Deviant Workplace Behaviour

As stated by Robbins and Judge (2007) deviant workplace behavior is seen as a voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and in so doing threatens the well being of the organization or its members. In my opinion deviant behavior can be potentially destructive or constructive to an organization depending on how it is dealt with by management. It is destructive in sense of company ethics, public relations, disruption in work and productivity. It is constructive in the sense that it provides an opportunity for management to check current processes and procedures.

The behavior is a direct response to dissatisfaction and imposing penalties such as verbal reprimand to suspension or termination can be seen as short term solutions to curbing the behavior. They are found to be ineffective in the long term because the root cause of the behavior was not investigated, found and corrective action be taken. A worker may be continuously taking days away from work due to dissatisfaction in what he perceives to be bad working conditions or even poor wages. Verbally reprimanding this worker will not solve the problem because what he is dissatisfied with has not changed. Eventually this worker my eventually be fired, because he still continues to be absent from work often. A new worker has to be hired, cost in training and development has to be spent, disruption to work has to be taken into account and the cycle may soon start again with this new worker if truth and in fact working conditions are bad and wages are seen as poor with no room for development on.