Information in Organizational Wrongdoing (SIG-KM & The Center for Studies of Information Resources of Wuhan University)

Description

Recent examples of organizational wrongdoing such as those that led to the opioid crisis, the 2008 financial meltdown, and the Boeing 737MAX crashes show that organizations can deliberately use information to deceive others, resulting in serious harm. This webinar explores the role of information in organizational wrongdoing. We analyze a dataset consisting of 80 cases of high-penalty corporate wrongdoing in the US in the period 2000-2020. Our analysis of documents filed by the US Department of Justice and federal regulatory agencies in those cases found that organizations use two general information strategies to deceive and mislead. First, organizations can “sow doubt” on statements by others that hurt the organization’s interests. Second, organizations can “exploit trust” that others have placed in them to provide truthful information. Our analysis suggests that which strategy is adopted depends on the degree that the organization’s external information use environment is “contested” or “controlled.” Across the cases examined, we observe three types of information behaviours that implement the strategy of sowing doubt and exploiting trust: information obfuscation, information concealment, and information falsification. Finally, we outline measures for regulators and organizations to preempt harmful, deceptive information behaviours that constitute wrongdoing.