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Book
Obstacles to Ethical Decision-Making: Mental Models, Milgram and the Problem of Obedience
(2013)
  • p werhane, DePaul University
  • laura hartman, DePaul University
  • c archer, Northwestern University
  • e englehardt, Utah Valley University
  • m pritchard, Western Michigan University
Abstract

Moral failures in business decision-making may often be traced to narrow or compromised mental models that preclude the actor from considering the moral dimensions of the decision or action. Some of these omissions are caused by a failure to question managerial decisions and commands from a specifically moral point of view because of particular narrow mental models that construct a perceived authority of the managerial team or leadership involved. Our decision-making abilities are jeopardized; and the manner in which we respond to authority and the perceived power it wields intensifies our inadequacies, incapacities, and vulnerabilities. This book examines and proposes processes by which decision-makers throughout organizations – from subordinate roles, through middle managers to positions of significant authority – may reduce or overcome instances involving these challenges.

Keywords
  • Business ethics,
  • leadership,
  • strategy,
  • decision making,
  • obedience
Publication Date
February, 2013
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Citation Information
p werhane, laura hartman, c archer, e englehardt, et al.. Obstacles to Ethical Decision-Making: Mental Models, Milgram and the Problem of Obedience. Cambridge, UK(2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/laurahartman/42/