Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T03:15:44.344Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Organizational Change, Normative Control Deinstitutionalization, and Corruption

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Kelly D. Martin ,
Jean L. Johnson  and
John B. Cullen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Despite widespread attention to corruption and organizational change in the literature, to our knowledge, no research has attempted to understand the linkages between these two powerful organizational phenomena. Accordingly, we draw on major theories in ethics, sociology, and management to develop a theoretical framework for understanding how organizational change can sometimes generate corruption. We extend anomie theory and ethical climate theory to articulate the deinstitutionalization of the normative control system and argue that, through this deinstitutionalization, organizations have the potential to become incubators for corruption. We qualify this process by proposing conditions more ripe for anomie and under which this deinstitutionalization is more likely to occur, propounding moderating relationships that influence organizational reconfiguration. Examples of turbulence in the contemporary business environment that can trigger change highlight our discussion. We conclude with managerial implications, offering means by which the deleterious effects of corruption may be arrested or controlled.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 105 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achrol, R. S. 1991. Evolution of the marketing organization: New forms for turbulent environments. Journal of Marketing, 55: 77–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agnew, R. 1987. On “Testing structural strain theories.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 24: 281–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albrecht, K., & McIntyre, L. 2005. Spychips: How major corporations and government plan to track your every move with RFID. Nashville: Nelson Current.Google Scholar
Amburgey, T. L., Kelly, D., & Barnett, W. P. 1993. Resetting the clock: The dynamics of organizational change and failure. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38: 51–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anand, V., Ashforth, B. E., & Joshi, M. 2005. Business as usual: The acceptance and perpetuation of corruption in organizations. Academy of Management Executive, 19: 9–23.Google Scholar
Armenakis, A. A., & Bedian, A. G. 1999. Organizational change: A review of theory and research in the 1990s. Journal of Management, 25: 293–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., & Anand, V. 2003. The normalization of corruption in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 25: 1–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., Gioia, D. A., Robinson, S. L., & Treviño, L. K. 2008. Introduction to special topic forum: Re-viewing organizational corruption. Academy of Management Review, 33: 670–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashkanasy, N. M., Windsor, C. A., & Treviño, L. K. 2006. Bad apples in bad barrels revisited: Cognitive moral development, just world beliefs, rewards, and ethical decision making. Business Ethics Quarterly, 16: 449–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, D. D., & Cullen, J. B. 1993. Administrative reorganization and configurational context: An examination of the contingent effects of age, size, and change in size. Academy of Management Journal, 36: 1251–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, W. P., & Carroll, G. R. 1995. Modeling internal organizational change. Annual Review of Sociology, 2l: 217–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Billings, R. S., Milburn, T. W., & Schaalman, M. L. 1980. A model of crisis perception: A theoretical and empirical analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25: 300–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluedorn, A. C. 2000. Time and organizational culture. In Ashkanasy, N. M., Wilderom, C. P. M., & Peterson, M. F. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational culture and climate: 117–28. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Boudreau, M. C., & Robey, D. 2005. Enacting integrated information technology: A human agency perspective, Organization Science, 16: 3–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, J. 1989. Crime, shame and reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, L., Chandler, R., & Ferrell, O. C. 2006. Managing risks for corporate integrity: How to survive an ethical misconduct disaster. Mason, OH: Thomson.Google Scholar
Chandler, A. D. Jr., 1962. Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of American industrial enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, D. V. 1993. Creating and maintaining ethical work climates: Anomie in the workplace and implications for managing change, Business Ethics Quarterly, 3: 343–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corley, K. G., & Gioia, D. A. 2004. Identity ambiguity and change in the wake of a corporate spin-off. Administrative Science Quarterly, 49: 173–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullen, J. B., Parboteeah, K. P., & Hoegl, M. 2004. Cross-national differences in managers’ willingness to justify ethically suspect behaviors: A test of institutional anomie theory. Academy of Management Journal, 47: 411–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullen, J. B., Parboteeah, K. P., & Victor, B. 2003. The effects of ethical climates on organizational commitment: A two-study analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 46: 127–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullen, J. B., Victor, B., & Bronson, J. W. 1993. The ethical climate questionnaire: An assessment of its development and validity. Psychological Reports, 73: 667–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullen, J. B., Victor, B., & Stephens, C. 1989. An ethical weather report: Assessing the organization's ethical climate. Organizational Dynamics, 18: 50–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Aunno, T., Succi, M., & Alexander, J. A. 2000. The role of institutional and market forces in divergent organizational change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45: 679–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deal, T. E., & Kennedy, A. A. 1982. Corporate cultures: The rites and rituals of corporate life. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
DeSanctis, G., & Poole, M. S. 1994. Capturing the complexity in advanced technology use: Adaptive structuration theory. Organization Science, 5: 121–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. 1983. The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48: 147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobrev, S. D., Kim, T. Y., & Carroll, G. R. 2003. Shifting gears, shifting niches: Organizational inertia and change in the evolution of the U.S. automobile industry, 1885–1981. Organization Science, 14: 264–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, L. 1995. American anti-management theories of organization: A critique of paradigm proliferation. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, E. 1951 (1897). Suicide. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Flannery, B. L., & May, D. R. 2000. Environmental ethical decision making in the U.S. metal finishing industry. Academy of Management Journal, 43: 642–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox-Wolfgramm, S. J., Boal, K. B., & Hunt, J. G. 1998. Organizational adaptation to institutional change: A comparative study of first-order change in prospector and defender banks. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43: 87–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, T. L. 2005. The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. 1979. Central problems in social theory: Action, structure and contradiction in social analysis. Berkley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. 1984. The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structure. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Golembiewski, R. T., Billingsley, K., & Yeager, S. 1976. Measuring change and persistence in human affairs: Types of change generated by OD designs. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 12: 133–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannan, M. T., & Freeman, J. 1977. A population ecology of organizations. American Journal of Sociology, 82: 929–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannan, M. T., & Freeman, J. 1984. Structural inertia and organizational change. American Sociological Review, 49: 149–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannan, M. T., Polos, L., & Carroll, G. R. 2003. The fog of change: Opacity and asperity in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48: 399–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haveman, H. A. 1992. Between a rock and a hard place: Organizational change and performance under conditions of fundamental environmental transformation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37: 48–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haveman, H. A. 1993. Organizational size and change: Diversification in the savings and loan industry after deregulation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38: 20–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haveman, H. A., Russo, M. V., & Meyer, A. D. 2001. Organizational environments in flux: The impact of regulatory punctuations on organizational domains, CEO succession, and performance. Organization Science, 12: 253–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joseph, J., & Deshpande, S. P. 1997. The impact of ethical climate on job satisfaction of nurses. Health Care Management Review, 22: 76–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karim, S. 2006. Modularity in organizational structure: The reconfiguration of internally developed and acquired business units. Strategic Management Journal, 27: 799–823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, M. S., Ferrell, L. K., & LeClair, D. T. 2001. Consumers’ trust of salesperson and manufacturer: An empirical study. Journal of Business Research, 51: 73–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, D. A. 2008. A multidimensional conceptualization of organizational corruption control. Academy of Management Review, 33: 710–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leana, C. R., & Barry, B. 2000. Stability and change as simultaneous experiences in organizational life. Academy of Management Review, 25: 753–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsley, D. H., Brass, D. J., & Thomas, J. B. 1995. Efficacy-performance spirals: A multilevel perspective. Academy of Management Review, 20: 645–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loch, C. H., & Huberman, B. A. 1999. A punctuated-equilibrium model of technology diffusion. Management Science, 45: 160–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, K. D., & Cullen, J. B. 2006. Continuities and extensions of ethical climate theory: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Business Ethics, 69: 175–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, K. D., Cullen, J. B., Johnson, J. L., & Parboteeah, K. P. 2007. Deciding to bribe: A cross-level analysis of firm and home country influences on bribery activity. Academy of Management Journal, 50: 1401–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinley, W., & Scherer, A. G. 2000. Some unanticipated consequences of organizational restructuring. Academy of Management Review, 25: 735–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinley, W., Zhao, J., & Rust, K.G. 2000. A sociocognitive interpretation of organizational downsizing. Academy of Management Review, 25: 227–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K. 1968. Social theory and social structure. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Messner, S. F., & Rosenfeld, R. 1997. Political restraint of the market and levels of criminal homicide: A cross-national application of institutional-anomie theory. Social Forces, 75: 1393–1416.Google Scholar
Messner, S. F., & Rosenfeld, R. 2001. Crime and the American dream. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W., & Rowan, B. 1977. Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83: 340–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D., & Friesen, P. H. 1982. Structural change and performance: Quantum vs. piecemeal-incremental approaches. Academy of Management Journal, 25: 867–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Misangyi, V. F., Weaver, G. R., & Elms, H. 2008. Ending corruption: The interplay between institutional logics, resources, and institutional entrepreneurs. Academy of Management Review, 33: 750–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, S. A. 1997. Internal effects of stakeholder management devices, Journal of Business Ethics, 16: 413–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, R. R., & Winter, S. G. 1982. An evolutionary theory of economic change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nickerson, J. A., & Silverman, B. S. 2003. Why firms want to organize efficiently and what keeps them from doing so: Inappropriate governance, performance, and adaptation in a deregulated industry. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48: 433–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. 1992. The duality of technology: Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organization Science, 6: 423–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, T. 1956. Suggestions for a sociological approach to the theory of organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 1: 63–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peteraf, M., & Reed, R. 2007. Managerial discretion and internal alignment under regulatory constraints and change. Strategic Management Journal, 28: 1089–1112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, D. K. 2002. The relationship between unethical behavior and the dimensions of the ethical climate questionnaire. Journal of Business Ethics, 41: 313–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. 1978. The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Piderit, S. K. 2000. Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: A multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change. Academy of Management Review, 25: 783–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinto, J., Leana, C. R., & Pil, F. K. 2008. Corrupt organizations or organizations of corrupt individuals? Two types of organization-level corruption. Academy of Management Review, 33: 685–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sastry, M. A. 1997. Problems and paradoxes in a model of punctuated organizational change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42: 237–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tenbrunsel, A. E., & Messick, D. M. 1999. Sanctioning systems, decision frames, and cooperation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44: 684–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tenbrunsel, A. E., Smith-Crowe, K., & Umphress, E. E. 2003. Building houses on rocks: The role of the ethical infrastructure in organizations. Social Justice Research, 16: 285–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treviño, L. K., Butterfield, K. D., & McCabe, D. L. 1998. The ethical context in organizations: Influences on employee attitudes and behaviors. Business Ethics Quarterly, 8: 447–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treviño, L. K., Weaver, G. R., & Reynolds, S. J. 2006. Behavioral ethics in organizations: A review. Journal of Management, 32: 951–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treviño, L. K., & Youngblood, S. A. 1990. Bad apples in bad barrels: A causal analysis of ethical decision-making behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75: 378–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tushman, M. L., & Romanelli, E. 1985. Organizational evolution: A metamorphosis model of convergence and reorientation. Research in Organizational Behavior, 7: 171–222.Google Scholar
Van de Ven, A. H. & Poole, M. S. 1995. Explaining development and change in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 20: 510–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Victor, B., & Cullen, J. B. 1988. The organizational bases of ethical work climate. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33: 101–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, G. R., Treviño, L. K., & Cochran, P. L. 1999a. Corporate ethics programs as control systems: Influences of executive commitment and environmental factors. Academy of Management Journal, 42: 41–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, G. R., Treviño, L. K., & Cochran, P. L. 1999b. Integrated and decoupled corporate social performance: Management commitments, external pressures, and corporate ethics practices. Academy of Management Journal, 42: 539–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, J. 1995. Influences upon organizational ethical subclimates: A multi-departmental analysis of a single firm, Organization Science, 6: 509–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, J., & Seger, J. E. 2002. Influences upon organizational ethical subclimates: A replication study of a single firm at two points in time. Journal of Business Ethics, 41: 69–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, O. E. 1975. Markets and hierarchies. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Wimbush, J. C., & Shepard, J. M. 1994. Toward an understanding of ethical climate: Its relationship to ethical behavior and supervisory influence. Journal of Business Ethics, 13: 637–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar