Professor: Why employees do bad things

PROVO -- Employees who love their company and work hard to please their bosses may sound like a recipe for success. But two recent studies co-authored by a BYU business professor found that those two factors can lead to a higher likelihood of unethical behavior.

Studying such "pro-organizational" unethical conduct flies in the face of the common media accounts and most ethics research, which focuses on employees siphoning funds or sabotaging bosses and co-workers, said John Bingham, assistant professor of organizational behavior at BYU's Marriott School of Management.

"But unethical behavior can also be done with very good intentions -- people can do bad things with the intention to actually help the organization," he said. "People lie to placate customers, sell unsafe products or shred documents to cover up -- even when these actions may jeopardize their own positions within the organization."

Bingham and his colleagues explored the concept in a paper to be published in Organization Science. The theory was tested in a study recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

The survey included hundreds of anonymous workers and analyzed data to determine if strongly identifying with an employer would make an employee more prone to cutting ethical corners.

For example, a community activist who works for a product manufacturer that prides itself on its social and community initiatives may be more likely to cut corners to help his or her employer. Data showed that simply buying into a company's mission does not seem to be enough to nudge someone across ethical lines. However, combining that trait with another common belief turns out to be a formula for rule breaking.

The other half of the potentially toxic "unethical reaction" is a belief in "reciprocity," he said.

"This is when I believe that if the company does something nice for me, I should do something nice for them in return," Bingham said. "We've always looked at this as a positive way to motivate employees and, until now, never questioned the moral content of behaviors that employees perform in efforts to reciprocate."

The study results suggested that employees who feel a strong commitment toward their company, and who also generally believe that their company's positive treatment should be rewarded with above-average performance by employees are significantly more likely to commit unethical behavior that helps their employers.

"Very conscientious employees, people who are pleasers are much more likely to do unethical things and justify them because they believe in their company and want to do what is best for the company," Bingham said.

The researchers' recommendations to leaders and managers were to:

• Recognize that not all unethical behavior is malicious.
• Consider the possibility that your employees may be doing bad things thinking that is what your company wants.
• Do not stop encouraging a strong identification with the company and the belief that positive acts will be rewarded.
• Couple such motivation with a culture that encourages ethical behavior and focuses on the means, and not just the ends.

Managers must lead by example and reward only ethical behavior among employees, the study stated.

Bingham asserted that unethical behavior ultimately hurts the organization.

Citing disgraced energy giant Enron as an example, he recalled how the company got away with wrong-doing for years, making it a classic example of a supposedly high-functioning, high-mission, strong-values organization.

"It's bad business," Bingham said. "If that's the culture around which business gets done, sooner or later questionable behavior escalates to the point where it gets exposed and employees and the business are punished."

E-mail: jlee@desnews.com

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