Abstract
Denmark is considered to be a reference when the subject is social capital and low corruption: the country is almost always in the first places in rankings of social, human or economic development. While walking around Copenhagen for the first time, I went to Christiania, a self-proclaimed ‘free zone’ with a long history of community relations and hippie movements. When approaching the main square, I saw an open market on my left and two bald men with Pitbulls on my right. The dogs barked loudly and were completely free. One man rapidly adverted me: ‘No pictures of your right! We are selling drugs here’. Is this all legal? I asked a friend who had been living in Denmark for 10 years, and she quickly answered, ‘drugs trade is illegal!’Was there corruption in the scene or just harmonious living? Even in Denmark, corruption surely exists. Things are much more complex than they seem to look in rankings and common sense perspectives.
Confronting Corruption in Business discusses issues that trigger corruption as well as its consequences and some possible solutions. It links corruption with the figure of destructive leadership and encompasses research by authors from distinct backgrounds and countries about the phenomenon in different regional settings, industries, governments and organizations. Its self-proclaimed audience would comprise managers and executives in both public and private sectors, educators, students and corporations’ board members. I do consider that the texts can be read by practitioners and leaders of public and private organizations, but the main audience of the book is constituted by those in the academia, especially undergraduate and graduate students interested in themes such as leadership, international business and management.
The publication does not leave the impersonal traditional mainstream academic language and writing style related to the management field behind. Even though most of its chapters are written in language that allows a broader audience to be comfortable with the readings. An exception is chapter number 7, which relies on heavy quantitative analysis, not much explained for those who does not share a strong statistical root and who may find it challenging to comprehend the piece.
One of the book’s strongest aspects is that it aggregates a good variety of perspectives related to its main theme. There is a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches to corruption, and it is definitely impossible to describe the broad diversity of ideas, understandings and points of view adopted. It is very interesting to find out that there are chapters dedicated to investigate corruption in environments such as public administration.
The introduction of the book, presented as chapter 1 and written by Alan Belasen, is entitled ‘Corruption and Destructive Leadership’, a justifiable title as the book focus on the negative consequences of this kind of leadership. The introduction superficially navigates through some concepts such as accountability, leadership styles and corruption. I found the position defended by the author that ‘[d]eregulation and the expansion of markets are powerful tools for controlling corruption’ (p. 11) really questionable, since the argument is criticized and questioned in some chapters and does not represent a common standpoint for all authors. In its end, brief abstracts of each of the book chapters are also presented.
Confronting Corruption in Business presents other 13 chapters, sorted in two parts. The first, with chapters 2 through 7, is dedicated to analysing corruption as a phenomenon around the world. With contributions written by authors from different countries, the book presents a rich experience that goes beyond colonial points of view, although not all of them adopt critical perspectives towards mainstream management values and theories.
Roxana Toma authors both chapter 2, ‘Corruption in Government: Causes, Consequences, Cures’, and also chapter 6, ‘Perceptions of Ethics and Corruption in Romania: The Need for Civic Engagement’. The former adopts an understanding of corruption through social capital theory, articulating social trust, civil society and culture in order to discuss corruption around the world. The later keeps a sociological approach with qualitative and quantitative methods and analyses the Romanian society and some of its values and habits, linking corruption and social capital issues, considering that ‘there is no political cohesion among Romanians today’ (p. 148). Does this happen only in Romania?
In the third chapter of the book, Beyond Leadership: Confronting the Challenges of Corruption in Nigeria, Kunle Akingbola analyses different factors that cause corruption in this African nation. The author clearly states that although corruption in Nigeria is a product of its society, Western countries do encourage it to happen through their actions, and ‘whereas destructive leadership is a major problem, institutional factors contribute significantly and legitimize the activities of the leaders’ (p. 74). The text is critical and the writing style really made me want to know more about the country and about Kunle’s perspectives.
The fourth chapter, by Betul Lus, investigates the Turkish context and relates trusted leadership and good corporate governance. The author looks for causes of corruption in the country and tries to understand how it affects business. Adopting a mainstream management perspective that seems to focus only on pro-business measures that sometimes does not seem to care about society as a whole, the chapter also calls attention to the efforts civil society organizations in Turkey are making in order to enhance civic participation, even with the lack of government help.
Shishir Singh’s chapter 5, ‘The Crony Capitalism Bane of India’, examines issues such as transparency, governance, legislature and civic engagement in the Indian context from a national perspective. An interesting and polemic point raised in the text is the need for a judiciary power that serves justice to the victims and/or innocent. This topic surely deserves a deeper analysis, not only regarding Indian society.
The last chapter of the first part of the book is written by Ariel Belasen and Kyle Peyton. They propose a cross-country analysis of corruption perceptions based on heavy statistical analysis. Although very difficult for someone not specialized in statistics to understand, the text makes a good point by trying to demystify some common sense assumptions in the mainstream business and management literature by stating that ‘reductions in corruption can, on average, be attributed more to increases in human development than increases in economic freedom’ (p. 177).
The second part of the book – with chapters 8 through 14 – is dedicated to analysing corruption in industry and business. Chapter 8 is entitled ‘Deception and Failure: Mitigating Leader-Centric Behaviours’ and is written by Alan Belasen. It reviews the literature on corrupt leadership and conducive environments and investigates the normalization of corrupt business practices taking as examples the cases of Enron and Madoff. The chapter considers that trusted leaders ‘can create a culture of accountability, credibility, honesty and openness’ (p. 212) and offers a model for diagnosing and transforming leadership behaviour.
What is the role of both leadership and environment in relation to corruption in healthcare? This is the question that Barry Eisenberg addresses in the ninth chapter of the book. One interesting contribution of the text comes when the author affirms that the leadership of any healthcare organization ‘is not exclusively responsible for guaranteeing that an organization and its staff will navigate an ethical path’ (p. 244).
The 10th chapter, ‘High Flyers’, by Rosalyn Rufer focuses on the theme of leadership by investigating the airline industry. It presents ways by which leaders can respond to crises in order to be better viewed by stakeholders. I missed more critical analysis in this chapter, as the conclusion gives suggestions for airline carriers to be perceived as ethical in their behaviour. Are we more focused on image, reputation and appearance than on ethical attitudes themselves?
Sylvia Starnawska’s chapter 11 analyses the relations between banking failures and unethical leadership by examining management traits of the corporate leaders of some failing banks during the crisis of 2008, pointing out aspects like greed and strong desire for success coupled with limited personal accountability as key factors.
‘Corruption in the Utility Industries’, written by Anant Deshpande and MD Haque, draws on some aspects of the US electric utility industry, including threats and challenges it faces, and concluding in favour of needed reforms in the sector that include improvements of ‘efficiency, accountability and transparency of both public and private institutions’ (p. 324).
Written by Frank, Tally and Belasen, chapter 13 focuses on corruption in education and the erosion of social trust. The piece looks for ‘different ways that corruption can impede social good’ (p. 332) and reaffirms the necessary commitment between universities and communities through higher education’s practice of service. It also investigates different forms of corruption and fraud in the United States originated from bribery, plagiarism and fraudulent aspects of strategic partnerships, degree equivalencies and student loans. A good advice comes in the last paragraph: ‘what will be needed, in the end, is a kind of collective socio-political will, at all levels of society, do deals with the corrosive effects of corruption in higher education’ (p. 354). We are so immersed in the Academia trying to formulate and disseminate models and theories that the moments in which we forget about the power and the need of constructing and exercising our wills are not uncommon.
The 14th chapter is also the conclusion of the book, written by its editors. The piece tries to summarize the whole book, bringing light to the different approaches adopted in the chapters. The editors recognize that ‘none of the industries are immune to corruption. […] Overcoming corruption requires almost unimaginable transformation’ (p. 362). They seem so optimistic that they look almost naïve when stating that ‘[t]rusted leaders can create a culture of accountability, credibility, honesty, and transparency by making sure that managers and employees engage in ethical business practices’ (p. 369). We need to be very aware not to make leaders the only responsible for changes and treat the companies’ objectives and values as secondary. This perspective connects with a contemporary fascination with entrepreneurship theories and values, while forgets that the mentioned objectives are usually defined and implemented top-down from board members and shareholders.
In the end, I was sincerely hoping for more critical analysis throughout a book focused on corruption, especially regarding the deals, influences and lobby between businesses and governments. Sometimes, it seemed that corruption is something most corporations are far from practicing and that business are so interested in the well-being of everybody, and that if corruption occurs inside organizations, it is a problem much more related to the values and actions of some employees (labelled as corrupts) than to the mission, routines and strategies usually used by corporations worldwide while fighting for new contracts, deals, legislations, profits and so on.
I sometimes asked myself to what extent a book that analyses corruption can be seen as supportive of management theories and values that, pushed to an extreme, use and stimulate the use of corruption since they rarely care about the means, but focus on achieving the desired results at any cost and by any means. Klein’s (2007) The Shock Doctrine and Black’s (2012) IBM and the Holocaust are two great references that show different perspectives.
There is something important that books like the one reviewed here sometimes seem to miss: a contemporary debate about corruption cannot leave discussions about the interconnections between business organizations, governments and tax heaves outside. As recent research provoked by the release of Panama Papers, these crimes are facilitated by the west and all of the involved function as partners. To what extent do we consider to exist justifications for tax havens? What are the origins of the money sent these ‘paradises’? To keep the interest of whom do they serve? In several cases to make their investors’ obligations to the societies they live in to be reduced.
At last, a huge problem that is not exclusive of this work: a book mainly suited to students and scholars costing 40 pounds? The e-book version for 38 pounds? That is, to say the least, inadequate. The students will probably be tempted to look for journal articles and other alternatives forms to study the subject.