Administrative evil is a relatively new ethical concept that originated in the field of Public Administration with the publication of Guy Adams and Danny Balfour’s 1998 book Unmasking Administrative Evil. It describes the phenomenon whereby otherwise well-intentioned individuals participate in systems that cause harm to innocent people. This essay explores the concept and suggests that the implications for leadership studies and practice are worthy of additional exploration. A critique of the concept is provided along with questions that could point the way to additional research.
AchbarMAbbottJBakanJ (2005) The Corporation. Zeitgeist Video.
2.
AdamsGB (2011) The problem of administrative evil in a culture of technical rationality. Public Integrity (Summer 2011)13(3): 275–284.
3.
AdamsGBBalfourDL (2004) Unmasking Administrative Evil. New York: ME Sharpe.
4.
AdamsGBBalfourDL (2007) Leadership, administrative evil and the ethics of incompetence: Lessons from Katrina and Iraq. Conference Paper. Leading the Future of the Public Sector: The Third Transatlantic Dialogue University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA, May 31–June 2, 2007.
AdamsGBBalfourDL (2009b) Ethical failings, incompetence, and administrative evil: Lessons from Katrina and Iraq. In: CoxRaymond (ed.) Ethics and Integrity in Public Administration: Concepts and Cases. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
7.
AdamsGBBalfourDLReedGE (2006) Abu Ghraib, administrative evil, and moral inversion: ‘The value of putting cruelty first.’Public Administration Review (September/October): 682.
8.
ArendtH (1963) Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Viking Press.
9.
BernsteinRJ (2002) Radical Evil: A Philosophical Interrogation. Cambridge: Polity Press.
10.
BernsteinRJ (2005) The Abuse of Evil: The Corruption of Politics and Religion since 9/11. Cambridge: Polity Press.
11.
CardC (2002) The Atrocity Paradigm: A Theory of Evil. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12.
CasebeerWD (2004) Knowing evil when you see it: Uses for the rhetoric of evil in international relations. International Relations18: 441–451. doi; 10.1177/0047117804048486.
13.
ChaleffI (2009) The Courageous Follower, 3rd edn. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
14.
CongerJA (1990) The dark side of leadership. Organizational Dynamics (Fall 1990)19(2): 44–55.
15.
CollinsonD (2005) Questions of distance. Leadership1(2): 235–250.
16.
FerberA (1998) White Man Falling: Race, Gender and White Supremacy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
17.
FinkelsteinS (2003) Why Smart Executives Fail. New York: Penguin.
18.
HershSM (2004) Annals of national security: Torture at Abu Ghraib. The New Yorker, May 10.
19.
HilbergRFuretF (1989) The bureaucracy of annihilation. Unanswered Questions: Nazi Germany and the Genocide of the Jews. New York: Schocken Books, 119–133.
JanisIL (1971) Groupthink: The desperate drive for consensus at any cost. Psychology Today (November) 5: 43–4, 46, 74–6.
23.
KellermanB (2004) Bad Leadership: What it Is, How it Happens, Why it Matters. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
24.
LennickDKielF (2008) Moral Intelligence: Enhancing Business Performance and Leadership Success. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
25.
Lipman-BlumenJ (2005) The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why we Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians – and How we Can Survive them. New York: Oxford University Press.
26.
McLeanBElkindP (2003) Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. New York: Penguin.
27.
RiggioREChaleffILipman-BlumenJ (2008) The Art of Followership. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
SchynsBHansbroughT (2010) When Leadership Goes Wrong. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
30.
StaubE (1992) The Roots of Evil: The Origin of Genocide and other Group Violence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
31.
TourishDVatchaN (2005) Charismatic leadership and corporate cultism at Enron: The elimination of dissent, the promotion of conformity and organizational collapse. Leadership1(4): 455–480.
32.
ZimbardoP (2007) The Lucifer Effect. New York: Random House.
