The Influence of Relative Performance and Bad Apple Succession on Organizational Misconduct

Both strain and culture theories represent independent and complementary explanations for misconduct in and by organizations. The relationship between performance and misconduct remains an open question in the strain tradition, while culture theories assume that leaders can facilitate as well as impede the dissemination of cultures of misconduct. Using a sample of FBS football programs, we find evidence that social-relative performance (the gap between performance and social aspirations) and leader succession are related to misconduct in unique ways. Contrary to previous research, the likelihood of misconduct diminished with increases in positive social-relative performance. Conversely, we observed an increased likelihood of misconduct with decreases in negative social-relative performance suggesting that FBS programs engage in misconduct when performance is just short of social aspirations. Our analysis also reveals that bad apple leader succession (new leaders associated with prior misconduct) increases the likelihood of subsequent misconduct. However, a diminished probability of misconduct occurs with untainted leader succession if compliance is central to the leader’s professional role.