NCJ Number
143649
Journal
Police Studies Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1992) Pages: 184-187
Date Published
1992
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article distinguishes between corruption and mismanagement and discusses the means to counter each of these organizational detriments.
Abstract
Mismanagement is a failure of competence in the handling of one or more tasks of planning, organizing, and controlling an enterprise. It may be passive, which involves a failure to plan or control; or it can be active, which consists of poor decisions, inept operations, and ineffective control. Corruption is the manipulation of systems to distort the distribution of benefits that an organized society confers on those affected by the society. The intent to undermine organizational goals and standards for the sake of personal gain may be absent in mismanagement, but it is always present in corruption. Those who mismanage an organization may not benefit materially from the mismanagement and may suffer by losing employment or assets; the corrupter receives benefits until apprehended. Mismanagement can have a range of consequences for an organization, from minimal to disastrous. Corruption is always harmful in and of itself; because the persons at each end of the practice receive benefits, the damage may remain hidden. Detection methods are similar for both mismanagement and corruption, with more audit-type tools used to assess mismanagement and more criminal investigative practices used to detect corruption. 11 notes