The German Organ Transplant Scandal - Unwritten rules of organizational wrongdoings

Markus Pohlmann, Kristina Höly and Maria Eugenia Trombini

Social Science & Medicine, 2022, vol. 292, issue C

Abstract: Using data from organ transplant medicine in Germany, we propose a method for understanding the content of unwritten rules supportive of violations of written rules in light of the “German Organ Transplant Scandal”. Grounded in the sociology of organizational crime, we reconstruct the cultural repertoires of medical professionals working with organ allocation when confronted with the applicable guidelines using collective mindset analysis. Four dimensions of cognitive and normative rules of interpretation were identified and discussed as a an occupational-professional form of deviance. Apart from not relying on data from the alleged perpetrators and still gazing at the latent structures of meaning behind misconduct, our approach offers a more general methodological framework for empirical studies of the unwritten rules at work in an organizational field where wrongdoing has been reported.

Keywords: Organ transplant; Germany; Organizational wrongdoing; Qualitative method; Legal issues; Professions; Unwritten rules; Cultural repertoires (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621009096
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:292:y:2022:i:c:s0277953621009096

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114577

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().