Amoral Management and the Normalisation of Deviance: The Case of Stafford Hospital

Entwistle, Tom ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6457-4749 and Doering, Heike ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4171-6107 2023. Amoral Management and the Normalisation of Deviance: The Case of Stafford Hospital. Journal of Business Ethics 10.1007/s10551-023-05445-6

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (713kB) | Preview

Abstract

Inquiries into organisational scandals repeatedly attribute wrongdoing to the normalisation of deviance. From this perspective, the cause of harm lies not in the actions of any individual but rather in the institutionalised practices of organisations or sectors. Although an important corrective to dramatic tales of bad apples, the normalisation thesis underplays the role of management in the emergence of deviance. Drawing on literatures exploring ideas of amoral (Carroll in Bus Horiz 30(2):7–15, 1987) or ethically neutral leadership (Treviño et al. in Calif Manag Rev 42(4):128–142, 2000) we seek to bring management back into the explanation of organisational wrongdoing. Amoral theorists point to management’s ethical silence, but they also describe the way in which that silence is sustained by a series of organisational characteristics. We build on this work in arguing that it is management’s deliberate focus on bottom line performance, the diffusion of responsibility and high levels of organisational identification that explain the emergence of wrongdoing. We apply these ideas to the case of the UK’s Stafford hospital which hit the headlines in 2009 when it was reported that poor standards of care had led to a mortality rate markedly above that expected for a hospital of its type. We conclude with a discussion of the circumstances which translate amoral management into unethical outcomes.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	0167-4544
Funders:	none
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 May 2023
Date of Acceptance:	6 May 2023
Last Modified:	27 May 2023 07:23
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/159977

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item