Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm and Live with Themselves, by Albert Bandura. New York: Macmillan, 2016. 544 pp. ISBN: 978 1 4641 6005 9
Albert Bandura is the doyen of the psychology profession. He is well known for his theory of social learning and self effi cacy. His new book on moral disengagement can be considered a breakthrough in moral psychology and ethics. It shows how the psychological mechanisms of moral disengagement work in business, politics and social life, and how these practices have implications for ethical conduct. Corporate moral transgressions are well known in today's business world. Some corporations are involved in violations of law and moral rules that produce organizational practices and products that take a toll on the public. Social cognitive theory of moral agency, developed by Bandura, provides a conceptual framework for analyzing how otherwise pro social managers adopt socially injurious corporate practices. This is achieved through a type of selective moral disengagement that is seen in many cases of corporate misconduct. Examples range from the Bhopal industrial accident of Union Carbide, to the Ford Pinto case, the Nestle infant formula controversy, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant case, the Enron and WorldCom scandals of the 2000s and, the wrongdoing witnessed during the most recent fi nancial crisis. Bandura's social cognitive theory offers a robust model of moral agency. In his model, moral thought and self evaluative reactions, moral conduct, and environmental infl uences operate as interacting determinants of each other. Within this triadic model of reciprocal causation, moral agency is exercised through self regulatory mechanisms. Transgressive conduct is regulated by two sets of sanctions, social and personal. Social sanctions are rooted in the fear of external punishment; self sanctions operate through self condemning reactions to one's misconduct. Bandura discovered a number of psycho social mechanisms by which moral control can be selectively disengaged from detrimental conduct. These mechanisms of moral disengagement enable otherwise considerate people to commit transgressive acts without experiencing personal distress and guilt. Using the words of evolutionary psychologist Robert Trivers 2011 people "fool themselves" in order to "fool others." The eight moral disengagement mechanisms identifi ed by Bandura include the following:
Business Ethics Quarterly