Abstract
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Human Relations |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1464-1496 |
| Number of pages | 33 |
| ISSN | 0018-7267 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sep 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Published online: 30. October 2018Keywords
- Category work
- Institutional theory
- Professional misconduct
- Tax avoidance
Cite this
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Turning Vice into Virtue : Institutional Work and Professional Misconduct. / Harrington, Brooke.
In: Human Relations, Vol. 72, No. 9, 09.2019, p. 1464-1496.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Turning Vice into Virtue
T2 - Institutional Work and Professional Misconduct
AU - Harrington, Brooke
N1 - Published online: 30. October 2018
PY - 2019/9
Y1 - 2019/9
N2 - Why do professionals engage in or aid misconduct, rather than rejecting it as a threat to their legitimacy and labor market survival? This article contributes to the scholarly agenda by drawing on an ethnographic study of professionals who facilitate offshore tax avoidance for the ultra-wealthy. This form of expert advisory work has become highly controversial, and is increasingly classified as a form of professional wrongdoing. Building on theories of institutional work and categorization, the study theorizes practitioners’ responses to field-level legitimacy threats. Specifically, the article models a process in which misconduct is recategorized in terms of the core norms that underpin professional legitimacy. Through this process, practitioners create institutional change by altering the way they see themselves and their work, transforming the ‘vice’ of tax avoidance into the professional ‘virtues’ of public service and expert neutrality. This model advances knowledge compared to previous research on professional misconduct, which was situated primarily at the organization level, and responds to calls for analysis of ‘agentic self-categorization’ processes in creating the micro-foundations for legitimacy in the professions.
AB - Why do professionals engage in or aid misconduct, rather than rejecting it as a threat to their legitimacy and labor market survival? This article contributes to the scholarly agenda by drawing on an ethnographic study of professionals who facilitate offshore tax avoidance for the ultra-wealthy. This form of expert advisory work has become highly controversial, and is increasingly classified as a form of professional wrongdoing. Building on theories of institutional work and categorization, the study theorizes practitioners’ responses to field-level legitimacy threats. Specifically, the article models a process in which misconduct is recategorized in terms of the core norms that underpin professional legitimacy. Through this process, practitioners create institutional change by altering the way they see themselves and their work, transforming the ‘vice’ of tax avoidance into the professional ‘virtues’ of public service and expert neutrality. This model advances knowledge compared to previous research on professional misconduct, which was situated primarily at the organization level, and responds to calls for analysis of ‘agentic self-categorization’ processes in creating the micro-foundations for legitimacy in the professions.
KW - Category work
KW - Institutional theory
KW - Professional misconduct
KW - Tax avoidance
KW - Category work
KW - Institutional theory
KW - Professional misconduct
KW - Tax avoidance
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U2 - 10.1177/0018726718793930
DO - 10.1177/0018726718793930
M3 - Journal article
VL - 72
SP - 1464
EP - 1496
JO - Human Relations
JF - Human Relations
SN - 0018-7267
IS - 9
ER -