Deviant workplace behavior has become an important problem of today’s
businesses as it has both financial impacts and social and psychological effects on
the organization. Therefore, it is a very important, but not very common research
area. There is no research done on the nature of workplace deviance in terms of
country culture; thus, it is interesting to explore country culture effects on deviant
workplace behavior.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate how country culture influences
deviant workplace behavior. Firstly, we developed the link between the cultural
diversity and deviant workplace behavior theories referring to the literature review
and then we established the hypotheses which were tested in the survey of
business students from different countries. This investigation led to the
conclusions and solutions of the research problem.
The research revealed that cultural similarities can explain deviant workplace
behavior. Our study was limited to two countries, Poland and France, which
represent two different blocks of Europe, Eastern and Western. These countries
were chosen because they are economically and historically different, thus, they
are linked with different prejudices about deviant behavior tendencies. However,
culturally they are very similar. This research has identified the patterns of
deviance in these countries and has contradicted the prejudice about the deviance
inclinations in Western (France) and Eastern (Poland) Europe. As this study
focused on two countries, future research findings should be verified with studies
on other countries.
This research will have both a theoretical and practical value. The theoretical
value was created by connecting two research areas: deviant workplace behavior
and cultural diversity theories. The practical value can be explained by a growing
number of multinational enterprises and increasing internationalization of
business environment. Thus, knowledge about possible trickery and its patterns in
different cultures has increasing demand and value for companies in the global
community.
2009.