Social Irresponsibility in Management

The results from Table 6 also indicate that the stockholder results, with 76% of the groups selecting
the highly irresponsible decision, were no different than those from the control group where the
corresponding figure was 79%. This supports the hypothesis that managers tend to act in accordance
with the stockholder role.

Conclusions

A review of previous evidence suggested that a substantial proportion of managers may be
expected to bring serious harm to others in situations where they feel it is proper behavior for their role.
Further evidence was provided by the Panalba role-playing study, where 79% of the groups selected a
highly irresponsible decision and none chose the decision that was free of irresponsibility. These results
were due to the pressure of the role rather than to differences among individuals; differences in
irresponsibility were not related to nationality or to age.

The stakeholder role led to a reduction in irresponsibility. Instructions that a board member should
represent all interest groups, along with the evidence on how these groups were affected, led to a
reduction in irresponsibility as only 23% chose the highly irresponsible decision. Reductions also
occurred when the interest groups were represented on the board of directors; 22% of these groups
selected the highly irresponsible decision.

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