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Article | Harvard Business Review | April 2011

Ethical Breakdowns: Good People often Let Bad Things Happen. Why?

by Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel

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Abstract

Companies are spending a great deal of time and money to install codes of ethics, ethics training, compliance programs, and in-house watchdogs. If these efforts worked, the money would be well spent. But unethical behavior appears to be on the rise. The authors observe that even the best-intentioned executives may be unaware of their own or their employees' unethical behavior. Drawing from extensive research on cognitive biases, they offer five reasons for this blindness and suggest what to do about them: (1) Ill-conceived goals may actually encourage negative behavior. Brainstorm unintended consequences when devising them, (2) Motivated blindness makes us overlook unethical behavior when remaining ignorant is in our interest. Root out conflicts of interest, (3) Indirect blindness softens our assessment of unethical behavior when it's carried out by third parties. Take ownership of the implications when you outsource work, (4) The slippery slope mutes our awareness when unethical behavior develops gradually. Be alert for even trivial infractions and investigate them immediately, and (5) Overvaluing outcomes may lead us to give a pass to unethical behavior. Examine good outcomes to ensure they're not driven by unethical tactics.

Keywords: Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Leadership; Behavior; Conflict of Interests;

Format: Print Find at HarvardPurchase

Citation:

Bazerman, Max H., and Ann E. Tenbrunsel. "Ethical Breakdowns: Good People often Let Bad Things Happen. Why?" Harvard Business Review 89, no. 4 (April 2011).

About the Author

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Max H. Bazerman
Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

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More from the Author

  • Article | Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy | 2019

    Pay-for-Monopoly?: An Assessment of Reverse Payment Deals by Pharmaceutical Companies

    Sana Rafiq and Max Bazerman

    Citation:

    Rafiq, Sana, and Max Bazerman. "Pay-for-Monopoly? An Assessment of Reverse Payment Deals by Pharmaceutical Companies." Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy 3, no. 1 (2019): 37–43.  View Details
    CiteView Details Read Now Related
  • Working Paper | 2019

    Redirecting Rawlsian Reasoning toward the Greater Good

    Joshua D. Greene, Karen Huang and Max Bazerman

    Citation:

    Greene, Joshua D., Karen Huang, and Max Bazerman. "Redirecting Rawlsian Reasoning toward the Greater Good." Working Paper, 2019.  View Details
    CiteView Details Related
  • Working Paper | 2019

    Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good

    Karen Huang, Joshua D. Greene and Max Bazerman

    The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was originally applied by philosophers and economists to foundational questions concerning the overall organization of society. Here we apply veil-of-ignorance reasoning in a more focused way to specific moral dilemmas, all of which involve a tension between the greater good and competing moral concerns. Across six experiments (N = 5,785), three pre-registered, we find that veil-of-ignorance reasoning favors the greater good. Participants first engaged in veil-of-ignorance reasoning about a specific dilemma, asking themselves what they would want if they did not know who among those affected they would be. Participants then responded to a more conventional version of the same dilemma with a moral judgment, a policy preference, or an economic choice. Participants who first engaged in veil-of-ignorance reasoning subsequently made more utilitarian choices in response to a classic philosophical dilemma, a medical dilemma, a real donation decision between a more vs. less effective charity, and a policy decision concerning the social dilemma of autonomous vehicles. These effects depend on the impartial thinking induced by veil-of-ignorance reasoning and cannot be explained by a simple anchoring account, probabilistic reasoning, or generic perspective-taking. These studies indicate that veil-of-ignorance reasoning may be a useful tool for decision-makers who wish to make more impartial and/or socially beneficial choices.

    Keywords: policy-making; procedural justice; Ethics; Decision Making; Fairness;

    Citation:

    Huang, Karen, Joshua D. Greene, and Max Bazerman. "Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good." Working Paper, October 2019.  View Details
    CiteView Details Read Now Related
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