Learning Misconduct in Organisations: A Realist Account of Social Learning Perspectives

This chapter examines the contribution of social learning perspectives to understanding organisational misconduct, with focus on how learning processes are mediated by organisational culture. Beginning with Sutherland’s ‘differential association’, the chapter traces the development of social learning within criminology and reviews its application to organisational misconduct. While social learning perspectives provide persuasive accounts of how norms, techniques, and justifications for misconduct are transmitted through interaction, imitation, and reinforcement, we argue that such perspectives often remain analytically shallow when applied to complex organisational settings. To address this, we assess the ‘practical adequacy’ of social learning and propose refinement through a critical realist framework. By conceptualising differential association, definitions, differential reinforcement, and imitation as causal mechanisms embedded within layered organisational structures and cultures, we demonstrate how social learning can be repurposed to generate more robust explanations of organisational misconduct. Organisational culture is positioned as a central mediating layer through which these mechanisms are activated or constrained. We conclude that social learning perspectives offer neither universal nor sufficient explanations of organisational misconduct, but when integrated with attention to structural conditions, social relations, and cultural dynamics, they offer valuable middle-range insights into how misconduct emerges and becomes normalised within organisations.