Managerialism and authoritarianism

pp. 99-115

in: Thomas Klikauer, Managerialism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

One of the foremost experts on obedience is Stanley Milgram with his "Obedience to Authority".³⁷⁹ Perhaps his key finding was that situations powerfully override personal disposition as determinants of behaviour. When people face a moral dilemma between what an authority demands of them and what their personal moral standards tell them, the former wins, especially inside authoritarian structures. Under Managerialism and with management as the sole authority, managerial regimes are prime areas of this. Management is even in a position to engineer specific situations and systems that powerfully override personal moral dispositions. In short, inside sociology's "agency-vs.-structure" model, managerial structures determine (im)moral behaviour. The principle moral agent is no longer the self but has been transferred to management.³⁸⁰ But Milgram's obedience experiments have also shown that ordinary people are much more likely to obey orders — even immoral ones — when the authority is perceived to be legitimate.³⁸¹ Hence, Managerialism's strong focus on legitimising managerial rule over society.