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 opinion about obedience norms. Extending Kelman and Hamilton's (1989) research on crimes of obedience in the military, this article explores crimes of obedience and crimes of conformity in the workplace. Random samples of the residents of Washington, DC, Moscow, Russia, and Tokyo, Japan were presented four vignettes about organizational wrongdoing. Manipulations included the influence situation (autonomy, conformity, or obedience) and the actor's position in the hierarchy (subordinate vs. midlevel authority). As expected, the actor's responsibility was greatest when he acted autonomously or was an authority. In addition, authorities were excused less than subordinates for having conformed or obeyed. Impacts of both influence situation and hierarchy were larger in Japan and Russia than in the United States.