A Review of Robert Jackall’s Moral Mazes

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A Review of Robert Jackall’s Moral Mazes 1.1 Introduction ‘Moral Mazes’ is a structured critique on managerial behavior in relation to ethical and moral dilemmas within a bureaucratic organization. It was written by Robert Jackall and first published in 1989. Jackall conducted studies and interviews within three separate organizations, focusing on managers and their behavioral patterns. Jackall develops this further, referring to the interplay as ‘Managerial Circles’, and applying sociological theories to turn these observations into usable concepts. At the time of writing, Jackall noted that the bureaucratic structure of the three reviewed corporations created circumstances that profoundly affected morality and ethical managerial decision-­‐making. The Leaders within the corporations (either managers or decision makers) would set the standard for organizational morality, which would then be used to govern and benchmark the followers (employees/subordinates). Jackall noted that the need to be successful was a key driving factor, and skewed the morality decisions within the company. However this was not from the top level, despite the CEO being the trendsetter for corporate ethics. Jackall found that despite ‘power’ lying with the CEO, the decision making process was pushed lower down the chain. This commoditization of ‘morality’ within the corporate social structure forms a situation dependent ‘social morality’ that fosters a volatile environment, where values and morals can change quickly (Jackall 2010). In addition to this Jackall observed a heavy emphasis on the short-­‐term in a bureaucratic organization. Managers change
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