What Lessons Should A Manager Take From Stanley Milgram s...

What lessons should a manager take from Stanley Milgram s studies of obedience? How does obedience impact on organisational ethics, and what steps can a manager take to take to reduce this problem? Introduction Organisations struggle to achieve their goals without at least some level of obedience from the people in the organisation. If everyone disobeyed their superiors in organisations then very little would be achieved. However, can too high a level of obedience be a bad thing for an organisation? Stanley Milgram’s original obedience test in 1961 tested subjects’ responses to authoritative pressure showed that a higher number of participants would deliver a lethal shock to someone if instructed to do so by a person they perceived to be an authority figure. There are some implications from this in terms of how managers work with their staff, as well as implications relating to ethical behaviour inside organisations which will be discussed here. In the following essay, a brief description of Milgram’s studies into obedience will be provided, then two key implications of the studies as they relate to managers will be discussed, followed by a brief discussion on orga nisational ethics and the dilemmas relating to obedience. Finally, we will look into ways to reduce the both managerial and organisational dilemmas discussed. Stanley Milgram’s experiments Stanley Milgram conducted studies into obedience of authority in order to understand how something like the Nazis’Show MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesTokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Director of Editorial Services: Ashley Santora Acquisitions Editor: Brian Mickelson Editorial Project Manager: Sarah Holle Editorial Assistant: Ashlee Bradbury VP Director of Marketing: Patrice Lumumba Jones Senior Marketing Manager: Nikki Ayana Jones Senior Managing Editor: Judy Leale Production Project Manager: Becca Groves Senior Operations Supervisor: Arnold Vila Operations Specialist: Cathleen Petersen Senior Art Director: Janet Slowik Art Director:Read MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagesthat helps you actively study and prepare material for class. Chapter-by-chapter activities, including built-in pretests and posttests, focus on what you need to learn and to review in order to succeed. Visit www.mymanagementlab.com to learn more. DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT SKILLS EIGHTH EDITION David A. Whetten BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Kim S. Cameron UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Prentice Hall Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai