Abstract
This paper arises from work undertaken to revise and update ‘Organisational Misbehaviour’(Ackroyd and Thompson, 1999) which is now being republished in a revised and updated edition. In 1999 the topic of Managerial misbehaviour was not covered in our book for a number of reasons. Although there was some evidence for managerial misbehaviour – including some spectacular examples (Punch, 1996) - by and large it seemed a marginal subject matter. At the time, managers defined what counted as organisational misbehaviour almost exclusively, and for us that was a key point of our thesis. Today, of course, much has changed. Today, it is seldom possible to read a serious newspaper without encountering reports of misbehaviour and alleged malfeasance amongst managers, and especially their top echelons. Today, journalists have an active interest in reporting misbehaviour and certain aspects of it have become matters of public politics. What is considered in this paper is not so much whether there is more managerial misbehaviour, as the capacity to assess this adequately evades us; but why managerial beliefs and practices have moved so far from the norms of acceptable conduct held by educated opinion and that of the general public.