Characteristics of Workplace Deviance
Workplace deviance refers to voluntary employee behaviors that violate significant organizational norms and threaten the well-being of the organization, its members, or both.
These deliberate actions range from minor policy violations to serious unethical conduct, falling into two main categories: organizational deviance (harming the company) and interpersonal deviance (harming individuals).
Unlike accidental mistakes, deviant behaviors involve conscious choices to break rules or social expectations in the work environment.
Below are the 10 major characteristics of deviant behaviors in the workplace.
Intentional Violation
At its core, workplace deviance involves deliberate actions rather than accidental errors.
Employees consciously decide to break rules or norms, whether it’s falsifying timesheets, stealing supplies, or bullying colleagues.
This intentionality distinguishes deviance from honest mistakes or poor performance.
The actor knows the behavior is wrong but proceeds anyway, often after calculating risks and benefits.
Spectrum of Severity
Workplace deviance exists on a continuum from minor to severe.
At one end are relatively harmless acts like occasional personal internet use at work.
At the extreme are serious violations like embezzlement or workplace violence.
Most organizations find moderate-level deviance (like chronic tardiness) more common than extreme cases, but even small violations can accumulate into significant cultural and operational problems.
Harmful Consequences
All deviant behaviors negatively impact someone or something – the organization, coworkers, customers, or the perpetrators themselves.
Even seemingly victimless acts like “time theft” (pretending to work) ultimately harm productivity and morale.
More serious deviance can destroy careers, sink companies, or physically endanger people.
The harm may be immediate or gradual, but it’s invariably present in true workplace deviance.
Normative Context
What constitutes deviance depends heavily on organizational and cultural norms.
In some workplaces, swearing might be deviant; in others, it’s commonplace.
Similarly, strict companies may view casual dress as deviant, while creative firms encourage it.
This contextual nature means the same behavior may be acceptable in one setting but punishable in another.
Organizations must communicate their specific standards to avoid confusion about expected conduct.
Rationalization Process
Deviant employees typically justify their actions through cognitive rationalizations.
Common excuses include “Everyone does it,” “The company owes me,” or “They’ll never miss this.”
These mental justifications allow people to maintain their self-image as good persons while behaving badly.
Understanding these rationalization patterns helps organizations design better prevention strategies that address the underlying thought processes enabling deviance.
Opportunity Factors
Deviant behaviors flourish where opportunities exist and controls are weak.
Employees in positions with access to valuable assets, minimal supervision, or poor accountability systems face more temptation and less risk of getting caught.
Organizations can reduce deviance not just through policies but by restructuring workflows and controls to minimize these opportunistic conditions.
Social Contagion Effect
Workplace deviance often spreads through social networks. When employees see colleagues getting away with minor violations, they’re more likely to engage in similar or escalated misconduct.
This “broken windows” effect means tolerating small infractions can inadvertently encourage larger ones.
Conversely, visible enforcement of standards creates a culture where deviance seems risky and uncommon.
Stress and Strain Triggers
Many cases of workplace deviance stem from employees feeling stressed, unfairly treated, or emotionally strained.
Perceived injustice, whether real or imagined, frequently precedes deviant acts as people seek “payback” or stress relief.
Overworked employees might cut corners, while those passed over for promotion might sabotage others’ work.
Addressing the root causes of employee dissatisfaction can prevent many deviance incidents.
Read More: Features of Psychological Safety
Personality Correlates
Certain personality traits increase the likelihood of deviance.
Low conscientiousness, high impulsivity, and weak moral identity consistently correlate with workplace misconduct.
However, situational factors often outweigh personality – even generally ethical people may act deviantly under the right (or wrong) organizational conditions.
Effective management focuses on shaping the environment rather than just screening for “bad apples.”
Read More: Features of Org. Roles
Concealment Behaviors
Deviant employees typically attempt to hide their misconduct through various tactics: working when no one’s around, altering records, or creating plausible excuses.
Some become quite sophisticated at covering tracks, making detection challenging.
This concealment aspect means organizations often only discover the most obvious cases while missing more clever violations.
Hence, these are the 10 notable characteristics of workplace deviance in business.
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Siddhu holds a BIM degree and in his free time, he shares his knowledge through this website with the rest of the world.