Moral Mazes Bureaucracy and Managerial Work

Moral Mazes: Bureaucracy and Managerial Work Originally published in the Harvard Business Review's 1983 edition, Robert Jackall's interpretive sociological analysis entitled "Moral Mazes: Bureaucracy and Managerial Work" seeks to explore the ethical and moral ramifications of managerial work. By conducting what he terms "a great many extensive interviews with managers and executives in several large corporations," the author proposes to "study how bureaucracy -- the prevailing organizational form of our society and economy -- shapes moral consciousness" (Jackall, 1983).

The result is an incisively written essay that manages to cover the historical influences of the Protestant Ethic on modern work habits, the pyramidal political structure employed by most large corporate conglomerates, and the capricious nature of success within a sprawling bureaucracy. Jackall's authorial tone throughout the essay is one of reserved bemusement, suggesting that this empirically minded lifelong scholar has reservations regarding the wholly subjective methods used both by those in managerial positions, and the companies that chose to promote them.

The essential argument presented within Jackall's text holds that a corporate entity's hierarchal structure leads to a decided lack of moral or ethical accountability on the part of senior or middle managers.

By observing that "power is concentrated at the top in the person of the chief executive officer and is simultaneously decentralized; that is, responsibility for decisions and profits is pushed as far down the organizational line as possible" (Jackall, 1983), the author exposes a fundamental myth of the corporate lifestyle: that those in the highest positions are tasked with the most responsibility.

The ethical implications of this arrangement are further examined by Jackall, who posits that the modern CEO or executive figure is better served by a policy of deflection and diversion, in which instructions given to subordinates are made loosely and in unclear language, thus preserving the manager's "privilege of authority to declare that a mistake has been made" (1983).

The author presents numerous examples of managers attaining high-ranking positions on the merit of work produced for them by subordinates, illustrating the fallacious aspect of one of industry's most oft repeated tropes: that hard work translates into success. The concept of success is also explored in great detail by Jackall, who asserts in the opening paragraph of his essay that "in the end, it is success that matters, that legitimates striving, and that makes work.