Toxic (How Organizations Go Bad)

The first authoritative account of the specific processes that lead to harmful behavior in large organizations with insights into how they can avoid such behavior

While we often read about the scandals organizations cause, we are often left wondering: why do organizations keep causing harm? 

Benjamin van Rooij and Nicholas Lord argue that to truly understand and address the harms we must understand the economic, social, and governmental contexts. To do so, Toxic draws on dozens of in-depth case studies to connect the dots between various scandals and illustrate the deeper toxic patterns within organizations that lead to them.

The authors paint a colorful picture of the people and behaviors leading to toxic organizations including:

• Clarence “Chuck” Manabag, an Oakland PD field training officer who trained his recruits to plant false evidence, file incorrect reports, and cover up police abuse of suspects,
• The role the US Federal Aviation Authority played in Boeing’s failure to ensure the safety of its 737 MAX airplanes,
• Volkswagen executives deciding to install emission cheating software in 11 million vehicles, and
• How Monsanto was able to suppress critical scientific evidence of the harmful nature of some its most important products.

Toxic connects the details of these stories with organizational and criminological theories to show what processes lead to deviant and illegal behavior—ultimately, to show how good organizational features turn bad. Accessible, engaging, and full of insight, Toxic, breaks down the warning signs of toxic organizations and equips readers with the tools to unearth and prevent toxicity.