Hi David:
I like the way Zimbardo expresses his view of the matter: "Internal determinants of anti-social behavior locate evil within individual predispositions – genetic [or otherwise] "bad seeds", personality traits, psychopathological risk factors and other organismic variables. The situationist approach ...propels external determinants of behavior to the foreground well beyond the status as merely extenuating background circumstances."
Zimbardo, P (2004). "The situationist Perspective on the Psychology of Evil: Understanding How Good People are Transformed into Perpetrators." In, A. Miller (Ed), The Psychology of Good and Evil . New York: Guilford Press. Pages 21-50.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts or conclusions. I seems that each of these approaches (and others) require a different ontological idea of what the moral nature of the agent is – situationally determined (Zimbardo) or autonomous (Kohlberg). Unfortunately, business ethics literature has chosen not to concern itself much with moral human nature. I would be remiss if I did not mention some interesting implied hybrids such as Trevino and Youngblood, as well as Jones' moral intensity construct. In order to best position your thoughts you should consider them relative to Bandura's Social learning and cognition theory, and Krebs and Denton's Evolutionary theory of morality. An excellent expression of a pluralistic or multi-dimensional view of moral human nature is presented by Rottschaefer in his book Biology and Moral Agency. Others are less kind, denying any possibility of a unified moral self (e.g., Doris or Bloom or Lifton, )Good luck and best wishes. George
From: Social Issues in Management Listserv [mailto:SIM@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Mayer, David
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 10:22 AM
To: SIM@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: [SIM] Person vs. Situation
Colleagues,
(Apologies for cross-postings)
One potentially difficult aspect of teaching business ethics is that students may have the following mind set: "You can't teach ethics-you either have the right values or not by the time you are an adult." Implicit in this statement is the notion that students (and society more generally) believe that the person (i.e., values, personality, cognitive moral development, etc.) has a stronger influence on unethical behavior than the situation (i.e., organizational culture, leadership, etc.).
Do any of you have quotes, anecdotes, articles, or cases that highlight this person-centric approach to ethics? I am interested in anything said or written about the human tendency to believe personal characteristics outweigh situational factors as determinants of unethical behavior.
I am happy to summarize responses for the listserv. In advance, thanks for the help!
Regards,
Dave
********************************************
David Mayer
Assistant Professor
Department of Management and Organizations
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
701 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Phone: 734-936-1262
Fax: 734-764-2555
Email: dmmayer@umich.edu
Web: http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/dmmayer
_______________________________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________________________
Visit the SIM Division website at: http://sim.aomonline.org _______________________________________________________________________
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Colleagues,
(Apologies for cross-postings)
One potentially difficult aspect of teaching business ethics is that students may have the following mind set: "You can't teach ethics-you either have the right values or not by the time you are an adult." Implicit in this statement is the notion that students (and society more generally) believe that the person (i.e., values, personality, cognitive moral development, etc.) has a stronger influence on unethical behavior than the situation (i.e., organizational culture, leadership, etc.).
Do any of you have quotes, anecdotes, articles, or cases that highlight this person-centric approach to ethics? I am interested in anything said or written about the human tendency to believe personal characteristics outweigh situational factors as determinants of unethical behavior.
I am happy to summarize responses for the listserv. In advance, thanks for the help!
Regards,
Dave
********************************************
David Mayer
Assistant Professor
Department of Management and Organizations
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
701 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Phone: 734-936-1262
Fax: 734-764-2555
Email: dmmayer@umich.edu
Web: http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/dmmayer
_______________________________________________________________________
To send a message to the list, send your email to SIM@aomlists.pace.edu
_______________________________________________________________________
Visit the SIM Division website at: http://sim.aomonline.org _______________________________________________________________________
If you wish to unsubscribe from this list or change your delivery options, you can do so online at: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=sim&A=1 _______________________________________________________________________
If you wish to unsubscribe from this list or change your delivery options, you can do so online at: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=sim&A=1 _______________________________________________________________________