What Are the Potentially Negative Ethical Consequences of Blind and Unquestioned Obedience in Organizations for Both the Organization’s Own Sustainability and Organizational Learning on One Hand, and the Way It Treats

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Summarize the Milgram Study findings and importance and analyse: (a) In your view how is the Milgram Study on Obedience of interest to contemporary organisations and management? And (b) What are the potentially negative ethical consequences of blind and unquestioned obedience in organizations for both the organization’s own sustainability and organizational learning on one hand, and the way it treats its internal and external stakeholders? Critically analyse and discuss both (a) and (b) One of the most important elements of our society is the involvement of its members in organizations. People that become part of an organisation interact with each other so social life is formed inside the organisational structure but outside of it as well. Like most of the organisational management essentials, social life consists of norms that define people’s way of behaving and operating. Norms such as obedience and social influence are highly discussed topics in terms of psychology as a lot of research has been conducted regarding them. Most notable approach is Stanley Milgram’s study in how people react in a situation where obedience to authority forces them to behave in a certain way. In 1963 Milgram after the trials of 3rd Reich commanders reported his response to why commanders and simple soldiers were following orders from their superiors that had as a result the Holocaust. His findings illustrate that most people act in contrast to their moral beliefs if a superior individual force them to. Nowadays things have not changed much as the experiment has been repeated several times and the results are similar to Milgram’s findings. Obedience to authority is a phenomenon which is deeply related to organisations as the way they are managed requires great acknowledge of basic psychological terms (Maslow, 1965). Thus, managers have to take into consideration classical studies in

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