Workplace Deviant Behavior is
outlined as acts that hurt the organization further as well as employees
operating in it. The foremost well researched work deviant behavior examples
would be absence from work, theft, sabotage, drug usage, explicit acts of
aggression etc.
According to Robinson and
Bennett (1995), workplace deviant behaviors are voluntary behaviors of
employees that violate company norms, policies, or rules which have a negative
impact on both the well-being of both the organization as well as its members.
Once directed towards individual staff, it’s within the kind of creating fun of
others, enjoying mean pranks, acting impolitely, engaging in conflicts etc.
Studies have known that factors
like job stressors, organizational frustration, lack of management over the
work atmosphere, weak sanctions for rule violations etc are the causes of work
place deviance.
Studies
have conjointly shown that socialization and impulsivity constructs are also
responsible for work deviant behaviors. Employees with high asocial
temperament show less social maturity, integrity, and morality and
are typically perceived as rebellious, unhappy, and defensive. Employees with
this temperament tend to resist rules and laws. (Gough and Peterson, 1952)
Employees high in socialization
on the opposite hand are kind, dependable, well-balanced, patient etc. Analysis
of Collins and Griffin (1998), conjointly found a relationship between
socialization with thievery and disciplinary issues.
Impulsivity, on the opposite
hand, is that the tendency to act with very little forethought on the
implications of one’s actions. Employees who are high on impulsivity are
characterized as rash, reckless, incautious etc. Impulsive people/employees
also act on the spur of the moment and freely express their emotions.
Employee’s whose evaluations
are lower on measures of impulsivity are thought to be non-indulgent and are
able to manage their emotions (Megargee, 1972). Gottfredson and Hirschi (1993)
have concerned impulsivity with deviant behaviors like drug use, theft, work
violence, and employment instability.
For the aim of hiring, several
organizations have spent several resources in its plan to ascertain work place
deviance. The deviant behaviors at work place are possible to be subjected to
employee’s temperament (personality) traits rather than ability-related factors
as employees make conscious choices regarding whether they wish to or not wish
to indulge in deviant behaviors.
The
Five Factor Model (FFM) is the most widely known and used model in industrial
psychology as an empirically supported personality measure. The dimensions of
factors of personality consist of:
1. Agreeableness may be
categorized as a personality where people are compassionate. They like to
cooperate together. They don’t prefer to be suspicious and don’t like to
produce hostility with each other. This trait is more indicative of individual
differences in their concern for creating social harmonization. Such types of
people are nice, easy-going with others, caring, friendly, optimistic,
generous, etc. (Rothmann and Coetzer, 2013).
2. Extraversion is
characterized as a personality where people exhibit positive emotions. People
who are high on their social skills tend to be assured, dominant, active, happy
and really interactive.
3. Conscientiousness is
characterized as a personality where people exhibit self-discipline, obedience,
and who aim to achieve higher than expectations. This trait emphasizes action
that is always planned rather than spontaneous action.
4. Neuroticism is
characterized as a personality which is related to people’s emotional
stability. The person having high neuroticism exhibits negative emotions such as
irritability, easily anxiety etc.
5. Openness to experience is
characterized as a personality where people are artistic, creative, and
imaginative and take interests in new things as a result of their curiosity.
Layth
et al (2016) solely found traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness as
those traits which don’t have any significant negative impact on
counterproductive behavior. An online survey at a project management practice
firm in Singapore was conducted by Santos and Eger (2014). They found
extraversion to be the legitimate factor for forecasting interpersonal and
organizational deviance and not agreeableness and conscientiousness. One can
observe that there is an inconsistency of predictors to workplace.
Layth and Zulkarnain (2016)
found that emotional stability (opposite of neuroticism) had an inverse
relationship to work place deviance and has positive and significant effects on
counterproductive work behavior.
As outlined by Salovey and
Mayer (1990), Emotional Intelligence is a subset of social intelligence that
involves the ability to observe one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to
differentiate among them and then using this data to know, introspect and guide
one’s own thoughts and actions. Thus, emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability
to perceive, control and evaluate emotions.
Emotional intelligence allows
people to develop a construct referred to as “learned optimism”, the causative
attributions people create once they are confronted with failure or setbacks.
Another facet of emotional intelligence is that it allows people to manage
feelings and handle stress.
Barsade and Gibson (1998) claim
that managers having the ability to infect a work group with their good and
smart emotions and feelings can lead to improved cooperation, fairness, and
overall group performance. Empathy is additionally a very important facet of
emotional intelligence. Researchers have familiarity for years that it
contributes to occupational and organizational success.
Through
training sessions, employees can be taught and trained to use such techniques
and methods that can help to strengthen their social skills, build
assertiveness etc, which could help them achieved more adaptive behavior which
would further reduce their deviant behaviors at workplace and enable the
employees to excel on the professional front.
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