Normal Organizational Wrongdoing

Donald Palmer holds a BSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a PhD in Sociology from the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He has served as Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and as chair of the Department of Sociology at Reed College. Professor Palmer has conducted quantitative empirical studies on corporate strategy, structure, and inter-organizational relations and qualitative studies of organizational wrongdoing, which have been published in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Social Forces, Research in the Sociology of Organizations Administrative Science Quarterly, Research in Organizational Behavior, Strategic Organization, and Journal of Management Inquiry. He was an Associate Editor of Administrative Science Quarterly from 2000 to 2002 and Editor of the journal from 2003 to 2008.

the book is very useful for anyone interested in organizations and ethics. With his fine review of relevant theories and by providing a wealth of examples, Palmer is able to demonstrate that organizational wrongdoing is indeed normal, as his title suggests.

• Preface ; Introduction ; 1. The Normal Organizational Wrongdoing Perspective ; 2. Definitions, Theory Development, and Method ; 3. A Rational Choice ; 4. The Cultural Embeddedness Account ; 5. Behavioral Decision Theory ; 6. The Administrative System Account ; 7. Situational Social Influence ; 8. The Power Structure Account ; 9. Accidental Wrongdoing ; 10. The Social Control of Organizational Wrongdoing ; Conclusion