A Second-Order Observation of Organizational Deviance

In this chapter, Andrea Fried and Arvind Singhal highlight which novel research questions break ground when taking a second-order perspective on organizational deviance. The concept of the ‘second-order observer’ for researchers leaves the assessment of organizational deviance explicitly to the empirical field, and brings organizations and their members as describers, as assessors, and as sanctioners of organizational deviance into the discussion. The chapter strengthens social agency in deviations from standards to counteract the view that deviants are a ‘passive non-entity’. Fried and Singhal describe how organizational deviance has three dimensions and can analytically be distinguished as a descriptive, a normative, and a sanctioning aspect. The chapter concludes with six assignments for developing a concept of organizational deviance.