Deviant behavior in retail, when sales associates “Go Bad”! Examining the relationship between the work–family interface, job stress, and salesperson deviance

•WFC direct effect on associate organizational, interpersonal and frontline deviance behaviors.•Job stress is not found to mediate between WFC and any of the dimensions of salesperson deviance.•Associate expectations of WFC in retail sales are realized thus making job stress an outcome.•Emotional exhaustion may mediate the relationship between WFC and salesperson deviance.•Job dissatisfaction due to job stress, may mediate between WFC and associate deviant behavior.

The unique role of retail sales associates combined with retailers desire to establish relational selling, make associates vulnerable to work–family conflict (WFC). Unfortunately, research examining how retail sales associates cope with a WFC is limited. This research investigates relationships between WFC, job stress, and three dimensions of salesperson deviance: organizational, interpersonal, and frontline. Findings indicate that WFC has a significant direct effect on all three deviant behaviors, as well as job stress. Interestingly, the relationship between job stress and deviant behavior is not significant. This finding adds to the debate regarding job stress as a mediator between WFC and deviant behavior or outcome variable.