The Organisational Boundaries of Responsibility: An Ethical Challenge

Abstract

Undertaking responsibility is basic to moral behaviour. However, the explicit act of undertaking responsibility may be derived from various motives. The purpose here is to investigate to what extent organisations tend to bound the level of responsibility and to disclose some of the different motives of undertaking responsibility. This is done by employing four different theories of behaviour which relate to conformity, compliance, needs and moral development. Although none of these theories directly treats the question of responsibility, an attempt is made to apply each to it. By way of a summary, six generalised types of responsibility are suggested: responsibility based on anxiety, shame, guilt, arrangement, ethics and freedom. Furthermore, an organisational boundary line of responsibility is suggested.