Table 3

Summary of key differences between maverick deviance and workplace deviance

Maverick deviance (positively positioned)Workplace deviance (negatively positioned)
Value-behavior relationshipValues based behaviors aligned with delivering organizational outcomes or broader societal expectationsBehaviors based on individual needs, wants and desires
Motivations for rebellionRebels-with-a-cause rebelling against systems, structures, people and processes that impede all employees’ performanceRebels rebelling against systems, structures, people and processes that get in their way around individual performance
Status quoConstructively challenges norms to bring awareness to organizations of the assumptions behind decisions which are reinforcing constrained and limited thinkingChallenges norms that they find constraining or disagreeable
Bureaucratic engagementPolitically savvy, successfully navigating internal politics and bureaucracyMay clash with internal politics and bureaucracy in the desire to fulfill their own agenda
External perceptionSeen to operate in a functional and beneficial way. May be perceived as somewhat troublesome prior to achieving the success which garners them respect and recognitionPerceived as troublesome, maladaptive and/or dysfunctional

Source(s): Derived from review of literature presented in Tables 1 and 2 

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