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Research on organizational wrongdoing typically examines clear transgressions, such as corruption or deception. Yet much work occurs in contexts where the boundary between right and wrong is ambiguous. The micro-dynamics through which wrongdoing is accomplished in these situations remain poorly understood. Police work exemplifies such a context, as public encounters have come under increasing scrutiny, leading to disciplinary cases and significant media attention. Drawing on a unique corpus of audio-recorded calls to police emergency centers and employing a discursive psychology approach, we identify three mechanisms, the primacy of accountability, situational behavioral slippage, and resistibility, which illuminate how wrongdoing is interactionally accomplished here. We show how performing problematic conduct and negotiating its status as “right” rather than “wrong” involves delicate, dynamic work. Our study advances theory by demonstrating how identifying interactional mechanisms can further our understanding and inspire future mitigating measures beyond what is offered by focusing on antecedent conditions.
Wåhlin-Jacobsen et al. (Mon,) studied this question.