Have you found yourself wondering how organizations can get away with corruption? How it can seemingly become an industry norm to engage in devious practices? New research may provide some answers.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
Research on the use of wage arrears—purposely delaying payment of workers’ earned wages—in Russia showed that as deviant business practices became the norm, they were quickly adopted as the status quo for other organizations in the community. Looking at the numbers, it’s amazing how quickly this deviant practice spread. For the data reported, in 1991, 8% of organizations in Russia used wage arrears and of these organizations, they were an average of about 2 months behind in paying their workers. In 1998, 59% of organizations were using wage arrears and these organizations were well over 4 months behind in paying their workers.
What makes this all the more alarming is the reaction of workers to this deviant behavior. As arrears became more prevalent and extreme, workers were less likely to strike or quit. As deviant organizational behavior became normalized, the individuals being hurt by the practices adapted to the malicious practices.
THE BOTTOM LINE
In terms of preventing deviant practices, there are a couple of points for us to take away from this cautionary tale. First, deviant practices need to be stopped quickly, before stakeholders and perpetrators become numb to the corrupt behavior. Second, these wage arrears occurred in spite of laws against the practice. Regulations are not enough; we have to change the culture that rationalizes and allows deviant behavior.
Earle, J. S., Spicer, A., & Peter, K. S. (2010). The normalization of deviant organizational practices: Wage arrears in Russia, 1991-98. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 218-237.
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