Background: Destroying others (Backstabbing) are those actions taken in the absence of target person aimed at destroying his/her reputation or creating some difficulties for. Given the adverse outcomes of backstabbing behavior for the individual, organization, and society, the current study was to explore various angles of backstabbing behavior in the real context of the organization.
Method: Research philosophy was interpretative, its approach was qualitative, and its strategy was the emergent-based grounded theory. Statistical population was comprised of managers of public organizations in Mashhad city from which 19 people were selected by purposeful sampling to reach to theoretical saturation. The research instrument was a semi-structured interview. In order to evaluate the research strength, we used the four criteria including reliability, dependability, transferability, and conformability. Data were analyzed through the open, axial, and selective coding processes in MAXQDA software.
Results: Results of interview analyzing by theoretical and actual coding revealed 100 codes, 38 concepts, 8 categories, and 2 issues which led to the research conceptual model based on principal issue titled as “backstabbing behavior.” The proposed model refers to the causes and outcomes of backstabbing behavior.
Conclusion: In total, the current research provides a basis for understanding, controlling, as well as preventing this unethical behavior in the organizations through explaining the theory of backstabbing behavior.