Abstract
A major challenge for fighting corruption is our narrow conceptions about corruption and the lack of alternative, creative theorizations about both corruption and anti-corruption (Breit et al. in Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization 15: 319–336, 2015). This chapter responds to this challenge by discussing organizational corruption and anti-corruption in an alternative way. It reviews three different definitions of corruption and argues that corruption should be seen as the degeneration of a legitimate value. With this view of corruption, this chapter develops an anti-corruption framework by inverting Ashforth and Anand’s (Research in Organizational Behavior 25: 1–52, 2003) work on the normalization of corruption in organizations. The components of the framework are de-rationalization (producing alternative discourse and going beneath discourse), de-institutionalization (manipulating organizational memory and highlighting counterfactual corruption events) and de-socialization (excluding the personal and excluding the social). In the latter part, the chapter argues that one could relate to anti-corruption measures in any of four ways: anxiety, superego, courage and justice. It suggests that a balanced mix of these four subject positions is useful for fighting corruption.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ashforth, B. E., & Anand, V. (2003). The normalization of corruption in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior,25, 1–52.
Ashforth, B. E., Gioia, D. A., Robinson, S. L., & Trevino, L. K. (2008). Re-viewing organizational corruption. Academy of Management Review,33(3), 670–684.
Badiou, A. (2001). Ethics—An essay on the understanding of evil. New York: Verso.
Badiou, A. (2009a). Theory of the subject. London: Continuum.
Badiou, A. (2009b). Logics of worlds. London: Continuum.
Breit, E., Lennerfors, T. T., Olaison, L. (2015). Critiquing corruption—A turn to theory. Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization, 15(2), 319–336.
Gustafsson, C. (1988). Om företag, moral och handling. Lund, Sweden: Studentlitteratur.
Lennerfors, T. T. (2008). The vicissitudes of corruption—Degeneration, transgression, jouissance. Stockholm: Arvinius.
Lennerfors, T. T. (2012). Corruption and hosophobia. Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies,17(1), 16–21.
Lennerfors, T. T. (2017). Corruption: Maximising, socialising, balancing, and othering. In M. Assländer & S. Hudson (Eds.), The handbook of business and corruption: Cross-sectoral experiences (pp. 25–48). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
May, L. (1992). Sharing responsibility. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Noonan, J. T. J. (2004). Struggling against corruption. In W. C. Heffernan & J. Kleinig (Eds.), Private and public corruption. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.
Spicer, A. (2017). Business bullshit. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Sykes, G. M., & Matza, D. (1957). Techniques of neutralization: A theory of delinquency. American Sociological Review,22, 664–670.
United Against Corruption. (2017). Anti-corruption factsheet. Retrieved December 10, 2017, from http://www.anticorruptionday.org/actagainstcorruption/en/factsheets.html.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lennerfors, T.T. (2019). Organizational Anti-corruption: De-normalization Through Anxiety, Superego, Courage and Justice . In: Arvidsson, S. (eds) Challenges in Managing Sustainable Business. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93266-8_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93266-8_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93265-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93266-8
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)