[1] Employees often create a set of expectations about their workplace; people tend to make psychological contracts with their organizations.
Abusive supervision is defined as the "subordinates' perceptions of the extent to which their supervisors engage in the sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors".
[4] It may seem like employees who are abused by their supervisor will either directly retaliate or withdraw by quitting the job but in reality many strike out against their employer by engaging in organizational deviant behaviors.
This abuse of resources may come in the form of time, office supplies, raw materials, finished products or the services that they provide.
Employees can engage in minor, extreme, nonviolent or violent behavior, which ultimately leads to an organization's decline in productivity.
These minor (but unhealthy) behaviors, directed at others, are believed to occur as some employees perceive "a sense of entitlement often associated with exploitation".
[8] Employee silence is also considered a deviant behavior in the workplace, falling into the realms of both interpersonal and organizational deviance.
[9] The problem occurs if an employee fails to disclose important information, which detrimentally affects the effectiveness of the organization due to poor communication.
Strategies used for backstabbing include dishonesty, blame (or false accusation), discrediting others and taking credit for another's work.
Motives for backstabbing include disregarding others' rights in favor of one's own gain, self-image management, revenge, jealousy, and personal reasons.
[10] A novel form of workplace deviance has emerged in recent years, as technology becomes a bigger part of people's work lives.
[11] This includes surfing the web and doing non-work-related tasks on the internet such as chatting on social-networking sites, online shopping and other activities.
Production deviance is "behavior that violates formally prescribed organizational norms with respect to minimal quality and quantity of work to be accomplished as part of one's job".
[7] This type of deviance typically involves theft but may include "sabotage, intentional errors in work, misusing expense accounts", among other examples.