Abstract: Leader deviance behavior refers to any intentional action/behavior by a leader, supervisor or manager that violates significant organizational norms. Drawing on workplace deviance behavior and leadership behavior literatures, leader deviance behavior is triggered by contextual characteristics, such as organizational culture, job characteristics and interpersonal relationships, as well as leader’s personal characteristics, including personality, perception and demography. Furthermore, leader deviance behavior affects subordinates’ performances mainly through three paths, namely, social comparison, social psychology and social exchange. The conceptual model of leader deviance behavior should be suggested to delve into its target (organization and interpersonal relationship) and motivation (self-focus and other-focus) in the future. In addition, the interaction of different determinants and mechanism of leader deviance behavior should be emphasized as well.

Key words: leader deviance behavior, workplace deviance behavior, personal characteristics, contextual characteristics, job performance