Learn more about leadershipandmanagement with this collection
How to create a positive work environment
Conflict resolution strategies
Effective communication in the workplace
Blindly Obeying Authority
Stanley Milgram’s research on obedience to authority was driven by the need to understand the crimes and atrocities done in World War II. He came to the conclusion that evil happens when people blindly obey orders and stop thinking for themselves. In this research, obedience is explained in the context of cooperation, as something a person willingly accepts.
As cooperation is an integral part of every healthy work environment that relies on teamwork, we were curious to explore the effects of obedience on workplace and business results.
2
0 reads
Authority Is An Unknown Entity
To be honest, we are not sure what exactly is authority. Very often we hear this word in different contexts — organizations, politics, parenthood, school system, everyday life. But when we ask ourselves what the meaning of this word is, we can’t give a precise definition. So, when we take a look at this word, we see a lot of different things. And that is our biggest challenge — we ask for authority, but we are not sure what authority is!
2
0 reads
Obedience and Agentic State
In Milgram’s experiment, the participants were presented with a conflict between the moral implications of the task they had (administered shocks as punishment and hurting another person), and obeying authority (listening to the orders given by the Experimenter if they would start to hesitate or refuse the task). Obedience was measured through the number of participants who went to the maximum intensity of shocks of 450 V.
2
0 reads
Factors that Influence Obedience
Obedience varied significantly depending on the context. The lowest obedience of 10% was noticed when participants saw others disobeying the experimenter and questioning his authority. Also, obedience dropped when the symbols of authority weren’t present (such as the lab coat of the experimenter) and when the authority figure wasn’t close by but giving orders by phone. Another thing that had a lot of influence on lower obedience levels was having direct contact with the person getting shocked, making participants get their hands dirtier in the process.
2
0 reads
How To Prevent Mindless Obedience
Some actions could be connected with understanding what authority means for each of us. Also, we can ask ourselves why we find it important to follow our authorities, what are the benefits of it and who our authorities are.
The next step is developing our critical thinking and understanding influence. One of the interventions that can really contribute to this field is leading by example: demonstrating behaviors we want to see in our environment.
2
0 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Other curated ideas on this topic:
4 ideas
Why Do We Follow Authoritarian Leaders?
psychologytoday.com
5 ideas
Why Do We Try so Hard to Be Like Other People and Conform?
verywellmind.com
7 ideas
7 Best Ways To Influence Other People
vancruzer.com
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates