Malevolent Innovation in the Workplace: Laying the Foundation

Scholarly interest in the areas of innovation and harmful workplace behaviors has grown rapidly in recent years. Despite parallel growth in interest, research has largely failed to address the intersection of these phenomena. Moreover, although malevolent innovation is conceptually distinct in the fields of crime, terrorism, and extremism, there is limited clarity for how it differs from established workplace constructs (e.g., workplace incivility, counterproductive work behavior). In this review, we consider related workplace constructs and examine how they overlap with and, more centrally, differ from malevolent innovation. We distinguish deviance and other forms of norm-violating behaviors from the primary elements of malevolent innovation: novelty and intentional harm, as well as secondary elements: intensity, perpatrator-target relationship, and planning. Together, we provide a review to distinguish malevolent innovation as a unique workplace construct. Areas for future research are also discussed.