Working like a machine or a beast: exploring mechanistic and animalistic dehumanization in organizations

This research explores for the first time whether the two forms of organizational dehumanization (i.e., mechanistic and animalistic) are empirically distinct as well as their relationships with employees' well-being (i.e., decreased job satisfaction), attitudes (i.e., increased turnover intentions), and behaviors (i.e., decreased in-role performance). Three cross-sectional field studies involving employees from various occupational domains were conducted. Results of structural equation modeling showed that mechanistic and animalistic organizational dehumanization are empirically distinct constructs that are differently related to outcomes. Specifically, when considering the two forms of organizational dehumanization, (1) both animalistic and mechanistic organizational dehumanization are negatively related to job satisfaction, (2) only mechanistic organizational dehumanization is positively related to turnover intentions, and (3) only animalistic organizational dehumanization is negatively related to in-role performance. Theoretical contributions to the organizational dehumanization literature as well as promising future research avenues are discussed.