There was a book written in 1988, about several years of fieldwork by sociologist Robert Jackall, called Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers.
He went into many organisations and studied how people actually behaved, rather than how they said they behaved. He found consistent unwritten ‘rules’ that were observed by people in organisations.
The 'rules' were:
- You never go around your boss.
- You tell your boss what they want to hear, even when your boss claims they want dissenting views.
- If your boss wants something dropped, you drop it.
- You are sensitive to your boss’s wishes so that you anticipate what they want; you don’t force them, in other words, to act as boss.
- Your job is not to report something that your boss does not want reported, but rather to cover it up. You do what your job requires, and you keep your mouth shut.
From what I see around the workplace, I don't think a great deal has changed in the 30+ years since 1988!
