Malicious compliance

Last updated December 07, 2024

Malicious compliance (also known as malicious obedience) is the behavior of strictly following the orders of a superior despite knowing that compliance with the orders will have an unintended or negative result. It usually implies following an order in such a way that ignores or otherwise undermines the order's intent, but follows it to the letter.^[1]^[2] It can also describe a willful act of regulatory interference, for example when a corporation releases a compliant but inferior version of a product in response to new legislation. A form of passive-aggressive behavior,^[3] it is often associated with poor management-labor relationships, micromanagement, a generalized lack of confidence in leadership, and resistance to changes perceived as pointless, duplicative, dangerous, or otherwise undesirable. It is common in organizations with top-down management structures lacking morale, leadership or mutual trust. In U.S. law, this practice has been theorized as a form of uncivil obedience.^[4]^[5]

Malicious compliance was common in the Soviet Union's command economy; examples are used in the studies of behavior, management, and economics to hypothetically show differences between the Soviet command economy and a free market.^[6]^{[ unreliable source? ]}. As of the 2020s, the term is often used to describe commercial response to digital governance, for example the response of American big tech to the European Union's requirement for informed consent in their General Data Protection Regulation ^{[ citation needed ]}.

Definition

There is no universally agreed-upon definition of malicious compliance. Among those ventured, a principle characteristic includes establishing 'malice' as a behavior "always meant in some way to damage, humiliate or threaten the established power structure, regardless of what level that may be".^[3]

Fundamental to establishing malice is whether there is any financial or other remunerative incentive in acting contrary to good practice, as well as the likelihood of penalties and their severity for non-compliance, both of which mitigate the charge.

Another fundamental characteristic is that the malicious action can be taken without overt risk, as one is complying to the letter of a directive.^[3] Nevertheless, repercussions may follow, often indirectly, whether from the supervisor, co-workers possibly burdened by the consequences of malicious obedience, or others higher in the management structure.^[3]

The definition becomes grey when countering motivations are introduced, such as complying with what may be construed as a wrong-headed directive with the intention of drawing attention to the consequence, as to highlight an inefficient procedure or the managerial inadequacies of a superior.^[3]

Some perceive malicious compliance as a tool for effecting change, such as social change,^[7] or meeting goals, such as production quotas, even at the expense of efficiency and the organization.^[8]

Other motivations include office politics, jealousy, revenge on a supervisor,^[3]^[9] and simply "sticking it to" an organization one is unhappy with.^[5]

Examples

Some possible examples of malicious compliance include:

A group of U.S. firefighters who were required for safety reasons to wear self-contained breathing apparatus against their will. In response, they merely wore the equipment on their backs but did not use it, complying with the letter of the mandate. This made their work less efficient than if they had not been wearing the equipment at all. A subsequent mandate required them to wear and use the gear.^[10]
An artist resorting to "a conspicuous and hyperbolic compliance with established laws, rules, and mandates"^[5] to strike back at what he perceived as an unfair tax code. Angry at being denied certain deductions on his tax returns, California artist Lowell Darling undertook a "series of creative endeavors exploiting uncivil obedience" intending to deconstruct the so-called hobby loss rule of the U.S. Tax Code. By employing fictional art projects and organizations, he "rigorously and ironically" fulfilled those factors said to indicate a profit-seeking intent. He later challenged electioneering norms and campaign finance rules in a mock run for governor.^[5]
A project manager going along with a project, knowing it is impossible to complete. While the rest of their team knows the task is insurmountable, they cut corners to achieve some sort of result.^[11]
Malicious compliance is common in production situations in which employees and middle management are measured based on meeting certain quotas or performance projections. Examples include:
- Employees at a factory shipping product to customers too early so their inventory is reduced to meet a projection;^[8]
- Production plants refusing shipments of raw material at month-end so that monthly completion projections are met, even if doing so causes a negative impact on customer deliverables and overall production figures.^[8]
In various jurisdictions around the world, including the United States, laws and policies have been implemented mandating that gender-specific public bathrooms may only be used by people according to their sex assigned at birth. As the physical appearances of many transgender individuals are not distinguishable from cisgender people^{[ citation needed ]}, certain transgender individuals have engaged in malicious compliance with such bathroom policies, in order to highlight the situational discomfort that the policies were ostensibly designed to prevent.^[12] For example, a transgender man entering a bathroom designated for women.

Responses

It has been theorised that managers might avoid malicious compliance by not making excessive, contradictory, or incomprehensible demands of employees as well as clarifying policies.^[13]

Related Research Articles

Tax noncompliance is a range of activities that are unfavorable to a government's tax system. This may include tax avoidance, which is tax reduction by legal means, and tax evasion which is the illegal non-payment of tax liabilities. The use of the term "noncompliance" is used differently by different authors. Its most general use describes non-compliant behaviors with respect to different institutional rules resulting in what Edgar L. Feige calls unobserved economies. Non-compliance with fiscal rules of taxation gives rise to unreported income and a tax gap that Feige estimates to be in the neighborhood of $500 billion annually for the United States.

Social influence comprises the ways in which individuals adjust their behavior to meet the demands of a social environment. It takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing. Typically social influence results from a specific action, command, or request, but people also alter their attitudes and behaviors in response to what they perceive others might do or think. In 1958, Harvard psychologist Herbert Kelman identified three broad varieties of social influence.

Compliance is when people appear to agree with others but actually keep their dissenting opinions private.
Identification is when people are influenced by someone who is liked and respected, such as a famous celebrity.
Internalization is when people accept a belief or behavior and agree both publicly and privately.

Incivility is a general term for social behaviour lacking in civility or good manners, on a scale from rudeness or lack of respect for elders, to vandalism and hooliganism, through public drunkenness and threatening behaviour. The word "incivility" is derived from the Latin incivilis, meaning "not of a citizen".

Basel II classified legal risk as a subset of operational risk in 2003. This conception is based on a business perspective, recognizing that there are threats entailed in the business operating environment. The idea is that businesses do not operate in a vacuum and in the exploitation of opportunities and their engagement with other businesses, their activities tend to become subjects of legal liabilities and obligations.

Violence against transgender people includes emotional, physical, sexual, or verbal violence targeted towards transgender people. The term has also been applied to hate speech directed at transgender people and at depictions of transgender people in the media that reinforce negative stereotypes about them. Trans and non-binary gender adolescents can experience bashing in the form of bullying and harassment. When compared to their cisgender peers, trans and non-binary gender youth are at increased risk for victimisation and substance abuse.

A privacy policy is a statement or legal document that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client's data. Personal information can be anything that can be used to identify an individual, not limited to the person's name, address, date of birth, marital status, contact information, ID issue, and expiry date, financial records, credit information, medical history, where one travels, and intentions to acquire goods and services. In the case of a business, it is often a statement that declares a party's policy on how it collects, stores, and releases personal information it collects. It informs the client what specific information is collected, and whether it is kept confidential, shared with partners, or sold to other firms or enterprises. Privacy policies typically represent a broader, more generalized treatment, as opposed to data use statements, which tend to be more detailed and specific.

In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Compliance has traditionally been explained by reference to deterrence theory, according to which punishing a behavior will decrease the violations both by the wrongdoer and by others. This view has been supported by economic theory, which has framed punishment in terms of costs and has explained compliance in terms of a cost-benefit equilibrium. However, psychological research on motivation provides an alternative view: granting rewards or imposing fines for a certain behavior is a form of extrinsic motivation that weakens intrinsic motivation and ultimately undermines compliance.

The norm of reciprocity requires that people repay in kind what others have done for them. It can be understood as the expectation that people will respond to each other by returning benefits for benefits, and with either indifference or hostility to harms. The social norm of reciprocity may take different forms in different areas of social life, or in different societies. This is distinct from related ideas such as gratitude, the Golden Rule, or mutual goodwill. See reciprocity for an analysis of the concepts involved.

Unisex public toilets are public toilets that are not separated by sex or gender.

Governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) is the term covering an organization's approach across these three practices: governance, risk management, and compliance.

The chief compliance officer (CCO) is a corporate executive within the C-suite responsible for overseeing and managing regulatory compliance issues within an organization. The CCO typically reports to the chief executive officer or the chief legal officer.

Internal control, as defined by accounting and auditing, is a process for assuring of an organization's objectives in operational effectiveness and efficiency, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with laws, regulations and policies. A broad concept, internal control involves everything that controls risks to an organization.

Taxation in the British Virgin Islands is relatively simple by comparative standards; photocopies of all of the tax laws of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) would together amount to about 200 pages of paper.

Compliance is a response—specifically, a submission—made in reaction to a request. The request may be explicit or implicit. The target may or may not recognize that they are being urged to act in a particular way.

Compliance gaining is a term used in the social sciences that encompasses the intentional act of altering another's behavior. Research in this area originated in the field of social psychology, but communication scholars have also provided ample research in compliance gaining. While persuasion focuses on attitudes and beliefs, compliance gaining focuses on behavior.

Regulatory risk differentiation is the process used by a regulatory authority to systemically treat entities differently based on the regulator's assessment of the risks of the entity's non-compliance.

Internet Security Awareness Training (ISAT) is the training given to members of an organization regarding the protection of various information assets of that organization. ISAT is a subset of general security awareness training (SAT).

Endpoint security or endpoint protection is an approach to the protection of computer networks that are remotely bridged to client devices. The connection of endpoint devices such as laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and other wireless devices to corporate networks creates attack paths for security threats. Endpoint security attempts to ensure that such devices follow compliance to standards.

Absence management, also known as leave management, is a combination of employer policies, procedures, or programs designed to handle employee leaves of absence and minimize the impact of those absences on the employer. Absence management programs aim to maximize productivity by supporting an employee from initial absence through return-to-work and stay-at-work plans.

The Facility Requirements Based on Sex Act, also known as Committee Substitute for House Bill 1521 , is a 2023 Florida anti-trans bathroom law which mandates that individuals must use restrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities that correspond to their sex assigned at birth in some public, private and state-licensed facilities. It is one of two states (Utah) to make it a misdemeanor, in certain circumstances, for transgender people to use bathrooms or facilities consistent with their gender identity. It is the most populous state in the United States with a bathroom law. The law has generated significant controversy and legal challenges.

References

↑ Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, p. 179, Addison-Wesley, 2013 ISBN 978-0-13-344073-7.
↑ "U.S. Set To Begin Massive Military Exercises in Qatar", CNN.com transcript, NewsNight with Aaron Brown , Dec 6, 2002, retrieved June 7, 2007, Malicious compliance is when your boss tells you to do something and you do it even though you know it's not going to have the desired result.
1 2 3 4 5 6 "What is malicious compliance?", John Staughton, ScienceABC, scienceabc.com, January 22, 2022
↑ Bulman-Pozen, Jessica; Pozen, David E. (2015). "Uncivil Obedience". Columbia Law Review. 115 (4): 809–872. ISSN 0010-1958. JSTOR 43387025.
1 2 3 4 Steinberg, Monica (2020-03-01). "Uncivil Obedience: Lowell Darling Follows the Law". American Art . 34 (1): 112–135. doi:10.1086/709417. ISSN 1073-9300. S2CID 218780624.
↑ Schug, Mark C (January 1, 1997). "From Plan to Market: Teaching Ideas for Social Studies, Economics, and Business Classes" (PDF). uttyler.edu. National Council on Economic Education. p. 2. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
↑ "We can learn a lesson from Italy", Philadelphia Gay News, Jeremy Rodriguez, August 2, 2023
1 2 3 Spitzer, Dean R. (2007). Transforming Performance Measurement Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success. American Management Association. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-0-8144-0891-9.
↑ "Learn the art of malicious compliance: doing exactly what you were asked, even when it's wrong", The Register, Mathew JC Powell, February 11, 2023
↑ Gagliano, Mike; Phillips, Casey R.; Bernocco, Steve; Jose, Phillip (2008). Air Management for the Fire Service. Fire Engineering Books. ISBN 978-1-59370-129-1.
↑ DeCarlo, Douglas (October 2010). EXtreme Project Management Using Leadership, Principles, and Tools to Deliver Value in the Face of Volatility. Wiley. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-470-57367-9.
↑ Basu, Rekha. "Basu: When a transgender male used the women's room". The Des Moines Register. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
↑ Cecilie Strømgaard Patscheider (8 August 2016). "Djøf: Lyv dig ud af spørgsmål om babyplaner og seksualitet til jobsamtalen". Politiken (in Danish).

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[1] Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, p. 179, Addison-Wesley, 2013 ISBN 978-0-13-344073-7.

[2] "U.S. Set To Begin Massive Military Exercises in Qatar", CNN.com transcript, NewsNight with Aaron Brown , Dec 6, 2002, retrieved June 7, 2007, Malicious compliance is when your boss tells you to do something and you do it even though you know it's not going to have the desired result.

[sabc-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 "What is malicious compliance?", John Staughton, ScienceABC, scienceabc.com, January 22, 2022

[4] Bulman-Pozen, Jessica; Pozen, David E. (2015). "Uncivil Obedience". Columbia Law Review. 115 (4): 809–872. ISSN 0010-1958. JSTOR 43387025.

[ms-5] 1 2 3 4 Steinberg, Monica (2020-03-01). "Uncivil Obedience: Lowell Darling Follows the Law". American Art . 34 (1): 112–135. doi:10.1086/709417. ISSN 1073-9300. S2CID 218780624.

[Schug-6] Schug, Mark C (January 1, 1997). "From Plan to Market: Teaching Ideas for Social Studies, Economics, and Business Classes" (PDF). uttyler.edu. National Council on Economic Education. p. 2. Retrieved 18 October 2022.

[7] "We can learn a lesson from Italy", Philadelphia Gay News, Jeremy Rodriguez, August 2, 2023

[Spitzer-8] 1 2 3 Spitzer, Dean R. (2007). Transforming Performance Measurement Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success. American Management Association. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-0-8144-0891-9.

[9] "Learn the art of malicious compliance: doing exactly what you were asked, even when it's wrong", The Register, Mathew JC Powell, February 11, 2023

[10] Gagliano, Mike; Phillips, Casey R.; Bernocco, Steve; Jose, Phillip (2008). Air Management for the Fire Service. Fire Engineering Books. ISBN 978-1-59370-129-1.

[DeCarlo-11] DeCarlo, Douglas (October 2010). EXtreme Project Management Using Leadership, Principles, and Tools to Deliver Value in the Face of Volatility. Wiley. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-470-57367-9.

[12] Basu, Rekha. "Basu: When a transgender male used the women's room". The Des Moines Register. Retrieved 2024-11-20.

[13] Cecilie Strømgaard Patscheider (8 August 2016). "Djøf: Lyv dig ud af spørgsmål om babyplaner og seksualitet til jobsamtalen". Politiken (in Danish).

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