Predicting Charlatan Behaviour in a Non-Western Setting: Lack of Trust or Absence of Commitment?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify predictors of charlatan behaviour and investigate relationships among the construct and other variables like: trust in management, organisational commitment, turnover intention, supervisory support, job performance and some job characteristics in Botswana and Swaziland.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires in this survey. Usable questionnaires were received from a total of 484 respondents. Respondents were from public and private sector. Five hypotheses were tested.

Findings – Result shows a strong and significant inverse relationship between charlatan behaviour and trust on the one hand and a direct significant relationship with continuance commitment on the other. Supervisory support, employee participation and goal clarity were also significantly albeit inversely correlated with charlatan behaviour but not so with all other study variables. The significant predictors of charlatan behaviour were trust in management and continuance commitment.

Research limitations/implications – The predictor variables for charlatan behaviour in this study were few and the sample is heavily skewed towards the public sector. Future studies would benefit from looking at how co-worker trust and ethical behaviour scales would relate to charlatan behaviour, as well as cross-cultural and multi-cultural comparison.

Practical implications – Deliberate management policies that build trust, identify and tackle charlatan behaviour during selection and performance evaluation while sustaining employee commitment is vital. So is dealing with the potential problems posed by charlatans especially the possibility of upsetting and demotivating other sincere and committed employees.

Originality/value – The paper re-awakens a new task for HR practitioners and researchers: that of identifying organisational charlatans. Also striving to create sustained commitment while building trust and segregating (or incorporating where possible) charlatans.