Panalba role-playing case (after the role-playing, but prior to any discussion), found that 90% were
unable to guess that the hypotheses being tested related to social irresponsibility. Finally, there were no
differences in the decisions for groups administered by the author (g = 26) and those for all other
administrators (g = 31).
Subjects in the Panalba case often seemed to be bothered by their decision. As in Milgram’s [42]
and Larsen’s [36] studies on obedience, subjects seemed to feel that they were being asked to do
something wrong. Some subjects dealt with this by misinterpreting the information in order to minimize
the bad effects of the decision. Others tried to justify their decision to keep Panalba on the market; they
would suggest, for example, that they were merely following their role. This argument was suspect in
view of the difficulty in getting many of the subjects to follow the stakeholder role.
The results from the control condition were in agreement, then, with the previously cited evidence
that the typical manager may be expected to seriously harm others in carrying out his duties. (From a
methodological viewpoint, these results add support for the use of role-playing as a predictive device.)
Differences among Managers: An examination was made of differences among managers. Two
possible factors were examined: nationality and age.
The popular press has suggested that managers in various countries differ in their social
responsibility. For example, the Financial Times (March 29, 1974) suggested that Norwegian
managers have objectives that differ from those of American managers; they are more interested in A...
the effectiveness of the social system.” Furthermore, previous research on the obedience studies
suggested that there were differences according to nationality [34, 41].
Differences due to nationality were examined by analyzing the results from the 57 groups in the
control condition. For Sweden (g = 18), 72% of the decisions were classed as highly irresponsible. The
corresponding figure for the U.S. (g = 29) was 79%. Results from the other six countries (g = 10)
showed 90% highly irresponsible. There were no statistically significant differences among these groups.
Observers have suggested that younger people are more concerned with social irresponsibility, and
that they are less profit oriented [55]. Empirical evidence on this issue is limited. Baumhart’s [2] survey
of subscribers to the Harvard Business Review suggested that younger managers are more
irresponsible. Krishnan [35] found younger managers to be more oriented toward profit maximizing.
Goodman and Crawford [24] found no differences by age in a survey that asked respondents what
decisions they would make in various situations, many of which allowed for socially irresponsible
decisions.
Differences due to age were examined in the Panalba study by comparing results from advanced
management courses (where average ages were generally above 30) against those from undergraduate
and graduate programs (where the average ages generally ranged from 20 to 25). Older managers (g =
15) selected the highly irresponsible decision in 73% of the groups, while younger managers (g = 42)
selected this decision in 81% of the groups. Although this difference is not statistically significant, the
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