Analyzing deviant workplace behaviors: a comparative study of new and traditional scales

This dissertation develops and validates a new measure of technology-based deviant workplace behavior (TbDWB) and examines its antecedents and attitudinal outcomes. In Study 1, I used survey data from 1,228 full-time U.S. employees to identify and confirm a three-factor structure of TbDWB using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The final 18-item scale captures technology-based production deviance, communication deviance, and time-abuse deviance, and shows strong internal consistency and good model fit. The new TbDWB dimensions converge with, but are not redundant with, the widely used interpersonal and organizational deviance scales, and they reveal that time-abuse behaviors are the most frequently reported technology-enabled deviance in the hybrid work era. In Study 2, I integrate social exchange and psychological contract perspectives to test how leader–member exchange (LMX) and psychological contract violation (PCV) relate to TbDWB, and how TbDWB in turn relates to two key attitudinal outcomes: job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Using hierarchical regression analyses with a second sample of full-time employees, I find that higher quality LMX is associated with lower levels of technology-based deviance, whereas greater psychological contract violation is associated with higher levels of TbDWB, even after controlling for demographic and work-context variables. TbDWB, in turn, is negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to turnover intentions, providing evidence that technology-enabled deviance is both a reflection of strained employment relationships and a potential contributor to withdrawal cognitions. Together, these studies offer a validated, multidimensional TbDWB scale that reflects how deviance is enacted in contemporary digital, hybrid, and remote work settings, and they situate TbDWB within a broader nomological network of social exchange, psychological contract processes, and employee attitudes. The findings contribute to deviance theory by updating measurement for the digital era, extend exchange-based accounts of misconduct to technology-enabled behaviors, and provide organizations with a more precise tool for diagnosing and addressing technology-based deviance.