Deviant Organizational Behavior - Causes and Effects

1. DEVIANT WORKPLACE BEHAVIOR

2. WHAT IS DEVIANT WORKPLACE
BEHAVIOR?
• Behaviors – those that violate organizational
norms, policies or internal rules
• Deliberate (or intentional) desire to cause
harm to an organization/workplace
• It has become an instrumental component in
the field of organizational communication
• Otherwise called
counterproductive work behavior, misbehavior
in organizations, etc.,

3. REASONS
Psychological contract
• When employee perceive a psychological
contract breach by their employers
• Perception of mistreatment
• A form of negative reciprocity.
Abusive supervision
• sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal
behaviors with subordinates
• Displacement of employees frustration

4. • According to Bolin and Heatherly,
Dissatisfaction
higher
incidence of
minor offenses
Less
satisfaction Deviance
Other Reasons
Cognitive ability
Personality
Genetics

5. RESEARCH FINDINGS
• 33-75% of all employees have engaged in deviant
behaviors of some sort (Harper, 1990)
• As many as 75% of employees have stolen from
their respective organizations (McGurn,1988)
• Increased cyber loafing (technology-facilitated
deviance (Lim,2002))
• Employee workplace theft has been estimated to
range between $10 billion and $120 billion
annually (Bourke, 1994; Murphy, 1993)

6. • organizations can increase workplace deviance
by creating stressful environments (Fox,
Spector, & Miles, 2001)
• Managers often play a role in their
subordinates’ deviancy (Greenberg, 1997;
Thau, Bennett, Mitchell, & Marrs, 2009)
Example: Enron case
• Deviant behavior of a group is a significant
predictor of an individual’s deviancy (Robinson
& O’Leary-Kelly, 1998)

7. TYPOLOGY
According to Bennet and Robinson 4 types
• PRODUCTION
Leaving early, Intentionally working slowly, Wasting resources
• PROPERTY
Sabotage, Lying about hours worked, Stealing from the organization
• POLITICAL
Showing favoritism, Gossiping and spreading rumors, Blaming co-workers
• PERSONAL AGRESSION
Sexual harassment, Verbal abuse, Stealing from co-workers

8. IMPACT ON ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR
• It threatens the well-being of the organization
• Increased turnover
• Psychological stress and illness
• Deviant sub-cultures may still emerge among
individuals
• Enormous costs associated with such
behavior(Peterson, 2002).

9. Consequences for Teams
Negative Behavior (undermining coworkers, shirking etc.,)
Negative moods in teams
Poor coordination of effort
Lower level of group performance
Decrease in productivity

10. HOW IT CAN BE REDUCED?
• Eliminate toxic leaders and deviant employees
• Creating an ethical climate
• Fairness of interpersonal treatment
• Effective communication by leaders with
subordinates
• Transformational leadership style
• Involving employees in decision making
• Reward pro-social behavior/Reprimand
deviant behavior

11. REFERENCES
• doi.apa.org/journals/apl/85/3/349.pdf
• http://www.slu.edu/Documents/professional_studies/
OHI-CWB.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_deviance
• Robinson, S.L., & Bennett, R.J. (1995). A typology of
deviant workplace behaviours: A multi-dimensional
scaling study. Academy of Management Journal,
38,555-572.
• Causes and Consequence Deviant Workplace Behavior
by Muafi, researcher at the University of Pembangunan

12. THANK YOU
PRESENTED BY
Y. RAVIKIRAN
G.RAJEEV SHARMA
T.CHANAKYA