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This study aims to investigate the positive side of employee deviance. Historically, research exploring employee deviance focussed on undesirable organisational and individual outcomes. Thus, previous research has empirically established that employee deviance harms both the organisation and organisation's employees. Recent studies argue that employee deviance also has a positive effect; however, such studies are limited in number. The extant research fails to consider the positive side of employee deviance, and therefore, the present studies bridge the gap through a systematic literature review on positive deviance.

The study examined peer-reviewed theoretical and empirical journal articles related to workplace deviance. An initial search resulted in 2,691 research articles, of which 40 papers were considered relevant for the study given the objective of this paper. Research papers were extracted from the Web of Science, EBSCO and Scopus. The extracted data were then synthesised to formulate the research questions and objectives for this study.

Basing on the systematic literature review, the study presents six main themes: positive deviance and younger workforce, positive deviant leader and subordinates and positive deviance as a strategic tool for employee engagement, positive deviance and positive organisational scholarship, positive deviance and entrepreneurial orientation. The study also proposes positive deviance as a mediator/moderator of other relationships within an organisation.

Systematic literature is a methodology that relies on the availability and accessibility of research studies based on the research criteria. The study considered three significant databases to identify the relevant papers for the study. Therefore, the research is limited, and the possibility of omitting the papers is not ruled out, although unintentional.

The paper is plausibly the first research to conduct a systematic literature review on positive deviance. The study establishes and reconfirms the encouraging side of employee deviance. The study extends the literature on workplace deviance in two significant ways. First, the paper systematically examines the empirical and review literature related to positive deviance and presents a greater understanding of the predictors, consequences, methodologies, etc. Second, the study highlights the critical research gaps in this area and suggests the course of action for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact on organizations of both negative deviant workplace behaviors – those that violate organizational norms, policies or internal rules – and positive deviant workplace behaviors – those that honorably violate them. The reasons why people engage in such behaviors are explored, along with some of the reasons why organizations allow such behaviors to thrive within their walls. A typology of positive workplace behavior is determined and is compared with other pro‐social behaviors such as: whistleblowing, corporate social responsibility, organizational citizenship behavior and innovation. Possible solutions to overcome problems associated with negative deviant behavior in the workplace are examined, along with how to promote positive deviant behavior in the workplace.

A literature review on current positive and negative deviant workplace behavior was conducted.

Regardless of whether negative deviance is overt or implicit, it has negative consequences for the entity and its affiliates. The estimated impact of the widespread theft by employees on the US economy has been reported to be $50 billion annually. Toxic organizations depend on employees that are dishonest and deceitful in order to be successful. Furthermore, it is found that psychological empowerment is likely to be a key enabler of positive deviance.

It is proposed that the survival of an organization in the face of negative deviant employees is possible with a remodeling of an organization's norms, attitudes and social values to a specific organizational culture centered on important ethical core values; by addressing value differences between employee subcultures, and more frequent background checks when hiring. Adhering tightly to organizational norms may preclude positive deviant behaviors that would be beneficial to the organization, and thus employee psychological empowerment is recommended.

The paper aims to explore an affirmative, discursive perspective for its potential to expand the current understanding of processes of institutional transformation.

First the notion of institutional transformation is discussed and the “discursive model of institutionalization” as developed by Phillips et al. is described. Then the concept of “positive textual deviance” is introduced and defined. The discursive model is read to explore possibilities for institutional transformation through instances of positive textual deviance.

The insertion of the concept of positive textual deviance into the discursive model of institutionalization reveals openings for transformation which are captured in propositions that address the agency of texts and their authors in the creation of desired change.

The paper is unique in its synthesis of three distinct theoretical perspectives – institutional, discursive, and affirmative – in the definition and application of positive textual deviance. Its affirmative, constructionist stance goes beyond a critical deconstruction of taken for granted practice by proposing a hopeful, emancipatory approach that enables institutional actors to become agents of change.

Organisations today seek high engagement levels from their employees for their superior performance amid the highly competitive environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of positive deviance facilitators (PDFs) in enhancing employee engagement at work.

The study adopts the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and Matrice d’Impacts Croisés-Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement (MICMAC) analysis to understand the process of how positive deviance may fuel employee engagement in an organisation. Because of the lack of empirical evidence on the relationship between employee engagement and positive deviance, ISM approach was adopted as it helps in understanding the subjective experience and learnings of experts involved in the field. The MICMAC analysis classifies the relevant factors into four clusters and helps in understanding the dynamics involved.

Based on the opinions shared by industry and academia experts, a structural model was developed to understand the hierarchy and interactions among the eight PDFs leading towards employee engagement.

The study offers both theoretical and practical implications. The model developed in the current study could be used as a base model for future studies concerning employee engagement and deviance. The importance of human resource management practices in fuelling positive deviance and employee engagement is also highlighted. The study discusses various practical implications for human resource managers and top management.

The literature on positive deviance at work is still at a nascent stage. Empirical studies on deviance largely focus on the destructive/negative side of workplace deviance, and studies on positive outcomes from workplace deviance are rare. This present study provides a unique opportunity to understand how positive deviance can be used to enhance the engagement levels of employees.

Occasionally, retail employees “break the rules” in order to help customers. Currently, there is little research on the mechanisms by which a sales assistants’ positive deviance intentions help them attain specific personal and organisational goals. The purpose of this paper is to examine one mechanism, hope, which develops employees’ deviance intentions to provide benefits to the customer, themselves and the organisation.

A survey captured responses from 270 frontline employees from the retail and services sector. AMOS 23 was used to conduct measurement, path and mediation analyses.

This study highlights the role of employee hope in developing employees’ positive deviance intentions, and improving perceptions of organisational performance. Results demonstrate that the direct positive impact of hope on positive deviance intention was significant. Furthermore, positive deviance intention was found to positively impact employee goal attainment and perceived organisational performance. The authors’ employee hope model offers a better understanding of positive outcomes of employee deviance, suggesting that retail managers should invest resources to build strong employee–organisation relationships.

This is the first study to empirically demonstrate that employee hope can explain how customer-oriented positive deviance intentions help employee goal attainment and improve their perceptions of organisational performance.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the deviant behaviour of individuals in organisations. Deviants are those who depart from organisational norms. A typology of perceived deviant behaviour is developed from the deviance literature, and subsequently tested.

Star Trek: Into Darkness text is qualitatively analysed as a data source. Three different character arcs are analysed in relation to organisational deviance. Starfleet is the specific, fictional, organisational context.

We found that the typology of deviance is conceptually robust, and facilitates categorisation of different types of deviant behaviour, over time.

Deviance is socially ascribed; so better categorisation of such behaviour improves our understanding of how specific behaviour might deviate from organisational norms, and how different behaviours can mean individuals can be viewed positively or negatively over time.

Further research might determine management responses to the different forms of deviance, and unpack the processes where individuals eschew ‘averageness’ and become deviants.

The typology advanced has descriptive validity to describe deviant behaviour.

Social institutions such as organisations ascribe individual deviants, both negatively and positively.

This chapter extends our understanding of positive and negative deviance in organisations by developing a new typology of deviant behaviour. This typology has descriptive validity in understanding deviant behaviour. Our understanding of both positive and negative deviance in organisational contexts is enhanced, as well as the utility of science fiction literature in ethical analysis.

Constructive deviance has received increasing attention across the last 20 years. However, because the distinction between constructive and traditional forms of deviance (i.e., destructive) is based on the intent behind the behaviors, it can be difficult to determine which acts are constructive. As an umbrella construct consisting of several forms of deviant acts (e.g., whistle-blowing, employee voice, necessary evils), research into constructive deviance has largely remained focused on the individual behaviors to date. While advancements have been made, this focus has limited the consideration of an overarching understanding of constructive deviance in the workplace. Further, constructs like constructive deviance that straddle the bounds between beneficial and detrimental necessitate the exploration into their antecedents as determined by the employees (i.e., apples), their environments (e.g., barrels), or some combination of the two. The author seeks to advance the research in constructive deviance by proposing a testable model. In which, the author develops an interactionist perspective of the antecedents to reposition constructive deviance as the acts of good employees in restrictive or negative environments. In doing so, the author considers how various aspects of individuals, their organizational environments, and the influence of their leaders interact. The author then develops a multi-stakeholder approach to the outcomes of constructive deviance to consider how the various parties (i.e., organization, coworkers, customers) are expected to respond and how these responses impact the more distal outcomes as well as the likelihood of engaging in future constructive deviance.

In the era of the service economy, the personalized needs of customers are increasing rapidly. It often occurs that front-line employees bend organizational rules to help customers. The study sought to explore the influence mechanism of servant leadership on specific dimensions of customer-oriented deviance from the manager’s perspective, examine the mediating role of psychological security, and the moderating role of error management climate in the process.

We conducted an online survey study in China from April 10 to 29, 2023. We use online survey questionnaire technique and random sampling method for data collection. The authors collected 385 questionnaires from China and tested the model by SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0.

The results show that servant leadership significantly promotes employees' deviant customer-oriented behaviors, psychological security plays a mediating role between servant leadership and deviant customer-oriented behaviors, and error management climate has a positive moderating effect between servant leadership and deviant customer-oriented behaviors.

This study explores the influence mechanism of servant leadership on deviant customer-oriented behaviors. The results of this study not only enrich the theoretical research on the formation mechanism of deviant customer-oriented behaviors but also provide a reference for leaders to correctly view and effectively manage employees' deviant customer-oriented behaviors.

Constructive deviance is a behavior that can contribute to the effectiveness of an organization despite its problematic nature. Too few studies have examined the correlates of this behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine variables that represent exchange and organizational culture and their relationship to supervisor-reported and self-reported constructive deviance.

The survey data were collected from 602 employees (a response rate of 67 per cent) in a large municipality in central Israel. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses were performed for each of the dependent variables (three self-reported constructive deviances and three supervisor-reported constructive deviance) controlling for divisions and departments.

The findings showed that self-reported constructive deviance was explained much better by the independent variables than supervisor-reported deviance. Organizational justice and moral identity had a strong direct effect on constructive deviance (self-reported). The mediation effect showed that an organizational climate for innovation had the strongest mediation effect among the mediators. Psychological contract breach was found to have a limited effect on constructive deviance.

Organizations should encourage procedural justice to encourage their employees to act in support of the organization, whether openly (formal performance) or more secretly (constructive deviance). Also, organizations should support innovation climate if they want to increase constructive deviance of their employees.

In a time when innovation and creativity are gaining increasing importance as behaviors that contribute to organizational success, more research on constructive deviance is expected. This study increases our understanding of this important concept stimulates additional studies of it.

This study aims to reach a perception of the advance of research on deviant organisational behaviours.

This research has been done through the text mining method. By reviewing, the papers were selected 360 papers between 1984 and 2020. Based on the Davis–Boldin index, 11 optimal clusters were gained. Then the roots were ranked in any group, using the Simple Additive Weighting technique. Data were analysed by RapidMiner and MATLAB software.

According to the results obtained, clusters are included leadership styles, job attitudes, spirituality in the workplace, work psychology, personality characteristics, classification and management of deviant workplace behaviours, service and customer orientation, deviation in sales, psychological contracts, group dynamics and inappropriate supervision.

This study provides a landscape and roadmap for future investigation on deviant organisational behaviours.