The banality of organizational wrongdoing: a reading on arendt’s thoughtlessness thesis

• Javier Hernández ^[1] ; Consuelo Araos ^[2]
  1. [1] Universidad Católica de Temuco

     Universidad Católica de Temuco

     Temuco, Chile

     
  2. [2] Universidad de Los Andes

     Universidad de Los Andes

     Colombia

     
• Localización: Journal of business ethics, ISSN 0167-4544, Vol. 195, Nº. 4, 2024, págs. 713-727
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1007/s10551-024-05701-3
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • This paper proposes that Hannah Arendt’s book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil furnishes both philosophical and empirical elements to understand not only the Nazi crimes but also cases of wrongdoing by and within current organizations. It is suggested that Arendt provides three relevant standpoints to how wrongdoing is banalized within organizations: a critique of bureaucratic administration, an account of the role of interactive socialization, and a reflection on the cognitive and meaning-attribution processes. Arendt originally connected these three dimensions to thoughtlessness, understood as a process of routinization in which organizations discourage critical thinking, personal responsibility, and reflection about the ultimate meaning and consequences of actions and decisions. As opposed to this, thoughtfulness is proposed as an approach based on meaningful pursuit within organizations to avoid some of the normative, cognitive, and routine elements that encourage, justify, and reproduce the banalization of misconduct.

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