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Complicity in Organizational Deviance: The Role of Internal and External Unethical Pressures

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Financial Crimes: Psychological, Technological, and Ethical Issues

Part of the book series: International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine ((LIME,volume 68))

Abstract

Sociological research in organizational deviance, specifically in the area of corporate crime, has shown how deviant behaviors (frauds and unethical behaviors) are not only restricted to individuals but also to organizations. The objective of our research is to study how organizational deviance can be spread and institutionalized throughout corporate hierarchies. In order for organizational deviance to exist, be institutionalized and accepted, it must get the active or passive complicity not only from organizational members but also from institutions in charge of defining the external-legal and ethical norms. Deviant organizations and their leaders use unethical and pressured management practice in their internal and institutional environment so as to change the norms of individuals’ behaviors and also to transform societal norms in order for their actions to be legal and even be perceived as being legitimate. The concept of social influence will be used to analyze the different forms of internal and external unethical pressures which help organizational deviant leaders implement them. Social influence uses various techniques such as incentives, manipulation, peer pressure, and authority. Political influence strategies carried out by deviant organizations will also be highlighted in order to understand how these organizations get the complicity of their institutional environment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The data in this case is largely derived from articles published between 2010 and 2014 on the blog “Chroniques judiciaires”. By the Monde journalist Pascale Robert-Diard http://prdchroniques.blog.lemonde.fr/?s=kerviel.

  2. 2.

    Comments cited by Robert Diard in Le Monde of 7 October 2010.

  3. 3.

    See the website of the NGO Peuples solidaires, http://www.peuples-solidaires.org/bangladesh-ranaplaza-appelurgent/.

  4. 4.

    Le Monde, 17 April 2014.

  5. 5.

    Le Monde, 18 January 2011.

  6. 6.

    The AFSSAPS was renamed Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament following the Mediator scandal.

  7. 7.

    Le Monde, 20 May 2013.

  8. 8.

    Minutes of hearings published by Libération of 6 September 2011.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISC Paris Business School, Paris, France

    Anne Sachet-Milliat

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  1. Anne Sachet-Milliat
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Correspondence to Anne Sachet-Milliat .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté d'administration, Chairholder of CIBC Res.Chair in Fin.Int, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada

    Michel Dion

  2. Faculte de Medicine, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    David Weisstub

  3. ESSEC, Institute for Strategic Innovation & Ser, Suresnes, France

    Jean-Loup Richet

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Sachet-Milliat, A. (2016). Complicity in Organizational Deviance: The Role of Internal and External Unethical Pressures. In: Dion, M., Weisstub, D., Richet, JL. (eds) Financial Crimes: Psychological, Technological, and Ethical Issues. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 68. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32419-7_9

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