MGMT1021 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Milgram Experiment, Samuel R. Delany
Session 10: Submission
- Obedience - compliance w/ or submission to someone’s wishes or authority, induced by
those w/ the power
- Persuasion can be used by anyone, but obedience is commanded by those w/
power
- We become agents even when we believe we are autonomous individuals - Holocaust,
Milgram’s 65%, etc
- Milgram Experiment
- Examines boundaries of personal autonomy
- Multiple-choice paired-associate learning procedure
- “Teacher” punishes “learner” for each error - learner doesn’t actually receive
shock
- Learner commits pre-arranged errors, teacher instructed to escalate punishment
w/ each error
- Findings: women/men comply the same, lawyers, doctors, teachers comply less
than technical professionals
- Milgram’s interpretation: agentic shift - person entering an authority system no
longer views himself as acting out of his own purposes, but rather comes to view
himself as an agent for executing the wishes of another person; high autonomy
reduced to low autonomy
- Better retention of individuality --- greater recognition of autonomy
- Contemporary reinterpretation - people thought they were doing something for
the greater good by participating --- no agentic shift! - participants are engaged
w/ task and think they ought to be involved in the shocking (in name of science)
- Garfinkel: Breaching Experiment
- People often unwittingly adhere to or perform unwritten social norms and aren’t
aware of their complicitness until the norm is explicitly breached (ex. Everyone
except you facing wrong way in elevator); emotions: laughter, confusion, anxiety
- Institutional entrepreneurship
- Change agents initiate and implement divergent changes, changes that break w/
institutionalized template for organizing
- Products: Bloomberg’s ESG (environmental, social and governance) metrics
- People: Cascade Engineering Welfare to Career
- IBM Corp Service Corps
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Obedience - compliance w/ or submission to someone"s wishes or authority, induced by those w/ the power. Persuasion can be used by anyone, but obedience is commanded by those w/ power. We become agents even when we believe we are autonomous individuals - holocaust, Teacher punishes learner for each error - learner doesn"t actually receive shock. Learner commits pre-arranged errors, teacher instructed to escalate punishment w/ each error. Findings: women/men comply the same, lawyers, doctors, teachers comply less than technical professionals. Better retention of individuality --- greater recognition of autonomy. Contemporary reinterpretation - people thought they were doing something for the greater good by participating --- no agentic shift! Participants are engaged w/ task and think they ought to be involved in the shocking (in name of science) People often unwittingly adhere to or perform unwritten social norms and aren"t aware of their complicitness until the norm is explicitly breached (ex.