Organizational noncompliance: an interdisciplinary review of social and organizational factors

Noncompliance -- a critical aspect of organizational life -- fits into the core of many social science disciplines. However, to date, the diverse knowledge on the subject has not been integrated. This article provides a systematic review of existing interdisciplinary scholarship on social and organizational factors of noncompliance. Using a grounded theory approach, we elaborate a generic conceptual framework that includes a basic classification scheme to better understand the opportunity factors that make this behavior possible and a six-cell typology to capture the essential features of the motivations for noncompliance within organizations. The two main components of the opportunity structure can be classified as organizational-structural factors and regulator-related factors. Considering the motivation of noncompliant actors, the study presents three major perspective categories: utilitarian, normative, and relational approaches. The other critical dimension along which most studies explain noncompliance is the rule systems with which actors can be noncompliant. There are internal rules -- policies and procedures developed internally by an organization, and external rules -- general laws and regulations mandated by external governing authorities.