Obedience and Evil: From Milgram and Kampuchea to Normal Organizations

Miguel Pina e Cunha; Arménio Rego; Stewart R. Clegg

doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0510-5

Obedience and Evil: From Milgram and Kampuchea to Normal Organizations

Miguel Pina e Cunha, Arménio Rego, Stewart R. Clegg

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Obedience: a simple term. Stanley Milgram, the famous experimental social psychologist, shocked the world with theory about it. Another man, Pol Pot, the infamous leader of the Khmer Rouge, showed how far the desire for obedience could go in human societies. Milgram conducted his experiments in the controlled environment of the US psychology laboratory of the 1960s. Pol Pot experimented with Utopia in the totalitarian Kampuchea of the 1970s. In this article, we discuss the process through which the Khmer Rouge regime created an army of unquestioningly obedient soldiers - including child soldiers. Based on these two cases, we advance a framework on how obedience can be grown or countered.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	291-309
Number of pages	19
Journal	Journal of Business Ethics
Volume	97
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0510-5
Publication status	Published - Dec 2010

Keywords

children soldiers
Khmer Rouge
obedience
organized violence
Pol Pot

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1007/s10551-010-0510-5

Cite this

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abstract = "Obedience: a simple term. Stanley Milgram, the famous experimental social psychologist, shocked the world with theory about it. Another man, Pol Pot, the infamous leader of the Khmer Rouge, showed how far the desire for obedience could go in human societies. Milgram conducted his experiments in the controlled environment of the US psychology laboratory of the 1960s. Pol Pot experimented with Utopia in the totalitarian Kampuchea of the 1970s. In this article, we discuss the process through which the Khmer Rouge regime created an army of unquestioningly obedient soldiers - including child soldiers. Based on these two cases, we advance a framework on how obedience can be grown or countered.",

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Obedience and Evil: From Milgram and Kampuchea to Normal Organizations

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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