Episode
The Right Way to Manage Rule Breakers
- Podcast
- HBR IdeaCast
- Published
- Jun 16, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1250
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/hbr-ideacast-650643/episodes/the-right-way-to-manage-rule-breakers/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/hbr-ideacast-650643/the-right-way-to-manage-rule-breakers.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Most leaders assume that when employees break rules, punishment is the answer. But according to researcher Michael Gill, associate professor at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, that mindset overlooks a crucial reality: not all rule breaking is self-serving, and some of it may actually help organizations perform better. He explains his research synthesizing more than 250 studies and details the four main motivations behind why people break rules, why repeated violations may signal deeper organizational problems, and how leaders can distinguish harmful misconduct from employees trying to help customers, colleagues, or the business itself. Learn more in the HBR article How the Best Leaders Respond to Rule Breaking.