Workplace Deviance

Stranger behaviors – employees are remote and have poor social skills, and become fixated on an idea and/or an individual.

Workplace deviance is voluntary behaviour that violates significant organisational norms, and in doing so, it threatens the wellbeing of the organisation, and/or its members.

The Office is a comedic mockumentary that takes place in Scranton, Pennsylvania and focuses on the lives of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company Inc. employees over the course of nine years. It has many characters, but mainly centers around Michael Scott, the regional manager, Dwight Schrute, Jim Halpert (both salesman) and Pam Beesly, the receptionist. Over its nine seasons, the show has displayed many sociological concepts, but has the most examples of deviance, sex and gender, socialization and social interaction and groups and organization. Deviance in The Office is displayed mainly through one of its minor characters, Creed Bratton.

Company X is committed to providing education for each employee to report unethical behavior and resolve conflicts without fear of retaliation. One such example would be the need to report employee theft. Employee theft is not only unethical but could also be criminal in nature. Regardless of employee status (entry level or upper management), each employee should feel it their responsibility to report any unethical behavior they observe. Employee theft can range from theft of money, time, office supplies or merchandise to providing proprietary information to unauthorized entities. These activities can result in a negative public image of Company X and should be reported as quickly as possible. Prior to reporting such offenses, each employee should ensure the accuracy of the evidence they will be reporting. There are various methods to report such abuses including but not limited to an anonymous toll free hot line number, verbal or electronic reporting to the local Human Resources office and the open door policy which encourages employees to approach members of management without the fear of

When and under what conditions can values and norms become so strong that they cause employees to act in unethical ways?

Conflicts such as James Deal and David Ngyuyen, in the workplace can lead to hurt feelings and may mean team members, have to work in a hostile environment. Whether this rumor is true or not, the outcome of spreading it can be hurtful. Managers, have a responsibility to try to control the spread of rumors in a workplace; this is to ensure that the work environment is a positive place for all team members. This may seem to be an overwhelming task. Understanding the origins of rumors and why people start them in the first place can help managers control the spread of rumors. Rumors are often caused by conflict due to a lack of communication in the work environment, ignorance, and unhealthy competition between team members.

This paper commendably addresses the interactions between agreeableness, types of lies and counterproductive workplace behaviors (CWBs). CWBs not only cost the organization money, but also disrupt the harmony of professional relationships between the employees, and is considered a major issue. The study provides insights on range of acceptability with regards to lying and developed a Range of Acceptability (ROA) scale to understand its impact on CWBs. This paper provides information on the predictors of CWBs which can be utilized by organizations to devise policies and guidelines that explicitly state unethical behaviors and to control CWBs. This paper can make a good contribution to the field of behavioral sciences and has a number of positive features: the study variables are clearly explained with related research and appropriate examples, multiple established scales are used to measure the variables individually and adequate number of questionnaire items have been utilized to examine the relationships between the study variables. This paper also provides suggestions for future research to implement methods other than the self-reporting method to examine the interactions, and to study the impact of self-concept and priming

Unethical behavior…sounds bad doesn’t it? But what employee can truly say that he is completely innocent of any unethical behavior in the workplace? Some of the most common unethical business behaviors are fudging work hours, making phone calls on business lines and photo copying of personal paperwork. Simple acts such as these are highly unlikely to have an employee face criminal charges but when the acts of embezzling money or falsifying business records are committed a company is more apt to prosecute. People have different views regarding what is ethical and what is unethical. Some feel that it’s

These actions seem silly when compared to infidelity or something of that sort, but, once again, these deeds can seriously affect one’s psychological growth. Meanwhile, betrayal in a place of employment can not only negatively affect one’s mental health, it can also negatively impact the place of employment. Betrayal strips a workplace of trust, which is essential when attempting to complete a job. According to Untangling the Knot of Trust and Betrayal, “trust enhances cooperation, improves communication, facilitates citizenship behaviors, in addition to improving group and organizational performance” (Robinson). Therefore, overall, betrayal has proven to be a menace in any form of relationship between individuals.

We will perhaps eventually ruin our professional status if we get trapped up in mongering rumor and gossip (Anonymous, 1995). We may harm our career and also the organization’s future (Anonymous, 1995). As an advice, we shall never expose private and confidential information, besides preventing from contradicting or agreeing any hearsays (Anonymous, 1995).

Except this behavior is not isolated to these enterprises alone. In the United States, this behavior of corruption is swaying more towards a social norm. In fact, so communal that it is anticipated when regular companies or constituents intermingle with government representatives. The end game in this tit-for-tat competition of legal deviance is a kleptocracy, which precisely translates to “rule by thieves.” Social deviance within the justice system is a breach of social norms, therefore who thrives as a social deviant? Concurring with the works of sociologist, Howard S. Becker the best characterization of social deviance is, “It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that do something

A norm is the expected behavior in a situation (Wahlen, 2015, p. 1555). The norm at Sears, Roebuck, and Co. was to be dishonest and over sale in order to meet the quotas. The employees had an everyone is doing it mentality. Everyone was doing is used to rationalize unethical behavior (Trevino & Nelson, 2014, p. 266). The incentive program is another factor that led to the alleged unethical conduct. The employees were rewarded for high sales and for getting their work done faster. The employee disciplined if they did not meet their quotas. This led to employees suggesting repairs that were not needed to meet the quotes. Reward and discipline are one of the biggest influences on employee’s behavior (Trevino & Nelson, 2014, p.

Perceived opportunity is one of the key players in this triangle. This could be in the form of having superuser responsibilities, access to financial statements, and breakdown in internal control systems. Looking at the case of one Mrs. Smith (Wells, 1990), a bookkeeper for a Midwestern lighting company who needed to help her children financially and began forging checks. She had control over the reconciliation of the account and simply destroyed the cheques when they were returned from the bank. She added the costs of the thefts to inventory. She managed to steal over $400,000 dollars over the span of four years until she had a nervous from the burden of trying to cover up her stealing. Thus From the standpoint of an organization, the

David O. Friedrichs provided more accurate definition of occupational deviance because the term seems to be applied to activities drifted away from the original meaning of White Collar crime. It’s blended with the term conventional crime. Edwin Sutherland introduced the concept of white-collar crime in 1939. There were conceptual confusions with the term occupational crime, occupational deviance, and workplace crime because these terms are combined with white-collar crime. Friedrichs (2002) defined occupational deviances as “characterized as activity undertaken for one’s own gain, or to cope with workplace stress, and not for the benefit of one’s employer or organization” (p.249).

Companies with a constant turnover of low-salaried part-timers or large businesses lacking competent supervisory personnel to oversee operations, leave themselves open to intentional or unintentional sabotage. Underpaid and undervalued employees, especially when unsupervised, lack any sense of obligation to their employer. They often demonstrate