Morality 1: Disciplinary Action, Obedience, and Punishment

Abstract

Stage 1 of the seven stage model indicates the lowest level of morality. It concerns obedience and punishment. As such it is intimately linked to a rather negative side of the human experience.¹³⁸ At this stage, human behaviour features obedience to authority and submission to punishment regimes, including the fear of punishment (MacKinnon 2013:158). This fear persists in many societies despite advances in criminology in the form of a move away from punishment and towards reforming people. A factual decline in crime rates, however, has been paralleled by an increase in crime reporting by corporate mass media. This leads to the popular view punishment is important in society.¹³⁹ The world of HRM is not isolated from these developments and punishment regimes are still prevalent in the form of punitive HR policies such as disciplinary action.¹⁴⁰ Under such regimes, HRM does not view individuals as human beings but as underlings, subordinates, and objects of HR power.¹⁴¹ They are perceived to be in need of domestication as outlined in McGregor’s Theory X.¹⁴²