Business Ethics and Moral Motivation: A Criminological Perspective

Heath, Joseph

doi:10.1007/s10551-007-9641-8

Cited by 160 publications

(164 citation statements)

References 40 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…Indeed, a small body of research emerged in the 1980s to develop the concept of techniques of neutralization to corporate wrongdoing: the illegitimate activities that corporation engages in [12,13,14]. More recently there has been a resurgence of research that has applied this basic approach to corporate wrongdoing ( [15,16,17]; and [18]). This work uses precisely the same framework set out by Sykes and Matza and followed by Cohen (though remarkably, Cohen refers to none of this work on corporate denial in his work on state denial; 1993 and 2001).…”

Section: Corporate Techniques Of Neutralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Related to this is b) the 'bad apple' denial-where the behavior in question was caused by one or a small group of individuals that can be purged from the corporation to make it better again. The diffusion of responsibility through the structure of the corporations, in corporate crimes there is generally more than one person involved in the decision to act or not to act-make such denials of responsibility easy [15]; c) 'accident' (either there was no intent, or the circumstances were out with the control of the official, or even 'acts of God'); and d) 'acting under orders' (what Matza called 'natural reduction' or reducing one's own agency to the role of a cog in the machine with little or no power to prevent what happened).…”

Section: Corporate Techniques Of Neutralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, this is an observation made previously by Coleman [14]) who notes that when an offence is committed by white-collar criminals, it is very often legitimised by the social benefits that will accrued from the survival or long term success of the corporation. The survival of the corporation may be important either to ensure that an employee keeps her job, or to ensure that the business stays competitive and therefore is able to survive in a tough market place (see also [15,31] in [18]). Of course, this justification is often linked to a series of normative spin-offs: that economic development and growth will be secured, than the business's contribution to the community will be preserved and so on.…”

Section: Corporate Techniques Of Neutralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

It’s common sense, stupid! Corporate crime and techniques of neutralization in the automobile industry

Whyte

2016

Crime Law Soc Change

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This paper evaluates the usefulness of 'techniques of neutralization' and 'denial' theory for understanding how corporations respond to accusations of wrongdoing and criminal behaviour. It does so with reference to three recent cases in the automobile industry that have each been the subject of extended public outrage and regulatory response (the case of the Fiat Chrysler exploding Jeeps, the Toyota recall following a series of 'uncontrollable acceleration' incidents and Volkswagen's emissions fraud). The paper shows how in each of those systematic cases, corporate strategies were based upon the systematic deception of the public and systematic attempts to resist any recall to safeguard consumers. It then uses those cases as a focus of analysis for reframing 'techniques of neutralization' theory in a form that takes account of the immense social, economic and political power held by corporations and foregrounding the hegemonic role played by corporations in shaping 'common sense' understandings of the world.

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Section: Corporate Techniques Of Neutralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Corporate Techniques Of Neutralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Corporate Techniques Of Neutralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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It’s common sense, stupid! Corporate crime and techniques of neutralization in the automobile industry

Whyte

2016

Crime Law Soc Change

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“…This concept was originally introduced to make sense of juvenile delinquency (Sykes and Matza, 1957), but has also been applied to business ethics and management settings (Heath, 2008). Wrongdoing is here explained in terms of how business managers are able convince themselves that what they initially thought was wrong, is actually acceptable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honesty in projects

Kvalnes

2014

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business

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Honesty in Projects PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how the concept of honesty can shed light on misreporting issues in projects. Research on honesty can be useful for practitioners and researchers in project management, in order to understand and counter the withholding and distortion of relevant information from projects. In moral psychology, dishonesty is often explained as a result of moral neutralization. The paper provides an account of how neutralization can lead to dishonesty in projects. Design/methodology/approachThe current study is based on a literature review of research on misreporting and dishonesty in projects, and of relevant generic studies of honesty. FindingsThe author concludes that the phenomenon of moral neutralization can explain dishonesty and misreporting in projects. Honesty can be encouraged by identifying attempts at moral neutralization, and rendering them unacceptable. At the core of this position is the view that the level of honesty amongst project members is most adequately understood and explained from a circumstance rather than a character approach. Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is based on a literature review, and needs to be supported by further empirical studies within project management. Practical implicationsThe suggested primacy of a circumstance approach to honesty implies that project practitioners should be aware of the phenomenon of moral neutralization. Even people of good moral character can become involved in neutralization, in order to render misreporting acceptable. The central practical challenge can thus be to recognize tendencies of neutralization in one's own and other people's moral reasoning. Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper is to introduce the concept of honesty in general, and the concept of moral neutralization in particular, to project management research and practice. The paper also suggests concrete ways to redirect attention from character to circumstances, based on more general research findings in social and moral psychology. Recent developments in social psychology point to a different understanding of the phenomenon of honesty, giving priority to the circumstances of decision making, rather than on character traits. In this paper I will argue that this empirically oriented circumstance approach, as outlined by Ariely (2010;, Mazar et al. (2008), Heath (2008, and Doris (2002) is where project management practice and research can find the most relevant input with regard to understanding and countering dishonesty. These contributions take into account a wide range of experiments and studies demonstrating how human decisions and behavior are crucially affected by aspects of the situation, rather than on individual character traits.

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“…Heath (2008) found that the bigger and more severe occupational crime tends to be committed by individuals who are further up the chain of command in the firm.…”

Section: White-collar Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

White-Collar Crime and Police Crime: Rotten Apples or Rotten Barrels?

Gottschalk

2011

Crit Crim

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In the research literature on white-collar crime, there seems to be a tendency to claim individual failure rather than systems failure. Occupational crime is often emphasized at the expense of corporate crime. In the research literature on misconduct and crime by police officers, however, there seems to be a tendency to claim systems failure. It is argued that police crime is a result of bad practice, lack of resources or mismanagement, rather than acts of criminals. Based on two empirical studies in Norway of business and police crime, this paper is concerned with the extent to which the rotten apple theory versus the rotten barrel theory can explain crime in business organizations and police organizations.Keywords: rotten-apple theory; rotten barrel theory; business crime; police crime; empirical study Brief biographiesPetter Gottschalk is professor of information systems and knowledge management in the department of leadership and organizational management at the Norwegian School of Management. Dr. Gottschalk has published several books and research articles on crime and policing. He has been the CEO of several companies before becoming an academic.

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Business Ethics and Moral Motivation: A Criminological Perspective

Abstract: character, deviance, moral motivation, techniques of neutralization, white-collar crime,

Cited by 160 publications

References 40 publications

It’s common sense, stupid! Corporate crime and techniques of neutralization in the automobile industry

It’s common sense, stupid! Corporate crime and techniques of neutralization in the automobile industry

Honesty in projects

White-Collar Crime and Police Crime: Rotten Apples or Rotten Barrels?

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