Organisational Culture: Look Who's Misbehaving Now!

Bending and breaking the rules has become an accepted part of business culture, with both bosses and employees guilty of misbehaving. As they strive to meet the challenges of high key performance indicators, executives and managers quite often push moral boundaries and encourage subordinates to do the same. Common employee misdemeanours start with petty pilfering or skiving off on the job and such behaviours can become work group norms. However, the repercussions of making them clean up their acts may be more costly than anticipated, suggests Stephen Ackroyd, co-author of the book, Organisational Misbehaviour and a professor of organisational analysis at Lancaster University Management School in the UK.