How a Lot of Employees Cheat a Little at Work

Nicole DeNardo, Sarah Swanson, Conor Brosnan, Patrick Dupuy,

Carrera Santiago, David Summers

Unethical Behavior Overview120 million people walked into a workplace in the US in 2015

Half of these workers personally witnessed some form of ethical misconduct (Washington, D.C.- based Ethics Resource Center (ERC))

The percentage of employees who experienced some form of retaliation for reporting non-ethical behavior climbed from 15 percent to 22 percent

Confidence in the ethics of senior leaders declined from 68 percent to 62 percent

THE ERC notes that most of these unethical behaviors are not top-tier fraud, but everyday activities that happen across the board

5 Most Common Unethical Behaviors (according to ERC) 5 most common according to the ERC:

Misusing company time - showing up late or tweaking a time sheet

Abusive behavior - misuse of power by managers/supervisors

Employee theft

1 out of 40 employees in 2012 was caught stealing from their employer

Employees steal on average 5.5 times more than shoplifters ($715 vs $129)

The FBI reported that employee theft is the fastest growing crime in the U.S. today

Lying to employees

One of out every five employees report that their manager or supervisor has lied to them within the past year

Violating company internet policies

A survey conducted by Salary.com found that everyday at least 64 percent of employees visit websites that have nothing to do with their work

Our opinion...“Cheating” at work sounds harsh

Many people who participate in unethical behaviors do not necessarily consider them unethical or, even worse, cheating or purposely deceiving

If certain expectations at work were more flexible, there is a possibility that less unethical behavior would take place because employees may feel a better sense of fairness in their position

Workplaces need to identify external factors that may cause unethical behaviors to precipitate in their employees. Identifying the factors and changing them will create a more ethical workplace.

Ethics - Right Vs. WrongEthics defined: moral principles that govern

a person's or group's behavior

There are many “shades of gray” in the margins of what is considered right and wrong

Many of the unethical behaviors that take place in the workplace, though immoral, are not necessarily illegal. Whether these behaviors are considered criminal or not, they have a direct negative impact to the overall workplace environment.

Causes of Unethical Behaviors at WorkMax Bazerman and Ann Tenbrunsel of the University of Notre Dame conducted a study that was published in the Harvard Business Review in 2011. This study gave an ethical breakdown of the causes of unethical behaviors in the workplace:

ILL-CONCEIVED GOALS- We set goals and incentives to promote a desired behavior, but they encourage a negative one.

MOTIVATED BLINDNESS- We overlook the unethical behavior of another when it’s in our interest to remain ignorant.

INDIRECT BLINDNESS- We hold others less accountable for unethical behavior when it’s carried out through a third party.

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE- We are less able to see others’ unethical behavior when it develops gradually.

OVERVALUING OUTCOMES- We give a pass to unethical behavior if the outcome is good.

WhistleblowersOften times these unethical behaviors can evolve into a true ethical dilemma for the other co-workers present, as they are now faced with a decision to speak up or remain silent. Whether it’s something as small as taking a company stapler from the office, to a large scale money laundering scandal, there are absolutely personal consequences associated with speaking up against such behaviors.

“Whistleblowers” as they are called, often face retaliation on a personal and professional level, for doing what they think is the right thing.

Values and AttitudesUnmotivated employees that participate in unethical behaviors at

work are derived from an imbalance between personal and company values

When personal values conflict with an organization’s values people find themselves in an ethical dilemma

These conflicts lead to negative feelings or opinions of coworkers, location, position, responsibilities, etc.

Two most important workplace attitudes that deter employees from acting unethically:

Organizational commitment

Job Satisfaction

Increasing Employee Commitment and Job Satisfaction

Make sure management does not breach psychological contracts

Hire people whose personal values align with the organization

Respectful treatment of all employees at all levels

Stable and adequate compensation and pay

Enhance the level of trust!

Increase overall benefits

Sense of job security

Motivations for Unethical Behaviors Motivation: fueled by inputs that come from personal and environmental factors.

Personal Factors: personality, values, and needs motivate us to behave in ways that satisfy our needs and goals.

Environmental Factors: job design, rewards systems, leadership, and organizational climate.

Unethical behaviors in the workplace would most likely be fueled by intrinsic motivation. Most of the time other people will not reward us for our wrongdoings, which would be extrinsic motivation. Using intrinsic motivation we give “ourselves intrinsic rewards such as positive emotions, satisfaction, and self-praise.”

Motivation Theories for Unethical BehaviorsHerzberg's Motivator-Hygiene Theory

Job dissatisfaction could be one cause for unethical behavior. Dissatisfaction from external factors are called hygiene factors (ie. company policy and administration, technical supervision, salary, interpersonal relations with one's supervisor, and working conditions) all of which can lead to dissatisfaction and unethical behaviors.

Equity/Justice Theory

When employees are victimized by unfair social exchanges and environmental factors in the workplace, we experience cognitive dissonance, which our mind automatically prompts us to fix. According to the textbook, “Our response may range from a slight change in attitude or behavior to extremes (in rare cases) like sabotage or workplace violence.”

These feelings of inequity in the workplace can develop from your evaluation/comparison of whether you are receiving sufficient rewards to compensate for your collective inputs.

We will try to fix this feeling of inequity by any means; sometimes even by unethical behaviors.

Motivation Theories for Unethical BehaviorsExpectancy Theory

This theory has to do with choosing between two or more choices. You will choose any way that get you to your end goal. In this case it could be making more money on your next paycheck so you are not truthful on your timecard. Choice one would be, ask for a raise but worry about backlash, and choice to would be lying on your timecard and not deal with possible confrontation, that is if you are not caught.

The three steps for this process would be:

1. Expectancy: In which ways can you get to your goal?

2. Instrumentality: Which possibility is the best choice? Which one will I have less or faster backlash/tension? What one am I more likely to get away with?

3. Valence: How much is my end goal really worth to me?

TED Talk - Our Buggy Moral Code

Predictable Irrationality is what Dan Ariely is trying to understand

Predictable Irrationality is knowing that someone is going to behave in a way contrary to a

‘normal’ person

Dan used experiments to try and come to a conclusion, and to make a truly successful

experiment you have to first start with a very specific problem and make it more

abstract

In Dan’s case he took the problem of having his bandages ripped off of his severely

burned body, in a manner more painful than it needed to be

He took the nurses irrationality and he applied the irrationality to the whole world

TED Talk - Our Buggy Moral Code

He wondered why people made conscious decisions that were either counter productive or

immoral, even though people generally have pure intentions, like the nurses with the

bandages

Daniel focused his biggest and broadest experiment on cheating, especially when the

reward was of monetary value

He took students and asked them to take a test where he did not give them enough time

At the end he would tell the students to shred the tests and tell him how many they got

right

Almost everyone cheated, but just a little

Averages jumped from 4 correct answers to 7 when the group were tempted to cheat

This goes back to the economic use of cost-benefit analysis

TED Talk - Our Buggy Moral CodePeople will get away with what they can

People consider ‘what's the probability of being caught?’, ‘what’s the reward for cheating?’,

and finally ‘what punishment is handed out if you are caught?’

It is a strange dynamic in which we want to be good, be seen as good and not cheat

However we can cheat just a little bit and still feel good and fully confident in our morals

As long as the cheating isn’t big enough to make the person change their own perception,

then cheating can be beneficial to the individual

It is when the individual cheats to an unreasonable extent when cheating can truly be

detrimental

Works Citedhttp://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blog/guest-comment/2015/01/most-common-unethical-behaviors-in-the.html

Kinicki, Angelo, and Mel Fugate. Organizational Behavior: A Practical, Problem-solving Approach. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.