Dirty Business

Drawing on both theory and major case studies, this book provides a much-needed sociological and comparative analysis of the world of the manager in the context of misconduct within business organizations.

Organizational misbehaviour and crime have been relatively neglected in the social sciences, particularly in business studies. Analyses have tended to be fragmentary, overly slanted towards narrow external views - such as those of legal control and public policy - and predominantly North American. Dirty Business rectifies this by offering a broad sociological perspective related to work, organizations and management, supported by a range of key international case studies. In developing his arguments, Maurice Punch

Drawing on both theory and major case studies, this book provides a much-needed sociological and comparative analysis of the world of the manager in the context of misconduct within business organizations.

Organizational misbehaviour and crime have been relatively neglected in the social sciences, particularly in business studies. Analyses have tended to be fragmentary, overly slanted towards narrow external views - such as those of legal control and public policy - and predominantly North American. Dirty Business rectifies this by offering a broad sociological perspective related to work, organizations and management, supported by a range of key international case studies.

Maurice Punch studied at the universities of Exeter, Cambridge, and Essex (MA 1966 and Ph D 1972) and has worked at Essex University, University of Utrecht, SUNY Albany and Nyenrode University (The Netherlands Business School). After some 20 years in Dutch universities he became an independent researcher and consultant in 1994; in 1999 he was appointed Visiting Professor at the Mannheim Centre at LSE where he teaches primarily in the areas of policing with special attention to police deviance; and also on corporate and white-collar crime.

He is also Visiting Professor at King's College London where he teaches on the MA Criminology Programme. He has given numerous lectures, seminars and courses in several countries including UK, USA, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Finland and has published in English, Dutch and American journals.