Although it’s not always easy to admit it to ourselves, often we adapt our behaviour to suit those in power. To some degree, it’s important for organizational success that we do so. After all, people are in positions of authority for a reason, and if no one paid attention to the rules put in place by these people, chaos would rule.

At other times, however, and more often than we acknowledge, powerful individuals in organizations push our actions into ethical grey areas, or worse.

In Stanley Milgram’s famous experiments, most individuals delivered what they thought were severe shocks only because an authority figure directed them to do so.

More recently, managers of restaurants and stores (including McDonald’s, Applebee’s, Taco Bell, and others) were persuaded to strip search customers or employees when an individual impersonating a police officer phoned in and instructed them to do so.

These powerful examples aside, there are more prosaic ways power persuades us. For example, many stock analysts report pressure from their bosses to promote funds from which the organization profits most (which, in such situations, is not disclosed to their clients).

Few of us are going to deliver electric shocks or perform strip searches. But these examples, as well as the hazing incidents that took place in Dalhousie’s men’s rugby team and women’s hockey team in 2014, highlight the disturbing tendency for many of us to conform to the wishes of those in power.

Questions 

1. Do you think people tailor their behaviour to suit those in power more than they admit? Do you?

2. One writer commented that these acts of bending behaviour to suit those in power remind “anyone who is under pressure to carry out orders from ‘above’ to constantly question the validity and prudence of what they’re being asked to do.” Why don’t we do this more often?

3. Why do some individuals resist the effects of power more strongly than others?