Creating Morally-minded Organizations in a Machiavellian Work Environment

Creating Morally-minded Organizations in a Machiavellian Work Environment

ÖZLER, N. Derya Ergun
MERCAN, Nuray

Organizations are highly rational constructs operating in a competitive market and bureaucratic entities designed to attain first organizational-collective and individual-private ends in an orderly fashion. In an entity as such there is little formally accepted and approved room for personal maneuvers which may jeopardize much larger goals of organizations. However, organizations have an internally and interpersonally highly competitive environment, more like a war place for power and influence. Organizations are increasing looking for competent, competitive and achievement oriented individuals yet expect them to work in teams as resource sharing saints. It is time to ask whether it is exactly this paradoxical tendency of modern organizations that encourage Machiavellian behaviors. What type of business organizations and environments are more conducive to Machiavellianism? What types of negative and positive incentives are there in regard to Machiavellianism? And what needs to be done? The aim of this work is to develop above argument further, answer some of above questions and then make workable suggestions for practitioners to help in their attempts to identify Machiavellian tendencies and differentiate Machiavellian behaviors from non-Machiavellian ones.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2010-06

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