Introduction
This study paper seeks to explore the subject of political deviance with a particular interest in the workplace. Deviance is a sociological subject, which affects human beings in different areas, and in this paper, we focus on individuals at workplaces. In general, definition, deviance refers to the unacceptable behavior towards fellow individuals, which disregards the prevailing cultural norms. The paper will provide different meanings and forms of political deviance. In the next section, the paper will provide a brief engrossing and realistic example of political deviance in the contemporary context. In the last part of the study paper, we will establish different solutions to prevent political deviance in workplaces.
Meaning and Forms of Political Deviance
Political deviance is the behavior such as engagement in social interactions that putts other persons at a personal or political disadvantage. In most cases, political deviance will comprise of unacceptable human contacts that take place at workplaces and hurt the other individuals. These negative impacts of political deviance can be in the form of work performance, self- esteem of the other colleague, demotions, transfers, or even loss of work. Political deviance can move from manager to junior staff, workmates at the same level, or even from junior staff to those holding high ranks at workplaces.
There are diverse forms of political deviance witnessed at workplaces. In this part of the paper, we explore four forms of political deviance at workplaces. The main outstanding notable political deviance is work incivility. This form of political deviance refers to the rude manners and disrespect nature employees depict while at work. These traits can be intentional or unintentional, but they hurt other people at work.
Examples of work incivility include interrupting people as they speak, receiving humiliating notes from other people, and not being thankful after getting help from colleagues. Several statistics in this area indicate that many co-workers have been victims of work incivility. Showing favoritism is another significant example of political deviance. Different people can show favoritism to different colleagues because of various reasons. For instance, a male boss can favor female colleagues with expectations of attention or sexual interests. Favoritism can also be in the form of promotions, assigning duties, giving of rewards, and allowances.
Gossiping about co-workers is political deviance that hurts people at workplaces. Gossip refers to the unnecessary talk about other people and this can be about their personal or work life. Also, we have competing non-beneficially amongst colleagues is a form of political deviance. This non-beneficial competition can affect employees negatively. The above forms of political deviance can lead to dire consequences amongst employees and at workplaces.
Examples of outcomes of political deviance include absenteeism, aggressive behavior, stealing, and doing work wrongly. On the other deviant, behavior can be both positive and negative. Despite this regard, most people focus on the negative political deviant behavior at workplaces. Examples of positive political deviant behavior include corporate social responsibility, innovation, whistleblowing, and organizational citizenship conduct.
Example of Political Deviant Behavior
There are various examples of political deviance and in this part: we explore one citing. The most notable example of political deviance is corruption in companies and passing the burden on to innocent persons. In regards to a certain company, the manager had the habit of awarding tenders to unqualified people and firms. This is the role of the procurement officer, and the role of the manager is to authorize the requisition.
The right procedure involves public advertisement of the tender allowing different people to bid for the tender. The marketing and advertisement department ensures the tender notices receive media notifications. Potential suppliers of the tenders forward their interests, which will undergo vetting. The tender should be awarded to the highest bidder. In this case, the manager used scrupulous means to award the advertised tender.
When the supplier failed to deliver the products and services, the manager tried to pass the blame on to the procurement officer (Curra, 89). Unfortunately, this had become a common trend and the procurement officer had gathered enough evidence to implicate him. During a high-powered meeting in which the manager was preparing to vindicate the procurement officer, things did not go as planned. All the company members had gathered in the meeting to support the procurement officer. It was a singularly heated meeting, which got the manager fired. The people who had failed to deliver the tender products and services were in the meeting as evidence. The manager had not otherwise but to leave office and face charges of corruption.
Solutions
Political deviance occurs because of various factors. Personal, societal, organizational, and economic issues are some well-known causes of workplace deviance. Deviant acts occur when a recruits’ behavior undergoes some negative forms of transformation. Deviant workplace behavior is evident through various acts that include punctuality, outlook towards work, presentation, and various other incidences. Deviant behaviors are costly to every organization due to the losses incurred in an organization. Some deviant behaviors may lead to theft or embezzlement of an organization’s funds.
There are varieties of variables that have been studied regarding reducing the occurrence of workplace crime. Age contributes to most acts of deviant behavior. It is from statistics that employing a youthful population increases the chances that deviant behaviors in the organization are high. Females have also been associated with decency. Organizations have therefore developed a trend of employing more women than men.
The most essential act of reducing deviant behaviors in the workplace is embracing a code of ethics that will go a long way in influencing the behavior of employees in the workplace. It is the most efficient way of improving ethical behavior. This will help in promoting some social evils in the society, which include gender biases in offering employment or increasing the rates of youth unemployment. Code of ethics offers the right methods, of employment, the behavior of employees in the organization improves company culture and administration, enables the government to follow the government rules and regulations and it also helps in the creation of highly responsible organizations.
The Code of ethics should depict the standards that recruits can accept as true and have to be incorporated into the organizational beliefs.
The top management of an organization should give strong back up for the honoring of the code of ethics. The organizations that do not have a code of ethics should be requested by law to adopt a working code of ethics.
Individuals in the organization should act as watchdogs for any kind of deviant behavior in the organization. The companies should work on becoming active in promoting ethical concerns in the company and prevent the occurrence of deviant acts that are detrimental to the organization.
Works cited
Curra, John. The relativity of deviance. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of Sage Publications, 2011. Print.