Organizational wrongdoing in courts of accounts

Abstract

Historically, the Brazilian Courts of Accounts have been questioned over the frequent misconduct of magistrates. This article analyzed how organizational wrongdoing is sustained and preserved by magistrates, their cabinet members, audit directors and technical body members, who hold influence and power in this type of organization typically permeated by multiple incompatible and conflicting institutional logics. The case of the Rio de Janeiro State Court of Accounts was analyzed to discover the socially illegitimate practices widely adopted in the organization and which recently became public. A qualitative approach was used based on interviews (with auditors and magistrates) and public documents. The analysis indicates that an elite-patrimonial institutional logic was operating at the Rio de Janeiro State Court of Accounts, which induced organizational wrongdoing, based on the use of episodic and systemic power strategies and reciprocity norms. Finally, the findings point out that supportive wrongdoing is seen in the hierarchy, operating under the influence of systemic power in general, applied to sustain the embryonic strategies of wrongdoing.