CRIMES OF OBEDIENCE AND CONFORMITY IN THE WORKPLACE - SURVEYS OF AMERICANS, RUSSIANS, AND JAPANESE

One outgrowth of Milgram's (1974) research is the study of public opin ion about obedience norms. Extending Kelman and Hamilton's (1989) rese arch on crimes of obedience in the military this article explores crim es of obedience and crimes of conformity in the workplace. Random samp les of the residents of Washington, DC, Moscow, Russia, and Tokyo, Jap an were presented four vignettes about organizational wrongdoing. Mani pulations included the influence situation (autonomy, conformity, or o bedience) and the actor's position in the hierarchy (subordinate vs. m idlevel authority). As expected, the actor's responsibility was greate st when he acted autonomously or was art authority. In addition, autho rities were excused less than subordinates for having conformed or obe yed. Impacts of both influence situation and hierarchy were larger in Japan and Russia than in the United States.