Positive Deviance :

Abstract

Organizations have employees who tend to devi ate from norms, come up with different ways of doing things to increase their competitiveness. The effects of deviant behaviors in the organiza tion have economical, sociological, psychologi cal, and anthropological implications. Positive deviance (constructive deviance) is a behavior that deviates from the norms of the reference group and has positive effects on the organization. It is an endogenous source of organizational cre ativity that has been shown to be powerful tool for learning and change. It is positive in terms of intention, effects, and conforms to hyper norms. It is not harmful to other employees or organiza tion as a whole. The fundamental success of the positive devi ance approach depends on getting the organiza tion to: define its own problem based on context, develop and use its own information to discover the scale of the problem and any positive deviants, determine whether the successful practices are in detail to be understood by other employees, design practical ways of spreading and sharing these practices among the employees, and dissem inate the practices among other employees to replicate them. Positive Deviance can be used when a problem meets several criteria, which are (1) the problem is not merely technical, (2) that other solutions have not worked, and (3) that there is a commitment in the organization/community to address the problem (Pascale et al. 2011). Within Positive Deviance, the focus is on the positive outliers of the normal distribution. The Positive Deviance approach challenges managers to think outside of the dominant frameworks. Therefore, the Pos itive Deviance approach is an asset-method. The organization policies guide the individual behavior and practices to have harmony. Positive deviant behaviors have a greater tendency to resign, and develop stress related problems and low morale because their ideas may not be accepted by management and fellow employees. Positive deviant employees tend to experience low self-esteem, an increase in fear and lack of confidence at work, as well as physical and psy chological pain. Together with these negative out comes, deviant behaviors of employees can also be functional and constructive. For example, vio lating organizational norms by demonstrating deviant behaviors can serve as a source of inno vation and creativity, thus contributing to the organization’s competitive advantage as well as to the societal well-being.