and to share opportunities, suggestions, and information with them without expecting anything in return for their progress.
It should not be forgotten that employee who perceives that they are treated in the framework of high fairness will show a more desirable attitude towards employers by displaying higher performance than expected (Anderson & Shinew, 2003).
In addition, it should not be neglected that the employees who are given opportunities to show themselves by the managers are rewarded for the continuation of their behavior due to their achievements.
Managers should focus on hope, existence (hope), optimistic perspective, resilience in the face of difficulties, and employees’ self-efficacy as positive organizational behavior variables in coping with the CBS. In addition, to prevent the formation of interpersonal competition and hostility, one should avoid taking sides and not allow workplace incivility. Based on the knowledge that the motivation of those with the high social power to target groups with rudeness stems from agitators seeking social power, they should not be easily influenced by individuals with crab syndrome existing in the organization.
The service sector constitutes more than half of the employment both in the world and in Turkey. Increasing the level of job satisfaction of the employees in this sector will enable them to improve their individual and organizational performances by increasing their work commitment, and organizational commitment with organizational justice practices and even motivating them to show organizational citizenship behavior.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE IMPLICATIONS
This study has limitations in terms of sample coverage because the tourism sector could not operate at full capacity due to the Covid-19 outbreak. According to the general opinion, each factor that makes up the scale should be three items, but the last factor of the scale consists of two statements. In future studies, the deficiencies can be eliminated by applying the scale in different sectors and the scale can be retested on different sample groups.
One of the purposes taken into consideration while developing the scale is participant shyness, which is among the problems that are generally encountered. Considering that even the academics get bored after a certain statement, it is thought that an effective and efficient scale has been developed that will enable the participants to respond objectively in a short time and at the same time measure the syndrome with a limited number of statements. In this sense, researchers who will conduct similar studies can easily use the scale in this study as it will provide data collection in a short time.
In addition, individuals with crab syndrome were examined as individuals with negative behaviors. In future studies, if the subject of crab syndrome is treated with concepts such as organizational justice, mobbing, gaslighting, and nepotism, it may be revealed that the behavior of the crab syndrome that will emerge is a state of self-defense. In this sense, individuals with crab syndrome exhibiting this behavior will be able to display a just structure rather than being negative.
Otherwise, in future studies, it can be investigated whether leadership style, organizational culture, organizational climate, work engagement, etc. variables affect the levels of CBS of tourism sector employees.