Zone Of Acceptance’ of Authority

‘A subordinate is said to accept authority whenever he permits his behavior to be guided by the decision of a superior, without independently examining the merits of that decision’

- Herbert Simon

-    Simon notes that all employees tend to have a ‘zone of acceptance’ in which they are willing to accept their employer’s authority.

-    Within that zone, an individual, relaxing his own critical faculties, permits the decision of the employer to guide him.

-    Employees generally do not make an issue of questionable incidents on morality, out of a sense of responsibility to give their employer leeway within which to operate and often not to risk their jobs.

-    The problem increases when employees slowly expand the boundaries of tolerance and rationalize it.

This  only  shows  that  engineers  should  never  stop  critically  reviewing  the  employer’s directives especially on moral issues.