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 selfinterest, 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 rulebreaking 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 the U.S. were surveyed in a qualitative study. We transcribed, coded and analyzed the emerging themes in the qualitative data. Results show that while intentions of hospitality employees’ rule-breaking behaviors are consistent with existing management studies from other industries, the unique nature of the hospitality workforce shapes the nature of rule-breaking behaviors. We also showed that the consequences are different for the four types of rule-breaking behaviors. This study yields important implications on how hospitality organizations should manage employees’ rule-breaking behaviors.

Introduction

“The first rule on breaking a rule is to know everything about the rule.” – Nuno Roque Organizational rules constrain employees’ behaviors in the workplace (Derfler-Rozin et al., 2016). Hospitality employees are no exception – they are expected to follow numerous organization rules, including but not limited to safety/hygiene rules, technology policies, employee’s code of conduct, and countless guest service standard operating procedures. These organizational rules are designed to shield the organization and its employees, by ensuring the organization remain in compliance with the law, protecting the organization reputation, and keeping employees and guests safe (Pendleton, 2016). However, employees’ organizational rule-breaking behaviors – defined as employee’s behaviors that violate formal workplace rules, regulations, and standards (Desai, 2010) – are prevalent (Fox and Spector, 1999; Bennett and Robinson, 2000). In the hospitality industry, employees have been found to break rules with sabotage behaviors (Lee and Ok, 2014), substance abuse (Hight and Park, 2018), and stealing (Poulston, 2008a). Because of its negative consequences (Bennett and Robinson, ۲۰۰۰), researchers generally focus on organizational rule-breaking behaviors with an unethical deviant motive (Gino et al., 2011). Assuming all employees break rules with unethical deviant motives, researchers recommend the use of moral-reasoning training to reduce rule-breaking behaviors (Poulston, 2008b).