Normalizing White-Collar Wrongdoing in Professional Service Firms
Publication: Journal of Management in Engineering
Volume 38, Issue 5
Abstract
There is extensive literature on top managers committing wrongdoing, but few studies examine white-collar wrongdoing. Drawing on the experiences of a professional service firm, we examine why and how engineering consultants normalize wrongdoing. Leveraging bounded rationality theory, we find that organizational myopia promotes inadequate administrative systems that hold consultants prisoner to their rules and procedures, leading to normalized wrongdoing. Our theoretical contributions are threefold: (1) we contribute to the literature on wrongdoing, presenting the relation between organizational myopia and normalized wrongdoing, (2) we contribute to the administrative systems literature, showing their link with poor project performance, and (3) we show how administrative systems and normalized wrongdoing play a role in project scope creep. We introduce an iceberg model to show that the failed project (the tip of the iceberg) is due to organizational myopia and inefficient administrative systems that need to be addressed before starting any project.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions. Descriptive data referring to project performance are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Yazan Alzubi, Professor Peter Love, and Dr. Tristano Sainati for their generous time reviewing earlier versions of this paper. We also thank the members of EURAM and the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction for their feedback. We are thankful to the PSF and its staff for providing us data access. Finally, we are grateful to editor Dr. Kwak, the associate editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.
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Journal of Management in Engineering
Volume 38 • Issue 5 • September 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 21, 2021
Accepted: May 7, 2022
Published online: Jul 5, 2022
Published in print: Sep 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Dec 5, 2022
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