Engaged Onlooking: How Organisational Identification Shapes Public Condoning of Corporate Corruption

Abstract

We examine how social identity processes shape condoning of organisational corruption among onlookers. Two studies examined the willingness of outside observers to condone, or else condemn, corrupt actions of real organisations, a process we call ‘engaged onlookership’ building on the social identity approach to engaged followership. In both Study 1 (cross-sectional) and Study 2 (experimental), we found that identification with a company guilty of malfeasance and identification with the monitoring agency who uncovered their scandal independently predicted opposing effects on condoning corruption, even while controlling for moral identity and demographic factors. These findings were then replicated and extended in Study 3 that made several methodological improvements upon previous studies. Results provided additional evidence of an indirect effect of the manipulation on condoning corruption through company identification. These findings provide support for an engaged onlookership model of corruption which posits that onlookers are more likely to endorse morally problematic behaviour when they believe it is performed by, and in the interests of, an organisation with which they identify.