Examining the Relationship of Constructive Deviance with Individual Differences, Job Characteristics, and Organizational Climate

Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated that deviant behaviors can have both positive intentions and outcomes (Galperin, 2002; Morrison, 2006; Warren, 2001). These behaviors are often referred to as constructive deviance, but little is known about the antecedents of these behaviors within organizations. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on constructive deviance by investigating individual characteristics, job characteristics, and organizational climates as predictors of constructive deviance. After investigating each of the predictors independently, a dominance analysis was conducted to determine the strength of each predictor relative to one another. Surprisingly, although role breadth self-efficacy and autonomy have previously been found to be significant predictors of constructive deviance (Galperin, 2002; Galperin, 2012, Kahari, Mildred, & Micheal, 2017; Morrison, 2006) neither were found to be significant predictors in this study. However, significant predictors were found for each of the three predictor types. At the individual level, conscientiousness was found to be a significant negative predictor of constructive deviance, the job characteristics of role overload, role conflict, and role ambiguity were found to be significant positive predictors of constructive deviance, and both the egoism and benevolence ethical climate types were found to be significant positive predictors of constructive deviance. The dominance analysis revealed that one of each of the top three predictors came from each of the predictor types, with role overload as the best predictor, conscientiousness was found to be the second-best predictor, and the egoism ethical climate type was found to be the third-best. The implications of these findings, along with recommendations for future research directions, are discussed.