Deviance as an Adaptive Strategy: A Grounded Theory of Ethical Climate and Employee Survival in a Higher Education Institution

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are expected to exemplify ethical conduct and accountability; yet workplace deviance persists even in settings with formal ethical policies. This study examines how ethical climate shapes workplace deviance in a higher education institution, focusing on the personal and organizational motivations that underpin deviant behavior. Guided by Ethical Climate Theory and Organizational Deviance Theory, the study adopts a qualitative grounded theory design following Corbin and Strauss’ approach. Data were generated through semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with fifteen academic and non-academic employees from a non-sectarian HEI in Mindanao, Philippines, and analyzed using constant comparative methods. Findings demonstrate that workplace deviance is rarely driven by malicious intent. Rather, deviant behaviors emerge as adaptive, survival-oriented responses to systemic conditions, including job insecurity, fear-based compliance, burnout, weak leadership enforcement, policy–practice gaps, unmet professional needs, and economic strain. Behaviors such as minimal compliance, procedural shortcuts, silence, and withdrawal function as coping strategies that enable employees to manage institutional pressures and sustain employment. Over time, these adaptive responses become normalized through organizational tolerance and inconsistency. The study advances a grounded theory of deviance as an adaptive strategy, reframing workplace deviance as a rational response to ethical and structural vulnerabilities rather than individual moral failure. The findings offer critical implications for ethical governance, leadership accountability, and human resource interventions in higher education.