Title

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining: Positive Effects Of Deviant Coworkers

Keywords

deviant coworker; reactions to deviance; social comparison; social construction; vicarious learning

Abstract

Drawing on the labeling perspective of deviance, we investigate employee reactions to coworkers perceived as deviants. We look at two positive effects for employees in the presence of a deviant coworker. First, in comparison to a deviant individual, other employees can draw more positive conclusions about themselves; and second, a deviant can be informative about organizational norms, thereby improving employee role clarity. We also examine individual and situational moderators. For the purpose of the study, we developed a measure of the presence of a deviant. The hypothesized relationships were tested in two large samples using multiple regression analyses. The results revealed that in the presence of a deviant coworker, employees reported enhanced self-evaluation. The presence of a deviant coworker was associated with better role clarity only for employees with more interdependent jobs. We also discuss practical implications of the findings and future research directions. © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Publication Date

9-1-2012

Publication Title

Journal of Social Psychology

Volume

152

Issue

5

Number of Pages

586-612

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2012.671201

Socpus ID

84864858799 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84864858799

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