Stage 1: The Management Morality of Obedience and Punishment

Abstract

Stage 1 of the seven stage model indicates the lowest level of morality and concerns obedience and punishment. As such it is intimately linked to a rather negative side of human behaviour.¹⁵⁹ Such behaviour features obedience to authority and submission to punishment regimes including the fear of punishment. This fear persists in many societies despite advances in criminology in the form of a move away from punishment and towards reforming people. A factual decline in crime rates, however, has been paralleled by an increase in crime reporting by corporate mass media. This leads to the popular view that punishment is seen as important in society.¹⁶⁰ The world of management is not isolated from these developments and punishment regimes are still prevalent in the form of punitive managerial policies such as disciplinary action. Under such regimes, management does not view individuals as human beings but as underlings, subordinates, and objects of managerial power. They are perceived to be in need of domestication as outlined in McGregor’s Theory X (1960 & 2006).