现代组织管理中服从的意义研究

崔瀚文（北京理工大学管理与经济学院北京100081）



现代组织管理中服从的意义研究

崔瀚文（北京理工大学管理与经济学院北京100081）

在当今社会中，每个人都属于一个特定的社会群体或社会组织。任何团体或组织都有一系列的规范和纪律，要求其成员遵守服从。服从是一种常见的社会心理现象，也是一个基本的相互影响的方式。然而，盲目服从在我们的现实生活并不少见。有些人相信当局总是正确的，他们一贯遵守服从领导的要求和想法，而往往忽略了工作的意义与价值。这种投机心理是失去自我的表达，更不利于当今企业与组织的长期发展。因此，这篇文章重点讲述了现代组织管理中服从的意义与盲目服从的不利影响，从而对组织管理架构的建设提出建议。

服从；米尔格拉姆；可持续发展

1.Introduction

In the human society，every individual belongs to a particular social group or social organization.Any group or organization has a set of norms and discipline，which require their members to abide by.Moreover，there exist one or several authority figures that require members to follow their instructions in order to operate and manage organizations well. Hence，this behavior could be defined as obedience.

Obedience refers to an forced action that individuals behave in accordance with group norms，social requirements or the direct command of some authority figures（Myers，2012）.Obedience is a kind of common social psychological phenomenon，which is one of basic ways to influence each other.

Obedience is the unity of respect，responsibility，and dis-cipline.As the foundation of teamwork，every employee in the workplace should possess the obedience spirit.In a manner of speaking，any kinds of advanced management system and concept could be built and promoted without obedience；any perfect strategy and decision could be implemented well without obedience.Only employees have good obedience consciousness，can organizations be efficiency and profitability for achieving goals.

Nevertheless，it is not uncommon that there also exists blind obedience in our real life.Some people believe in that authorities are always right.They just follow the leadership instead of asking and thinking.Some employees are not willing to say more even if the knowing and ideas of leadership are incorrect.This kind of speculative psychology is an expression of losing self，which will be disadvantageous to long term development of organizations as well.

For most people，the nazis'massacre to the jews in Europe is a tragedy.Meanwhile，it is also a valuable case study about the phenomenon of obedience to authority.Therefore，in order to answer the popular question“Could it be that nazis in the holocaust were just following orders（Milgram，1974）？”Stanley Milgram，a psychologist at Yale University，designed an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority figures and personal conscience.

Milgram started his experiment in 1961，there are 40 participants recruited using ads.Each participant played the part of a“teacher”who would then deliver a shock to the“student”every time an incorrect answer was put forward（Milgram，1963）.The students were actually working personnel in the experiment who were pretending to be shocked starting at the level of 30 volts and increasing up to 450 volts.In Milgram's first experiments，65 percent（26 of 40）of experiment participants implemented the experiment's final massive 450-volt shock，though many were very unwilling to do it（Milgram，1963）.Most of the time，the vast majority of participants paused and questioned the experiment，but they still do not resist the authority in the end.

This essay will focus on the desirable aspect of obedience and the harmful effect of blind obedience in contemporary organizations management.

2.Literature

There would be no victory without obedience

The United States Military Academy at West Point is one of the most oldest military academy in America，whose school motto is“Duty，Honor，and Country”.For West Point，obedience to authority is the soul of soldiers obeying orders（Yu Daqing，2005）.The supervisor，whose position is high，has the right to give orders.The authority of the supervisor is a representative of the interests of the whole organization.Apparently，resistance must not be allowed to exist in West Point.

The CEO of the international telephone and telegraph corporation Rand Araskog graduated from West Point，had said that:“The first thing of soldiers is to learn obeience，and the large power of the collective is derived from the individual spirit of obedience.”Since the talents created by West Point are military personnel who will be engaged in wars，they must learn to unconditionally carry out the combat command.That is to say，there would be no victory without obedience.

Business is a war without bullets.The concept of obedience also applies to the enterprise.Obedience is the first step in an action，which is to give up some ideas of the individual，and fully integrate into the organization's view of value.Unconditional implementation is an indispensable trait that good employees should have.In the view of West Point students，each leader must learn to obey（Xiao Yue，2010），only in this way can the leader primely deal with the relationship between individual authority and collective authority，and the correlativity between personal interests and collective interests.

Each member of organizations must obey orders given by the superiors.Just as every soldier must obey orders in the military.Although the absolute obedience in army is formulated from the perspective of military command，which can not be mechanically used one by one in the organization management，an efficient organization and its employees should develop good concept of obedience.If some members in an organization cannot unconditionally obey superiors'command，the resistance might be occurred to restrict goals achieving.On the contrary，the organization is capable of expressing remarkable executive force in order to provide the most effective guarantee on the way of development and improvement（Meeus and Quinten，1986）.

The blind obedience under invisible authority

Nevertheless，everything has two sides.The absolute obedience and resolute implement to superiors'orders and directives without excuse we emphasized are based on the complete correction of the spirit and content of these require-ments and decisions.At least it should be under the premise of basically correct.If subordinates follow blindly and even emphasizes the execution while the instruction is wrong，obviously，it is not beneficial but harmful for organizations to accomplish work smoothly and efficiency.

As a matter of fact，it is not uncommon that there also exists blind obedience in our real life.Human beings are social animals，we always look for one or several suitable collectives and become one of them.Once a big change occurs in the environment，people will only continue to try to find the dependence of the next organizations.The harmony of individuals and collectives are from the unity of their thoughts and behaviors.Therefore，in the collective，to maintain independence of individuals'ideas needs enough spirit of challenge.However，the vast majority of people choose to keep silent，when they do not realize that the behavior of blind obedience is afoot（Lin Yun，2008）.

In the process of operation and management in organizations，there remain a lot of unreasonable orders，directives and decisions，which are even fundamental mistakes.The reasons of this phenomenon are that there are not only all kinds of uncertainty in market economy，but also some restriction factors influencing the objectives（Lin Yun，2008）.Meanwhile，come subjective factors such as the poor management，the unsufficient information，the inappropriate decisions even with error conditions might also exist.

Decision-making and implement should be operated repeatedly in organizations，which must be accurate and obbligato.As a practitioner，the priority is，of course，to resolutely carry out orders which is absolutely not blind.If not，the execution is probably not perfect，which is also disadvantageous to the sustainability and long-term development of organizations.

3.Analysis

Obedience is the guarantee of effective implementation and sustainable development

People always belongs to one or several social groups or organizations in social life.Any organization has their certain norms and discipline，which require every member to comply.Only members obey the rules of discipline，can organizations create and develope in harmony.

As we all know，it is a bounden duty for a soldier to be subjected to the orders.From the school smotto and spirit of The United States Military Academy at West Point，absolute obedience was put forward as the soul of soldiers.In West Point，you have to do anything without any question no matter what you are required to do（Yu Daqing，2005）.Because the one who knows to bow to authority is a sapiential man.Only in this way can individual be likely to be authoritative.Just like army，if an organization lacks of obedience，it could be regarded as fragment.That is to say，any sophisticated leader could display their abilities without obedience；any kinds of advanced management system and concept could build and promote without obedience；any perfect strategy and decision could be implemented well without obedience.To sum up，obedience is an indispensable factors in an organization.

As for contemporary organization，obedience ensures a fair working environment，which needs every members together to build and maintain.People own the right to choose their own way，however，everyone should also obey to a certain kind of environment system.Therefore，in order to obtain a fair and orderly working environment in organizations，the first thing we should do is to obey.On the other hand，obedience makes every link of organization more efficiency. There exists muchworkflow in any organization，which likes a work line.The efficiency of an assembly line often depends on the people who work on the line whether complete their tasks quickly.It is worth nothing that completing the work process of each link accurately and timely is the prerequisite to ensure the success and profitability of the entire process system.Therefore，the obedience of subordinates to leadership instructions is the foundation to accumulate organization value in a short period of time.If things go on like this，the efficiency and profitability could be enhanced，and the individual is likely to get a better platform for further development.

There exist some unexpected harms in organizations

Kant（1788）had said that:“Two things fill me with constantly increasing admiration and awe，the longer and more earnestly I reflect on them:the starry heavens without and the moral law within.”It is obvious that obedience is so significant.Nonetheless，in a sense，blind obedience might bring some unexpected harm and damage.

Milgram's study showed that the degree of people obeying authority is beyond imagination.As social animal，human's obedience to authority could unexpectedly beyond the moral cognition.Thus，it seems not accidental that some ordinary soldiers obeyed superiors in the war against conscienceand become a killing machine in historical events.

Seemingly，obedience to authority is a natural reaction. As we all know，there exists a bellwether in a flock of sheep. Following the sheep leader，sheep can be faster to seek food and shelters.Similarly，following the directions of the authority and leadership will be also benefit to each member of the group.However，this mechanism is not devoid of leaks.In fact，the slaughter of the sheep flock might be led by the sheep leader.Likewise，people blindly obeying to authority also seems to be difficult to identify the potential harms to themselves and others.

In the case of contemporary organization，the people who blindly obey superiors are lazy of thinking and used to rely on others.When they have problems，they prefer to seek help from others but not to resolve by themselves.Besides，it is certain that there are also some people perceive the mistakes of commands but not to put forward.Only since they think the leadership will not adopt their ideas.These are the biggest unfaithfulness and irresponsible for organizations. Actually，such subordinates does not create value for their collectives，on the contrary，they might become hidden trouble existed in the organizations.Consequently，blind obedience is harmful to sustainability and improvement of organizations.For another，the potential blind obedience is not only not conducive to the organization's own development and learning，but also bring some adverse effects to their internal and external stateholders.Specially，blind obedience is a manifestation of personal irresponsible although it seems like loyal to some degree.In fact，the loyalty is not just absolute loyal to the boss，but also loyal to our own.When employees at the time of creating value for the leadership，they actually also creating value for themselves，which could be interpreted as an expression of being responsible for oneself and getting recognition by others.

4.Conclusion

In social life，obeying the norms and discipline is very necessary which can help to maintain social order and coordinate the relationship between social members.Similarly，obedience in an organization is a basis of employees and an effictive guarantee to achive leaders'command excellently. Only the active obedience can lead to a remarkable result.

Obedience is a kind of discipline.Everyone is equal under the discipline，which allows no room for kindness and mercy.The strict discipline and obedience will bring highly effective and excellent achievement for organizations.On the contrary，the people who behave desultorily and lack sense of responsibility will only blindly obey and will not achieve satisfactory outcomes.

Obedience is a kind of responsibility.Obedience is to delightfully embrace the supervisor's instructions or tasks without complaint and go all out to carry out，which not only for organizations'sustainability，but also for the individual development and improvrment.

Obedience is different from the blind obedience.Obedience is a kind of art that need individual to keep a clear head，know black from white，and be full of wisdom.That is to say，organizations'members need to execute command after making rational analysis and judgment.It is so significant that subordinates recognize and praise the ability and personality of the boss，and not completely regardless of right and wrong.Blind obedience is a destructive force that not only can't bring indivual to fulfill the work well，but also might cause great losses to the leadership and organization.

Learning to obedience and rejecting to blind obedience can make oneself achive commands better，obtain the trust of the leadership，and give play to one's own ability.Only obey rather than blindly follow can arouse the enthusiasm of each employee and ensure the team efficient execution.

Reference:

［1］Myers，D.（2012）‘Conformity and Obedience'，in：Social Psychology，9thed.Beijing：Posts&Telecom Press，pp.187-221

［2］Milgram，S.（1974）Obedience to Authority；An Experimental View，State of Connecticut：Harpercollins

［3］Milgram，S.（1963）‘Behavioral Study of Obedience'，Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67（4）：pp.371-378.http：//content.apa.org/journals/abn/67/4/371

［4］Immanuel，K.（1788）Critique of Practical Reason

［5］Yu Daqing（2005）Witnessing at West Point，Beijing：Chinese People's Liberation Army Publishing House

［6］Xiao Yue（2010）The successful code of West Point，Beijing：Beijing Institute of Technology Publishing House

［7］Meeus，W.and Quinten，R.（1986）‘Administrative obedience：Carrying out orders to use psychological-administrative violence'，European Journal of Social Psychology，16（4），pp.311-324

［8］Lin Yun（2008）‘The blind obedience under invisible authority'，Anhui Literature 05，pp.165

The analysis of obedience in contemporary organization management

Cui Hanwen School of Management and Economics，Beijing Institute of Technology Address:5 South Zhongguancun Street，Haidian District，Beijing Postcode:100081

In our modern society，every individual belongs to a particular social group or social organization.Any group or organization has a set of norms and disciplines，which require their members to abide by.Obedience is a kind of common social psychological phenomenon，which is one of basic ways to influence each other.Nevertheless，it is not uncommon that there also exists blind obedience in our real life.Some people believe in that authorities are always right instead of asking and thinking.This kind of speculative psychology is an expression of losing self，which will be disadvantageous to long term development of organizations as well.Therefore，this essay mainly focuses on the meaning of obedience and the unfavorable influence of blind obedience in the modern organizations in order to provide recommendations for the construction of organization structure.

Obedience；Milgram；Sustainable development

C23

A

崔瀚文，女，北京理工大学管理与经济学院会计学专业2013级本科生

About the author：Cui Hanwen，a senior student in School of Management and Economics in Beijing Institute of Technology.Major in Accounting，focusing on Chinese and Western accounting system.A chairman of Student Union in Beijing Institute of Technology.