Managing Criminal Organisations
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijps.2008.10.3.85 |
| Author | Petter Gottschalk |
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Managing criminal organisations
Petter Gottschalk
Norwegian School of Management, Nydalsveien 37, N-0442 Oslo, Norway. Email:
petter.gottschalk@bi.no
Received 24 April 2007; accepted 20 November 2007
Keywords: organised crime, leadership roles, organisational culture, crime
value configuration, research propositions
Petter Gottschalk
is Professor in the Depart-
ment of Leadership and Organisation at the
Norwegian School of Management. Idea Group
Publishing, Hershey, PA, published his most
recent book entitled ‘Knowledge Management
Systems in Law Enforcement’ in 2007. Dr
Gottschalk teaches knowledge management at
the Norwegian Police University College.
A
BSTRACT
To fight organised crime, there is a need to
understand criminal organisations. In this con-
ceptual research paper, terminology from business
and management literature is applied to the
growing area of organised crime. Rather than
thinking of organised crimes as acts of criminals,
this paper suggests an understanding of criminal
organisations similar to non-criminal organisa-
tions. It explores the feasibility of utilising a
range of organisational and managerial literature
to understand organised crime by formulating
research propositions for future empirical study.
INTRODUCTION
To fight organised crime, there is a need to
understand criminal organisations. Criminal
organisations are in the business of organ-
ised crime, while non-criminal organisa-
tions are in the business of legal activities.
Organised crime has received increased
attention in recent years (Chang, Lu, &
Chen, 2005; Kugler, Verdier, & Zenov,
2005; Lampe, 2005; Schneider, 2004; Xu &
Chen, 2004). Of particular concern is
transnational organised crime (Felsen &
Kalaitzidis, 2005). For example, Elvins
(2003, p. 29) describes how the threat from
transnational organised crime is conceived
at EU level:
These groups are strengthening their
international criminal contacts and tar-
geting the social and business structure of
European society, for example, through
money laundering, drug trafficking and
economic crime. They appear to be able
to respond easily and effectively to illegal
demand by acquiring and supplying
commodities and services ranging from
drugs and arms to stolen vehicles and
money laundering.
From a business management perspective, it
is interesting to note that these criminal
organisations are able to respond easily and
effectively to the demand for their goods
and services. Similarly, non-criminal busi-
ness organisations have the same ambition
of being able to respond easily and effect-
ively to the demand for their goods and
services.
Criminal organisations are involved in a
variety of organised crimes, such as drug
trafficking (Chawla & Pietschmann, 2005;
Paoli, 2001), trafficking in human beings
and smuggling of emigrants (Nicola, 2005)
and money laundering (Joyce, 2005;
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume 10 Number 3
International Journal of Police
Science and Management,
Vol. 10 No. 3, 2008, pp. 289-301.
DOI: 10.1350/ijps.2008.10.3.85
Page 289
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