Business Commons^™

Why Do Employees Break Rules? Understanding Hospitality Employee Organizational Rule-Breaking, Ankita Ghosh, Cass Shum

Hospitality Faculty Research

This study explores employees’ organizational rule-breaking behaviors in the hospitality industry. Unlike the majority of hospitality literature which suggest rule-breakers are deviant, a growing stream of management research suggested that intentions behind rule-breaking behaviors among organizational employees include self-interest, to increase work efficiency, to help a subordinate or a coworker, and to provide good customer service. Our study extends the research on rule-breaking not only by studying the intentions of hospitality employee rule- breaking behaviors, but also by exploring the types of rules broken and the possible consequences of such behaviors. Eighty hospitality workers studying at a public university in …