Why good people do bad things: Temptations, ethical risks and resulting flags

1. Why good people do bad things: Temptations, ethical risks and resulting flags Prof. Mollie Painter-Morland Acting Director: Institute for Business an Professional Ethics, Chicago, USA Associate Director: Center for Business and Professional Ethics, University of Pretoria, South Africa

2. Outline • Risk from an ethical perspective • The roots of ethics failures • Organisational ethical risk • Focus on organisational culture as major area of risk • Red flags

3. Ethics… • Balancing… THE GOOD OTHERS ME

4. Where does it go wrong? Ethical risk entails: • Loss of self: Agency questions • Loss of concern for others • Faulty perceptions of the “good”

5. Loss of self: Agency questions • Who am I? What informed who I am and what I believe? • Where am I? Role conflicts, time pressures, authority of others • Those aspects that influence me most are those I am not aware of Life in organisations has a profound influence…

6. Loss of concern for others • Rationalizations of self-interest/ egoism • Kla-pot/ complaint-syndrome • Paralysis: I can’t make a difference • Passing the buck… • Minimalist rule-obedience/ Lack of moral imagination Life in organisations has a profound influence…

7. Faulty conceptions of the good • The Good = based on values • Values = enduring beliefs about preferable states of existence • Values = what we consider valuable, worthy of pursuit Life in organisations has a profound influence…

8. Organisational ethical risk Institutional factors General organisational culture Individual factors

9. Monitoring ethical risks Document assessment Analyses of control environment HR policies Institutional factors Surveys Focus groups Document assessment Individual factors General organisational culture Vetting Integrity testing Whistle-blowing reports Personnel files

10. Rotten apples? Or rotten barrels? Individuals: Psychometric tests to determine white-collar criminal traits Greed Ambition Need Sudden life-style changes Institutional factors Mixed messages about acceptable behavior Performance management systems Double standards Arbitrary decisions Gaps in policy environments Red-tape Culture

11. What is organisational culture? Organisational culture = the shared values of the organisation Its accepted system of meaning or assumptions How we think, feel, perceive in an organisation Organisational climate: The visible expression of the organisational culture

12. Organisational culture • Culture = the way we do things around here , i.e. how we perceive, think, feel • How we do things = based on our beliefs about is valuable, i.e. our shared values • Values creates a shared sense of what is meaningful, important, necessary • Compliance safeguards certain values, but can’t contain what remains unspoken BUT, in most cases, much what we believe goes unsaid and unwritten

13. Typical climate assessments and its problems Surveys/ climate studies Information may be function-specific Compliance checklists Focus groups Survey fatigue Problem of job-specific jargon and tools Difficult to measure perceptions Expensive and time-consuming

14. Elements of culture • Values: beliefs about what is valuable • Practices: types of social interaction, ceremonies • Artefacts: things that are valued

15. Challenges we face Values Practices Artifacts Tacit knowledge hard to measure Observation of behaviour necessary Physical environment equally important

16. New ideas:Seeing the problem WHAT Culture = shared values Values = what we care about, what is valuable: both physical and symbolic objects Virtues = values that became behavioral habits HOW? Narrative assessments Jokes: Many a true word spoken in jest… What do we spend money on? What do we reward and how? Who are our heroes? How do we do things around here?

17. Categories of red flags People • Financial pressures • Life-style changes • Strange work behavior Processes • Sketchy documentation • Trying to rush decisions or cut corners • Rationalizations of “the way we do things around here”

18. What does cultural analysis add? People • Jokes reveal people’s fears and anxiety • Values artifacts may reveal life-style changes • Who are the “heroes” of the department? Processes • A culture of cutting corners becomes apparent • Rationalizations of “the way we do things around here” reveal risk areas

19. Implications Go beyond compliance check-lists: • LISTEN to what is SAID: From water cooler conversation, memo’s, to strategy discussions • LOOK at what is DONE: Do budgets, staff remuneration, and the physical environment reflect what the organisation cares about? • REFLECT: Think about which stories should be repeated as “the way we do things around here”

20. Opportunities • Take the risk of interpreting, guessing, anticipating > even disagreement is valuable • Tap into what people really care about: Getting everyone to ask the “WHY?” question more: why are we doing this, why is it important? • Work across various functional areas : leverage the cross-functional information to get funds and capacity

21. In conclusion: • To “read”/ “see”/ “hear” ethical risk is hard work… • Skills in listening, observing, analyzing tacit messages and finding ways to measure it would be important • Focus on organisational culture becomes an opportunity to redefine professional ethics • LONG LIVE LIVING VALUES!

22. Questions or comments? If something comes up later: mpainter@depaul.edu