I Did it My Way: Development and Validation of a Supervisor-Directed Constructive Deviance Scale

Abstract

We conceptualize and develop a scale assessing supervisor-directed constructive deviance (SCD). SCD refers to employees’ deviance from their supervisors’ instruction to promote the welfare of the organization or its members. Through six studies with 1528 individuals in total, we establish convergent, nomological, and discriminant validity of our five-item measure for SCD. Our findings indicate our newly developed SCD to be distinct from other forms of constructive and destructive deviance. Second, the SCD scale predicts job performance. Third, we show that role instrumentality as well we confidence in competence predict SDC. Overall, we show SCD to constitute a reliable and valid construct, complementing the landscape of constructive deviance and thus offering a more fine-grained understanding of deviance. Taken that constructive deviance is seen as a vehicle for increasing companies’ competitive advantage in times of disruptive change, our paper thus makes an important contribution to this year’s AOM Annual Meeting theme.