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.