Ethics And Professions - An Institutional Analysis

In present times we observed a shift in modern business environment. Attentiveness to management misconduct was never at a level as high as we have witnessed in present times. The reality is that these misconducts are committed by people who fit definition of ideal citizens when it comes to their daily lives. They are not psychopaths, rapists or sadists however, if we observe their conduct within the realm of their professional responsibilities, we see them behaving in archetype monstrous ways. The question is, what is it in the organizational structure that transforms a reasonable person to act like a psychopath in professional terms. This is an attempt to psychoanalyze today’s professionals using a framework developed by Hannah Arendt; a German political theorist specialized in analyzing the rise of totalitarianism, with special attention to Nazi Germany. Hannah Arendt elaborates role of organizations especially the bureaucratic organizations in transforming its members such that they are willing to do virtually anything, even to participate in criminal acts. She explains how these bureaucratic structures are involved in making mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of people working there and thus to dehumanize them. We start from defining the term “Bureaucracy”. A bureaucracy is an organization with certain rules and regulations such as division of labors, where authority lays with the office not the persons. If you talk about events like bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, invasion on Afghanistan and Iraq, you will find one common string in all of these great crimes against humanity that is “bureaucracy”. The problem with nowadays corporate organizations is that these are structures formed on bureaucratic model. If we look closer, we find that organizations like SHELL, PTC, TCS, even LUMS are bureaucracies. Most of these organizations have a sole purpose that is PROFIT MAXIMIZATION. The combination of these great bureaucratic structures, the dehumanized workers acting as cogs in these structures and the supreme profit maximization motive is often catastrophic. This can also explain the economic disaster that has spread world over and there are no signs of it reverting back in the near future. Hannah Arendt’s discourse in respect of Nazi Germany’s involvement in extermination of Jews can be used to explain involvement of corporations in exterminating ethical and moral values in today’s business world. Just like the Nazi bureaucracy ended up in destroying half of the world and eventually Germany itself, the corporate bureaucracies ended up destroying world economy and threatening basis of their own existence – CAPITALISM. Fate, it seems, is never without a sense of irony. In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil:, Hannah Arendt explains how normal people were able to participate in Nazi extermination of millions of Jews. We shall discuss in detail only one aspect of this whole bureaucratic schema – Role of institutions in dehumanizing workers in order to achieve their objectives. To connect the dots we can try to reconstruct Arendt’s analysis of the institutional socialization within bureaucracies which involves four forthcoming components: First Component – Economic Vulnerability Organizations want reliable people, people who are not fanatics or adventurers. But they also want those who are not self sufficient, who feel increasingly vulnerable economically, especially to loosing their jobs. The ideal candidates are people determined to make life easy for their families so their economic insecurities can be used to channel

their devotion to family into a drive to secure their jobs at all costs. They would do anything and everything to protect their jobs and in turn they are transformed into a perfectly compliant member of the organization that would employ them. Second Component – Loss of Autonomy The second component is to make individuals experience a loss of autonomy and control over their lives within the institution. Generally, due to complex nature of tasks and enormous size of enterprises there is dispersion of responsibilities. People, like workers in an assembly line become unable to see eventual effects of their actions. Like cogs of a great machine, they do not see themselves in charge and hence their consciences are relieved of concerns for outcomes of their actions. Third Component – Loyalty to the Institution Loyalty to the institution is considered as the most imperative trait for the individuals. Normally, this loyalty is embedded in putting goals and norms of the organization ahead of individual goals and norms. Enormity of importance of organizational goals Since people feel vulnerable economically, they can be coerced to virtually follow every order. This also hampers their abilities to even question validity of these goals. So they happily trade virtues like honesty and dignity and even sacrifice their beliefs for a living. It becomes even worse when they start intermingling loyalty to their families, belief systems and society with loyalty to their organization. This leads them to develop a delusion that whatever is right for the organization is also right for other stake holders. Fourth Component – Distorted meaning of conscientiousness The fourth step is to distort meaning of conscientiousness to a point where following the orders of superiors become the most plausible behavior an individual can engage in. Once loyalty is regarded as the chief virtue, then values get retranslated and what was previously thought to be morally wrong becomes something that is difficult to bear. For example during extermination of Jews during world war, Nazi Bureaucrats instead of saying: “What horrible things I did to people!” were able to say: “What horrible things I had to watch in pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!” Hannah Arendt very rightfully quotes: “The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together”. History is a good teacher yet a harsh mistress. Times have changed but the tactics remained the same. In order to win the game, one must know the game. Professionals, in order to avoid being a mere cog into this great corporate bureaucracy machine, need to understand its core mechanisms. One must know that management philosophies of modern corporate structures are deeply rooted in tyranny of imperialism and dictatorship. This way, one can at least make an informed decision to submerge into this system of ethical and moral assault. There may be some people within these structures who resent

the whole system and who need to realize the urgency to bring an end to this game. This can be done by defying the rules of game in the reverse order. First of all the perverted conscientiousness needs to be fixed. People within these bureaucratic structures need to revisit their ethical and moral standards. The second phase is to discriminate between organizational goals and personal goals. Whatever is good for the organization may not necessarily be good for family or society. By making this distinction one can set its priorities as it remains no longer a total package. This also leads to a conclusion that one has to take sides when it comes to decision making even in the corporate environment because concept of good and evil is prevalent within this realm as much as outside it. The third phase is to cut across the veil of bounded rationality and to regain control on their life. People need to take responsibility of their actions in their official capabilities they same way they feel responsible for their actions in their personal capacities. The renaissance of conscientiousness is thus crucial as a first phase for this process to be through. The final step in to stop thinking of them vulnerable economically and here is where we being Muslims need to put our complete hope on Allah as Al-Khaliq and AlRazzaq of the whole creation. This final phase is also as crucial as first phase because breaking free of this ferocious trap is not possible without completing the whole process. I conclude by quoting Hannah Arendt once again: “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil.”