The effect of social networks on organizational deviance: A study in hotel enterprises

Employees create their own social networks within the organization for reasons such as kinship, fellow townspeople, friendship, acquaintance or common interest. While these networks have the potential to positively affect employees' motivations and performances, they may also have the potential to lead to excluded employees and behavior that may be harmful to the organization.The aim of the research is to investigate the reasons why individuals establish social networks at work, how they are affected by these relationships, how these relationships are reflected in work, and to determine what kind of deviant behavior they lead to. For this purpose using the convenience and aimed sampling method, face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with 26 people working in five-star hotel establishments in Afyonkarahisar city center. In the analysis of data; inductive analysis method, one of the thematic analysis methods, was used. As a result of the findings, it was determined that the socio-cultural characteristics (gender, age, marital status, educational status, monthly income, department they work in and experience) of the participants working in hotel enterprises caused differences in social networking and organizational deviation behaviors. The most deviant behavior of the participants working in hotel enterprises was found in the deviation dimension related to low-level political behavior. Secondly, it appeared in the dimension of production-related deviation behavior, which has a low level of importance. It was determined that in the third place, employees engaged in deviant behavior related to property, which was of high level of importance, and in the last place, they engaged in personal aggression behavior, which was of high importance. Therefore, it has been concluded that the social networks created by employees in hotel enterprises have a effect on organizational deviation. It is thought that the research will contribute to the literature by examining in detail the social networking antecedents of employees in hotel businesses and correspodingly the resulting deviant behaviors. Keywords: Social network theory, organizational deviation behaviour, hotel enterprises, Afyonkarahisar.