This Is Bullshit: The Relationship between Organizational Bullshitting and Employee Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Bullshitting is a term that has been introduced lately in the literature to describe the practice of communicating with no grounding in truth. This study examines the relationship between organizational bullshit and employee job satisfaction. Using a sample of 261 employees from five organizations in Saudi Arabia, this study finds that employees are more likely to be dissatisfied when their organizations have no regard for the truth in making their decisions, and specifically, when their direct supervisor is bullshitting. This study contributes to the emerging literature on organizational bullshit and offers practical implications as well as suggestions for future research.

Keywords

• bullshit
• bullshitting
• job satisfaction
• work environment
• job demand–resource
• leader–member exchange