ABSTRACT
Deviance comes from criminology, but in practice covers a wider range of behaviours than crime, which only refers to actions that break the law. Employee deviance focuses on pilferage and cheating by employees at all levels customers and clients, or both. Psychological explanations for deviance attempt to identify propensities associated with particular personality types. A situational explanations that examine how the social context of the workplace contributes to deviance and often creates it have, however, been more fruitful both for understanding and control. Many attempts to check deviance have been, and will continue to be, problematic since deviance satisfies undeclared and covert interests, often including those of management, and because new variants and opportunities are continually offered by changing markets, forms of organization and technology. Endeavours to change work systems that ignore deviance or aim to eradicate it without understanding its social context and functions are likely to involve serious and often unanticipated effects.
