Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers PDF
Preview Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers
Moral Mazes This page intentionally left blank MORAL MAZES The World of Corporate Managers TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION Robert Jackall 1 2010 3 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship,andeducation. Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright©1988,2010byRobertJackall Afterwordcopyright©byRobertJackall PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Jackall,Robert. Moralmazes:theworldofcorporatemanagers/RobertJackall.—20thanniversaryed. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN 978–0–19–972988–3 1. Businessethics—UnitedStates. 2. Executives—Professionalethics—UnitedStates. 3. Corporations—Corruptpractices—UnitedStates. I. Title. HF5387.J29 2009 174’.4—dc22 2009027219 Iamgratefultotheeditorsofseveralpublicationsforpermissiontousepreviouslypublishedmaterials. Severalbasicthemesofthisbookfirstappearedinmyarticle“MoralMazes:BureaucracyandManagerial Work,”HarvardBusinessReview,Vol.61,No.5(September–October,1983),whichIusefreelyherewith thepermissionoftheHarvardBusinessReview.ThematerialfromTheApologiaofRobertKeayne:TheSelf- PortraitofaPuritanMerchant,editedbyBernardBailyn(Gloucester,Mass.:PeterSmith,1970)thatappears inthenotestoChapter1isreprintedwiththepermissionofPeterSmithPublishers.Theexcerptsfromthe newspapercolumnsofDr.PeterGottthatappearinthenotestoChapter6arereprintedbypermissionof NewspaperEnterpriseAssociation,Inc. 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper InMemoryofJosephBensman, ArthurJ.Vidich,andRobertF.Murphy This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This book studies the world of corporate managers. It examines managers’ work, the intricate social contexts of their organizations, their striving for success, the habits of mind they develop, and especially the occupational ethics that they construct to survive and flourish in their world. The book doesnottreattheseissuesabstractly.Rather,itreportsfirsthandfieldwork amongcorporatemanagersinafeworganizations.Throughsuchafocused appraisal ofan institutionallycentral occupational group,the book triesto exploreinsomedepthsituationsandexperiencesthatarewidespreadinour socialorder. This book has been a long time in the making and owes a great deal to manypeople.Myfirstdebtistotheorganizationsthatallowedmetodothe study(manywouldnot)andespeciallytothemanagers,ofhigh,middle,and lowrank,whospentmanyhourspatientlyeducatingmeinhowtheirworld works.Thesociologist’sfirsttaskistogetthingsrightand,ifIhavedonethat, Ioweittothissizablegroupofunacknowledgedcoauthors.Managersmay disagreewithsomeofthebroaderinterpretationsoftheirexperiencessug- gestedhere.Ihavetried,however,tocapturethecomplexities,ambiguities, andanxietiesoftheirworld. The research would not have been possible without strong institutional support. I am especially indebted to the National Endowment for the Humanitiesforayearlongfellowshipwhich,togetherwithanAdsitFellow- ship for junior faculty from Williams College, enabled me to do intensive fieldwork in the corporations in 1980–1981. Several small research grants viii Acknowledgments fromWilliamsCollegehelpedsupporttheyearsofmoresporadicfieldwork that followed. Also, a grant-in-aid from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research enabled me to pursue work on organizational dissenters,someofwhichisreportedhere.Ireceivedvaluableassistancein thislatterphaseofmystudyfromMichaelBakerandAlfredFeliu,formerly of the Educational Fund for Individual Rights, and especially from Louis ClarkoftheGovernmentAccountabilityProject.Myveryspecialthanksto the men and women who agreed to be interviewed for this portion of my work. I want to thank my students at Williams College who have listened patientlyandrespondedcreativelytomygrapplingswiththedataoverthe last several years. Opportunities for more formal presentations of various portionsofmyworkwerealsoimportant.Inthisregard,Iespeciallywantto thankLawrenceGraver,WilliamMoomaw,andFrancisOakleyofWilliams College, James Kuhn of Columbia University and Donald Shriver of Union TheologicalSeminary,TroyDusteroftheUniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley, andArthurJ.VidichoftheNewSchoolforSocialResearch.Thelecturesand seminarsthattheyarrangedwerevaluableinbringingthisworktofruition. The library staffs at Columbia University, the National Archives in Washington,D.C.,theNewYorkPublicLibrary,andespeciallyatWilliams College were very helpful, as were staff at the Textile Workers Union of AmericainNewYork.IextendspecialthanksalsotoDonnaChenail,Shirley Bushika, and especially Peggy Bryant who helped type, print, and revise variouseditionsofthemanuscript.Iamverygrateful,too,toRodgerDavis whoassistedincheckingsourcesandespeciallytoDuffyGrahamwhowrote several research memoranda summarizing pertinent secondary materials andwhohelpedinmanyotherphasesofmywork. My thanks to Susan Rabiner, my first editor at Oxford University Press, whonurturedtheprojectinmanyways,andtoBillSislerandJoanBossert whobroughtittocompletion.LindaGrossmandidafinecopyeditingjob. Many colleagues and friends have taken time to read and comment on mywork.LilaAbu-Lughod,MichaelF.Brown,GillianFeeley-Harnik,Joseph Ferrie, Clara Park, and Laszlo Versenyi each read a portion of the work in earlyversionsandhelpedmesharpenmytreatment.GeneBell-Villadaread severalchaptersindifferentstages,alwayswithakeeneyebothforcontent and style. Joseph Bensman, Arthur Vidich, Robert Murphy, Hans Speier, Janice Hirota, Stanford Lyman, Michael Hughey, Charles Payne, Robert Friedrichs,MartyWhite,ElizabethTice,andDuffyGraham,aswellasaper- soninoneofthecorporationsIstudiedwhowishestoremainanonymous, carefully read the entire manuscript and provided me with a great many thoughtful critiques and suggestions. I am most grateful to these men and Acknowledgments ix womenfortheirhelp.ButIseparatethemfromanyuntowardconsequences oftheirkindness. Janice Hirota and Yuriko Hirota Jackall sustained me in every way throughoutthiswork.Mydeepestgratitudeandlovetothem. The book has its origins in a conversation with Arthur Vidich in 1976 whilewereflectedonpuzzlingissuesthatemergedduringmyfirstfieldwork experience,alsoinalargeorganization.AsIbeganfieldworkforthisbook, IgottoknowJosephBensman.Ourmanyconversationsoverthenextfew yearswereinvaluableinhelpingmegraspandarticulatemydata.Andeven his last ravaging illness did nothing to deter his relentless editing. Finally, during this same period, I came to know Robert Murphy and appreciate hisparticularandremarkableanthropologicalsensibilities.Intheirwork,all three explored the puzzles of humanity and modernity by looking at the worldasitiswithaskepticalandunflinchingeye,withacharacteristicpas- sionatedispassion,andwithanexpansivesocialimaginationthatdisregards conventionaldisciplinaryboundaries.Withdeepaffectionandrespect,Iam happy to dedicate this work to these fine scholars, fine teachers, and fine men.
Description:The list of books you might like
