Consider yourself ethical? New research says think again
When confronted with an ethical dilemma, most of us like to think we would stand up for our principles. But we are not as ethical as we think we are, according to Ann Tenbrunsel, the Rex and Alice A. Martin Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Notre Dame鈥檚 Mendoza College of Business and co-author of 鈥淏lind Spots: Why We Fail to do What鈥檚 Right and What to do About it.鈥�
鈥淎 blind spot is an unknown obstacle that prevents us from seeing our unethical behavior,鈥� Tenbrunsel explains. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 allow us to see the gap between who we think we are, who we鈥檇 like to be, and who we truly are.鈥�
Blind spots can originate with individuals and accumulate to an organizational-level, from the collapse of Enron and corruption in the tobacco industry, to sales of the defective Ford Pinto and the downfall of Bernard Madoff.
鈥淐learly, Madoff was a crook,鈥� Tenbrunsel says. 鈥淏ut there are a host of people who supported his decisions and we would argue many of them did so unknowingly. Why does that happen? Why do we all behave in ways that contradict our values?鈥�
Tenbrunsel and co-author Max Bazerman show that we are unaware of the blind spots that keep us from recognizing how we engage in unethical actions.
They reference a study in which people were asked if they planned to contribute to Daffodil Days, a fundraising event which supports the American Cancer Society.
鈥淩oughly 80 percent said they planned to give, Tenbrunsel says. 鈥淏ut on collection day, only about half actually contributed.
鈥淲hen we are predicting how we will behave, we are thinking abstractly鈥� she explains. 鈥淏ut, when we are actually making the decisions, we are thinking very concretely, looking at feasibility. If you consider the Daffodil Days example, a participant may say 鈥業 didn鈥檛 realize that at the time I would be asked to donate, I would only have five dollars in my pocket, which I could either donate or use to buy lunch.鈥� Visceral forces also play a role when we鈥檙e called to make a decision. 鈥業鈥檓 hungry, I鈥檓 thirsty, I鈥檓 angry, I鈥檓 fearful that I鈥檓 losing my job.鈥� We become motivated to eliminate these forces and all else, including ethical values, takes a back seat. These factors are difficult to predict, but impact us directly and lead to what we call 鈥榚thical fading.鈥欌€�
Tenbrunsel says ethical fading鈥攖he removal of ethics from the decision-making process鈥攈ave led to tragedies and scandals such as the Challenger space shuttle disaster, steroid use in Major League Baseball, the crash in the financial markets, and the energy crisis. 鈥�Blind Spots鈥� demonstrates how ethical standards shift, how we neglect to notice and act on the unethical behavior of others, and how compliance initiatives can actually promote unethical behavior.
At the organizational level, there are important implications.
鈥淚f you have every individual falling prey to their ethical illusions, including those leading, an error in judgment can blossom into a whole series of activities that can damage reputation,鈥� Tenbrunsel says.
鈥淧eople believe they will behave ethically in a given situation, but they don鈥檛. Then they believe they behaved ethically when they didn鈥檛. It鈥檚 no surprise, then, that most individuals erroneously believe they are more ethical than the majority of their peers,鈥� according to Tenbrunsel.
Going a step further, she says 鈥渕otivated blindness鈥� is people鈥檚 tendency to not notice the unethical behavior of others because it鈥檚 in their best interest not to notice. She points to credit rating agencies as a good example.
鈥淭hey are supposed to provide objective, unbiased ratings of the creditworthiness of issuers of debt obligations (including companies, nonprofit organizations and federal, state and local governments) as well as the debt instruments these financial organizations sell to the public,鈥� she says. 鈥淗owever, their compensation has been tied to anything but objectivity. Specifically, the largest credit rating agencies, including Standard & Poor鈥檚, Moody鈥檚 and Fitch, are paid by the companies they rate instead of by the investors who have the most to lose from inaccurate ratings. It is not a surprise that the rating agencies that provide the highest ratings have the most business.鈥�
鈥淚f we are to truly eliminate conflicts of interest,鈥� Tenbrunsel and Bazerman wrote in an April New York Times op-ed, 鈥渨e must understand the psychology behind them.鈥�
Provided by University of Notre Dame