Deviant Behaviors Scale

Abstract

The Deviant Behaviors scale is a 14-item psychometric instrument developed by Aquino, Lewis, and Bradfield (1999) designed to quantify the frequency of two distinct categories of counterproductive workplace behavior exhibited by employees. The measure differentiates between behaviors directed at other individuals (Interpersonal Deviance) and behaviors directed at the organization or its systems (Organizational Deviance). This scale is essential for research in organizational psychology and management focused on understanding the antecedents and consequences of employee misconduct.

The scale captures actions ranging from minor infractions to serious ethical violations. Examples of Interpersonal Deviance include making ethnic slurs or obscene gestures toward co-workers, while Organizational Deviance encompasses behaviors like calling in sick when healthy or lying about hours worked.

Keywords

Deviant Behaviors, Employee Deviance, Organizational Behavior, Interpersonal Deviance, Organizational Deviance, Workplace Misconduct, Organizational Justice, Psychometric Scale

Authors

Karl Aquino, Maureen U. Lewis, Martha Bradfield

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Deviant Behaviors scale is to provide a reliable and empirically validated tool for measuring the prevalence and differentiation of workplace deviance. It was specifically created to test theoretical models linking concepts such as organizational justice and negative affectivity to specific forms of employee misconduct.

By distinguishing between interpersonal and organizational forms of deviance, the scale allows researchers to examine differential predictors and outcomes for behaviors that target individuals versus those that target the institution, thereby offering a more nuanced understanding than previous, unidimensional measures of counterproductive work behavior.

Construct

The scale measures the overarching psychological construct of Employee Deviance, operationalized through two empirically distinct sub-dimensions:

• Interpersonal Deviance: This dimension captures behaviors that intentionally inflict psychological or physical harm upon other individuals within the workplace, such as colleagues or supervisors. These behaviors are socially destructive and undermine social harmony.

• Organizational Deviance: This dimension encompasses behaviors directed against the organization itself, its rules, procedures, or property. These behaviors typically result in financial loss, reduced productivity, or system disruption.

Validity

The Deviant Behaviors scale demonstrated robust support for its relationship with related constructs in the original study (Aquino, Lewis, & Bradfield, 1999). Specifically, Interpersonal Deviance correlated positively with Organizational Deviance and employee negative affect. Crucially, Interpersonal Deviance showed significant negative correlations with various facets of Organizational Justice, including distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactive justice.

Organizational Deviance also correlated positively with negative affect and negatively with interactive justice. These patterns of correlations support the scale’s construct validity, indicating that the measured dimensions behave as expected in relation to established psychological and organizational variables, particularly showing that fairness perceptions temper deviant behavior.

Reliability

Internal consistency reliability was assessed using Coefficient Alpha for both sub-scales. The results indicate acceptable levels of reliability for use in research settings:

• The Coefficient Alpha value for the Interpersonal Deviance sub-scale was reported as .73.

• The Coefficient Alpha value for the Organizational Deviance sub-scale was reported as .76.

Factor Analysis

The underlying structure of the scale was investigated using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The results of the CFA strongly supported the hypothesized two-factor model, confirming that the 14 items load distinctly onto the Interpersonal Deviance and Organizational Deviance dimensions.

Furthermore, the analysis demonstrated that these two dimensions are empirically distinct from one another, as well as distinct from the related constructs of distributive justice, interactive justice, and procedural justice. This statistical separation reinforces the theoretical foundation of the scale, confirming its ability to measure unique facets of counterproductive behavior independent of fairness perceptions.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report Psychometric Scale

Format: 5-point Likert-type scale

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: Employees/Workers

Age Group: Adult (Working population)

Population Details: Participants in organizational settings where workplace deviance is a relevant construct.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate the frequency with which they have engaged in each listed behavior over a specified period, using anchor points ranging from 1 = never to 5 = more than twenty times.

Keywords

Workplace Deviance, Counterproductive Work Behavior, Organizational Psychology, Justice Constructs, Negative Affectivity, Employee Misconduct, Measurement, Aquino Scale

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified in source.

Correspondence Address: Not specified in source.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1999

Permissions: Items were reproduced by permission of John Wiley & Sons Limited, as they were published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Fee: Not specified. Access to the full scale often requires consultation of the original academic article.

Reference’s

Aquino, K., Lewis, M. U., & Bradfield, M. (1999). Justice constructs, negative affectivity, and employee deviance: A proposed model and empirical test. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 1073-1091. Items were taken from Table 1, p. 1082. Copyright© 1999. Reproduced by permission of John Wiley & Sons Limited.

Items of the Deviant Behaviors scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Responses are obtained using a 5-point Likert-type scale where 1 = never, 2 = one to three times, 3 = four to ten times, 4 = eleven to twenty times, and 5 = more than twenty times.

Interpersonal deviance items:

1. Made an ethnic, racial, or religious slur against a co-worker.
2. Swore at a co-worker.
3. Refused to talk to a co-worker.
4. Gossiped about my supervisor.
5. Made an obscene comment or gesture at a co-worker.
6. Teased a co-worker in front of other employees.

Organizational deviance items:

1. Intentionally arrived late for work
2. Called in sick when I was not really ill.
3. Took undeserved breaks to avoid work.
4. Made unauthorized use of organizational property.
5. Left work early without permission
6. Lied about the number of hours I worked
7. Worked on a personal matter on the job instead of working for my employer.
8. Purposely ignored my supervisor’s instructions.