Moral mazes
the world of corporate managers
by Robert Jackall · first published 1988
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Anthropological study of how middle managers at large companies think and behave, explaining corporate politics, promotion, and ethics. Suits readers wanting to understand why organizations act as they do.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Examines the influence of corporate managers in major business scandals and discusses the shaping of personal ethics in bureaucratic systems.
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Mentions per year
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Just to point out to readers that DannyBee works for Google (reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6658276) DannyBee - have you read Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall (http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Mazes-World-Corporate-Managers/d...)? It was one of Aaron Swartz's favorite books. It's an excellent, and fair to all sides, dissection of morality in corporate…
on “The Quest to Build a Truly Free Version of Android” ↗The classic book Moral Mazes talks at length about emotional labor in organizational management. One of its primary claims is that HR and marketing function essentially purely as emotional labor (the book would treat legal compliance…
on “How faking your feelings at work can be damaging” ↗…HR-approved linguistic atmosphere is heavily, heavily related to the skewed ethical views held by executives and managers. I strongly urge you to read it if you have not already: < http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Mazes-World-Corporate-Managers/d... > I'm not saying that this definitely applies to you (I don't know you). I'm saying that my experiences tells me that the odds are that the team you are representing to…
on “We only hire the trendiest” ↗…circumstances' might require these 'promises' to be broken? I think your conclusion is correct, but my assessment would be: personal integrity or business success, choose one. Edit: To tone that down a bit, "Moral Mazes" by Robert Jackall is an excellent although academic work on the ways in which corporate and government ethics differ from commonly espoused personal ethics. I find it a valuable key to trying to understand…
on “Lavabit Defied FBI Demands to Turn Over Crypto Keys, Documents Show” ↗There are some good excerpts from Moral Mazes (book-length version) here: https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/quotes-from-moral-ma...
on “Moral Mazes: Bureaucracy and Managerial Work (1983)” ↗Check out “Moral Mazes” by Robert Jackall. Contains some great research on how bureaucracy shapes the way that we act, think, and work.
on “Ask HN: Best books for dealing with workplace politics and dishonesty?” ↗Moral Mazes: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/45mNHCMaZgsvfDXbw/quotes-fro...
on “Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?” ↗As scandalous as this letter is, the politics, intrigue, and retaliation follow to a T the description of corporate mangers' logic and ethics as written in Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall. I highly recommend it for a better understanding of why people act the way they do in a corporate context.
on “Letter to Amazon Board from Fired Ad Exec” ↗…Becker's thoughts on how awareness of mortality influences individual psychology to society in general, ultimately getting at the question of why individuals and societies are violent and oppressive. 3. Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall A sociological and anthropological account of the worldview and moral systems of middle managers in large American corporations. Moral Mazes paints a clear portrait of how bureaucracy…
on “Ask HN: Book recommendations for 2015?” ↗…paper. The paper looks at the on-the-ground specifics used in the arguments over interpretability, meanwhile politics explains the behind-the-scenes motivations of any of those specific choices. The Moral Mazes chapter Dexterity with Symbols is a good place if you want to read on the evidence about how this is carried out in management bureaucracy. It has actually been formally studied in some interesting ways.
on “The Mythos of Model Interpretability” ↗Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall. It helped me better detect and understand seemingly hypocritical and self-defeating actions by middle managers in companies, and also a lot of the disingenuous emphasis on “passion”…
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗If anyone is interested in how organizations function (or not as the case may be), I highly recommend the book "Moral Mazes" by Robert Jackall: https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Mazes-World-Corporate-Managers/...
on “Founder's Syndrome” ↗I suggest you read Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Mazes
on “How to Get Promoted” ↗People have put in further thought about this and had good insights. A couple examples would be Rao's essay on The Gervais Principle [0] and, much heavier, Bob Jackall's 1988 book "Moral Mazes." [1] [0] https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Mazes
on “Why programmers are not paid in proportion to their productivity (2009)” ↗…Leaders and Managers. Managers get promoted along with leaders, sometimes further up the chain. For a nauseating exploration of the tyranny of Management, and perverse rewards, read Robert Jackall's "Moral Mazes."
on “The mythos of leadership” ↗