Free Essay

How Unethical Behavior Becomes Habit

In:

Submitted By LSUstudent
Words 1175
Pages 5
Assignment 1:
In the article “How unethical behavior becomes habit”, the writers find that questionable behavior and unethical decisions in the workplace are common occurrences for working Americans. The article continues to explain that the research they found showed that people “often start their misconduct with small transgressions and then slide down a slippery slope.” Getting away with those smaller transgressions encouraged them to commit bigger and bigger offenses as time went by. (Gino) I think this can apply to both the workplace as well as academia.
In reference to the University of Central Florida Cheating Scandal, I would have to agree with the statement that cheating has become so widespread that many students have shifted their view of it all together. I feel like this has a lot to do with the generation of millennial students that are currently attending college and how they view higher education. The millennials are a challenging generation that see higher education as an expensive necessity to succeed and do not value the hard work it takes to get there. Cost of higher education keeps going up, and the more money they spend to receive their education, the more they view college as a purchase rather than a privilege. They believe they are making this investment as a way to open the doors to high paying careers and they feel entitled to their degree since they are paying for their classes. This results in these students wanting to receive their degree while putting in the least amount of effort to do it so they can move on to the workforce with a great job. (Reis)
In addition many of these millennials did minimal homework and studying for good grades in high school, received a weaker K-12 education than previous generations, and have parents that hover over them and come to their rescue when things do not go their way. Once they get into college, they expect the same minimal demands in college and are often resentful about the workload and standards that are presented to them in higher education. (Reis) Taking the easy way out and cheating on an exam is not a far-fetched conclusion when you consider the unrealistic expectations the millennial generation has of both higher education and the real world. The justification that students in this generation have for cheating can range from “I will never use this stuff in the real world,” to “This class is too difficult and everyone else knows how hard it is too.”
The more students get away with cheating, the more likely they are to do it. Once the students at the University of Central Florida were called out for their bad behavior and risked seeing consequences, half of them owned up to it and did the right thing. (Nies)
The article “Caught on Tape: Bribes, Public Corruption,” certainly brings to light ethical issues in business, as well as in our own government. Public officials have continued to find ways to encourage bribery and corruption and continue to foster greed and egos. Big business continues to find ways to influence laws and public opinion. Unethical workplace behavior and public corruption has, in my opinion, always been an issue. The only difference between then and now is that it is brought to light more often. Not only is law enforcement cracking down on bad behavior, but we are also seeing more investigative journalists, political and environmental activist, and watchdog organizations. There are a lot more people watching every move and businesses as well as people of power have a harder time getting away with it. “Many of the biggest business scandals of recent years — including the News of the Worldphone hacking scandal, billions in rogue trading losses at UBS, and the collapse of Enron — have followed a similar pattern: The ethical behavior of those involved eroded over time.” (Gino) These indiscretions distract them from the job, and one in 10 people surveyed believed a current issue at their company could cause a scandal.
Indiscretions in the workplace cause you to question your morals as a person, and can be costly to businesses, either in the form of supplies, money or fines for bigger unethical decisions. As a manager, identifying and addressing problems and enforcing standards of conduct with employees allows you to stop un-ethical behavior, or intervene before it gets out of control. Employees find it easier to engage in un-ethical and questionable behavior when they can rationalize it easily, or when the morals and ethical standards of the company are looked over or not clearly stated. (Gino) Even if business is harmed because of unethical behavior, people will continue to do it as long as they can get away with it if it helps the bottom line. They will continue to look for ways to improve their earnings and look at the short term advantages, never taking into account the long-term repercussions.
I would prefer not to refer to my personal place of employment, but a great example of unethical behavior would be the Walmart bribery scandal that took place a few years ago. The Walmart divisions in Mexico were accused of bribery and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Many top level executives lost their jobs for turning their head and the company had to change policy to make sure senior executives were held accountable in the future. The entire scandal was covered up by high level executives. External and internal inquiries were not set in motion until the New York Times published an investigative piece about the situation, which won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2013. (Harris)
In both academia and the workplace, being able to justify and rationalize why they behaved in an undesirable way will continue to foster unethical behavior. Both companies and Universities need to re-focus their standards and work to create a culture that clearly defines appropriate behavior and both values and rewards good conduct. Professor Richard Quinn said it best: “If they’re going to learn one thing coming out of university, they’re going to learn dignity and honor and the value of ethics and honesty.” (Nies)

References:
Nies, Yunji; Russo, Karen. (Nov. 10, 2010). University of Central Florida Cheating Scandal Prompts Professor to Issue Ultimatum. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/widespread-cheating-scandal-prompts-florida-professor-issues-ultimatum/story?id=11737137
Thomas, Pierre; Ryan, Jason; Date, Jack; Cook, Theresa. (March 26, 2009) Caught on Tape: Bribes, Public Corruption. http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes/story?id=7024797&page=1
Reis, Rick. Tomorrow’s Professor Msg. #1047 Teaching the Millennial Generation. http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/tomprof/posting.php?ID=1047
Gino, Francesca; Ordonez, Lisa D.; Welsh, David. (2014) How Unethical Behavior Becomes Habit. Harvard Business Review. http://www.corruptie.org/en/how-unethical-behavior-becomes-habit/
Harris, Elizabeth A. (June 4, 2014). After Bribery Scandal, High Level Departures at Walmart. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/05/business/after-walmart-bribery-scandals-a-pattern-of-quiet-departures.html?_r=0

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Mass

...Introduction What’s ethical and unethical in business? In business, we think about the actions that are being taken, for example. Let’s differentiate between what’s ethical and unethical first, ethical in basic terms is basically honesty, following the rights and not disapproval of any case , unethical being the opposite lacking basic morals that allows them to not conduct to rules. In business terminology, ethics can be taken very seriously. An individual at work might take their tasks and do them well conducted by following all the right rules given, yet for an unethical individual they will lead a business to its end most probably by simply being disapproval of the terms and rules given to follow a task, There are many ways that businesses engage in unethical conduct, for example by exploiting their workers, their customers, and even the public at large outside their business work space. By exploiting, some of the ways that they do this are arguably unethical and some are blatantly illegal. They may pay their workers low wages. It causes behavior changes within the work atmosphere, an ethical employee attends meetings, and manages to consume their time properly, providing employee safety making other employees learn to work efficiently too and have good communication within the circle. Each employee works together or individually in a well-mannered way, each with the right set of behavior. Yet with an unethical employee a deliberate hypocrisy will be caused, and violation...

Words: 527 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Tyco Paper

...Tyco International – Epic Failure Dionne Flinn March 25, 2013 LDR/531 Thea Miller Tyco International – Epic Failure A business is successful not only if it has the right “product” that consumers want, but also if it is managed and lead by strong, ethical and invested leaders. In the past two decades unethical, corrupt, greedy and incompetent CEO’s have brought down multi-million corporations and cost thousands of American workers their jobs. One such CEO, Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco International, destroyed his company through his arrogance, greed, lack of ethics, and overall disdain for his company. An effective leader puts his own personal interests aside and works for the greater success of his company for their employees and shareholders. Tyco International experienced a boom in profits in the 1990’s through continuous acquisitions of smaller companies and financial manipulation of accounting records. This resulted in rampant greed and corruption, with managers who shared the same values as Dennis Kozlowski advancing into upper management ranks. The main charges against Kozlowski involve “using company funds to purchase millions of dollars worth of artwork as well as an $18 million apartment in Manhattan. Kozlowski used company “loans” for the purchases, allowing him to avoid paying income tax on the money used” (Kay, 2002). Kozlowski allegedly transported crates of artwork to Tyco’s operating headquarters in New Hampshire to avoid paying sales tax. Instead, the...

Words: 1140 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Accountability

...Accountability – Whistle Blower; Ethical Dilemma Introduction: This report is made to find out the circumstances in which a person reports his/her company’s unethical behaviour. In ethics and governance “Accountability means answerability. In leadership roles it is an acknowledgement and assumption of responsibility of actions. Most of us believe that we are unbiased and ethical in making corporate decisions but in truth this is not the case. More than two decades of research confirms that most of us fall woefully short of our inflated self-perception. As mentioned in report “How (Un)ethical Are You” by Mahzarin R Banaji that there is a need to regularly audit our decisions so that we can don’t make unethical decisions. Unethical decisions stems from unconscious biases. Mangers often falls in trap of implicit prejudice. They make decisions on the basis of individual habit, race etc. As a result most highly qualified candidate for the assignment gets overlooked. Second type of unethical behavior arises from in-group favoritism. When a manger likes to grant favor to his own background, a candidate who does not possess any potential and would not succeed without favoritism get his feet in the company will cause problem in the long run. Third type of unethical issues comes from over claiming credit. When we start considering that we are above average as compared to our peers and that we have contributed the most in the team it leads to...

Words: 401 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Other

...Brandon K Hayes 0221338 Management Assignment # 2 1) Social obligation is the obligation of a business to meet its economic and legal responsibilities and nothing more. Social responsiveness is when a firm engages in social actions in response to some popular social need. Social responsibility is a business's intention, beyond its legal and economic obligations, to do the right things and act in ways that are good for society. The workforce that makes iPods in China live in poor inland farming provinces where work is scarce and head to coastal areas in the south where factories produce the world’s consumer goods. The only reason they can survive in these cities is because work opportunities in manufacturing plants. It has been reported that Chinese factory workers have working hours, pay and other unsafe workplace issues that are exacerbated by a greater array of more hazardous chemicals when manufacturing iPods. Workers earn per month around one-quarter the UK and USA retail price. These workers who assemble iPods work 15 hours a day for US$50 per month. Chinese employees also work and sleep at these plants, sleeping in dormitories with more than 100 people, outside visitors are not allowed, employees have little choice about overtime and they stand at their posts for long hours without being allowed to take a rest. Media outlets sense a strong sense of responsiveness in linking one of the best selling products globally with Chinese workplace conditions. Apple has sold...

Words: 1033 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Considered the “Mummy’s Curse, ” a Series of Unexplainable, Unfortunate, or Tragic Events That Happened to the People Who Were Present at the Opening of Tutankhamen’s Tomb.

...Business Ethics Dirty To The Core Seandel Gibson Business-Law Professor- Mr. McLamore June 11, 2012 Business Ethics Abstract Ethical behavior isn’t an act but a habit, just as good health requires cultivating the habits of getting enough sleep and eating wholesome food, Aristotle believed that right action was the result of developing good moral habits. In a business context, this means training and, at the deepest level, something we call “corporate culture.’ Although Ethical management is being given a higher priority by many management teams, a wealth of evidence reveals that managers are still unclear about how to institute strategies and systems that encourage ethical conduct and help create a moral corporate culture. Many managers have opted for the simple route of promulgating rules and instructing everyone to follow them. Not only is this approach providing ineffective in today’s decentralized business environment, it also denies employees any chance to become part of the ethical fabric of the organization. Business Ethics Corruption is defined by transparency international as the misuse of public power for private gain. It takes many forms and can be intensely...

Words: 1364 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Personal Ethics Statement

...somewhat aligned itself with the preferred ideal work environment. Yes, I think there is a relationship between effective study habits and techniques of being successful in those work cultures by being successful in those cultures. Study habits and techniques are all part of note taking; they are extremely helpful in remembering important detail about a particular subject. By using effective study habits and techniques, can help you when taking quiz or test. While taking a test, you can remember from the top of your head of what you had wrote down for studied to answer that question. In work culture, it will help you memorize your work procedure and guidelines. Before taking this class, I didn’t even realize what an ethical lens inventory was, much less that it had strengths and weaknesses and even a blind spot.The weaknesses and strengths of the way people think can work in so many ways. Your weaknesses can strengthen over time and your strengths can become even stronger. How you balance both can be tremendous factors in your everyday life. You can use them at work, home, or any activity that you feel that can relate to the way you think.Personal ethics means showing the way you think and how you have developed certain skills. Your personal skills are the way that you think and go about handling things in your school and career life to learn how to balance and apply them to everyday tasks. My strengths and...

Words: 510 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Ethics in Marketing

...Ethical Challenges in Marketing Communication Ethics play an integral role in the development and sustenance of any personal or business relationship. Ethics determine the acceptable behaviors within a society and the overall behaviors of a business. Marketers must understand the impact ethics have on marketing communications and develop Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategies accordingly. This paper will discuss various ethical challenges facing marketers today, identify internal and external factors on IMC, and formulate two ethical questions based upon the analysis. Ethics in Marketing The practice of ethics within an organization is an important but difficult concept to understand and practice. The reason ethics are difficult to manage is that the concept is so subjective (Duncan 2002, pp. 671). Ethical values differ between societies and individual relationships, therefore a company must decide on an ethical communication strategy and portray it as consistently as possible. Duncan (2002) describes three ethical considerations companies must understand when developing marketing communications and relationships with customers. Stereotyping Stereotyping plays a significant role in developing marketing strategies that are both effective and ethical. "The challenge for brands is to develop messages that strike a chord with targeted audiences without reinforcing negative stereotypes" (pp. 672). Companies must ensure that their marketing tactics...

Words: 2979 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Globalization

...The new economy has brought greater transparency and greater flexibility but also greater complexity and therefore new and greater risks. It has become very crucial to look at how the new economy had brought greater complexity to the business environment changing the ethical dimension and raising new ethical issues. It goes on to outline the varied dimension of the new economy like—Globalization, technology, assets, framework, recruiting and retaining the talent. These factors have brought so many changes and challenges to the company policies regards to their management practices, relationships in different domestic, international, multinational and global contents. So to establish an ethical infrastructure and integrate ethics in organization working we need to study the ethics in new economy keeping the consideration of those mentioned dimensions. ETHICAL DIMENSIONS Globalization The growing integration of economies and societies around the world has been one of the most hotly debated topics in international economies over the past few years. Many forces are driving globalization—Communication, improved infrastructure, technology, regulation, free trade and free movement of people. Rapid growth and poverty reduction in India, China and other countries that were poor 20 years ago, has been positive aspect of globalization. On the other hand, globalization has also generated significant international opposition over concerns that it has increased...

Words: 13267 - Pages: 54

Premium Essay

Case Study

...Chapter 1 ETHICS & BUSINESS ETHICS AN INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS Ethics is not a recent discovery. Over the centuries philosophers in their struggle with human behavior have developed different approaches to ethics, each leading to different conclusion. The word “Ethics” which is coined from the Latin word ‘Ethics’ and Greek word ‘ethikos’ pertains to character. Ethics is thus said to be the science of conduct. As a matter of fact it deals with certain standard of human conduct and morals. The field of ethics involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. Ethics is a mass of moral principles or set of values about what is right or wrong, true or false, fair or unfair, proper or improper, what is right is ethical and what is wrong is unethical. MEANING AND DEFINITION OF ETHICS Peter F. Drucker writes- “There is only one ethics, one set of rules of morality, one code that of individual behavior in which the same rules apply to everyone alike.” Philip Wheel Wright says- “Ethics is the branch of philosophy which is the systematic study of selective choice, of the standards of right and wrong and by which it may ultimately be directed.” Swami Vivekananda has set the tone for ethics. He says- “Supreme oneness is the rationale of all ethics and morality. Ethics cannot be derived from the mere sanction to any personage. Some eternal principle of truth has the sanction of ethics. Where is the eternal sanction to be found except...

Words: 7802 - Pages: 32

Premium Essay

Agatha Christie Analysis

...first novel, The Mysterious Affair at styles, was published in 1920 and featured the debut of certainly one of her most noted characters, the Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Agatha Christie gradually grew to become wellknown because of her all time shocking mysteries and with the time grew to become the satisfactory-promoting writer of the...

Words: 2088 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Legal

...in some of issues brought forth by the people. What is a stakeholder? A stakeholder is a person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization. In most cases, a stakeholder will have the interest for profit and less for community involvement. Stakeholders have a reputation for being greedy and out for money and minimize costs wherever they can.In our study today, the stakeholders would be all the executives living in Colberia, the CEO as well as any foreigner investors. In the paper, we will explore more the roles of a stakeholder and how they have impacted the local people in Colberia and how PharmaCARE has brought about any changes in living conditions and job security in the area. In our next discussion, we will take a look at how PharmaCARE can improve and change some of the working conditions and concerns within the local community in order to help promote growth in Colberia as well as become a long standing and respectable company to work for and continue to...

Words: 1787 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Business Ethics

...Examine the impact of an organization's business ethics on the performance of the organization. Explain how poor business ethics could adversely affect a business. Use examples. Ethics is the field of study that is used to prescribe morally acceptable behaviors, and including a wide range of moral and ethical principles, providing methods and guidance for the distinguish between right and wrong. "Ethics is important for managers involved with Management Control Systems (MCS) because ethical principles can provide a useful guide for defining how employees should behave." [Management control-related ethical issues and analysis] It is important for an organization to have good ethics as unethical behaviors are costly not only to the individuals involved but also the organization, market and the society.' People learns from history,' each time a serious unethical issue arises, the government creates extra laws and standards for the governing of organizations, however these extra enforcements mechanisms "are incomplete, imperfect, and expensive, and have the typical drawbacks of rigid action controls." [Management control-related ethical issues and analysis] Business ethical issues arise because in most cases ethical actions may not generate the best outcome for an organization, "ethical individuals sometimes must make actions that are not in their own self-interest or their organizations owners' best interest." [Management control-related ethical issues and analysis] There are...

Words: 2445 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

The Price of Unethical Behavior

...The Price of Unethical Behavior The Price of Unethical Behavior The purpose of this paper is to evaluate unethical behavior of Tyco International executives and chairman by briefly summarizing the company’s historical scenario, the spending habits and loans made for those executives, the resulting outcome of the events, the punishment handed down from indictments and whether it was justified. In 1975 Dennis Kozlowski joined Tyco International and in 1992 was named the chairman and chief executive. Through the late 1990s, Kozlowski facilitated Tyco’s expansion. During Kozlowski’s last three years with Tyco he made at least $300 million and was noted as being one of the highest paid executives in the United States. During his tenure at Tyco Kozlowski acquired almost $500 million along with a $31 million dollar New York apartment and several rare paintings, which came under scrutiny by both federal prosecutors and the company. With Kozlowski as chief executive officer he made Tyco into a giant conglomerate mainly through acquisitions. Tyco has two major segments; fire protection systems and security systems is incorporated in Switzerland and has operational headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey. At its peak, Tyco had a market value over $100 billion. In 2002 Kozlowski left Tyco over a issue regarding the misuse of company funds and his hefty compensation package. Shortly after leaving Tyco, Kozlowski was indicted on charges of evading more than $1 million of sales...

Words: 1396 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Business Ethical Decision Making

...Introduction Ethical behavior is generally expected to be conducted within a business by its managers and employees. When business ethics is spoken by business people of it usually means one of three things (1) avoid breaking the criminal law in one’s work-related activity; (2) avoid action that may result in civil law suits against the company; (3) avoid actions that are bad for the company image (Erwin 2011). . Ethical issues in business will occur but can be solved and avoided in many cases that can help a company continue to be successful. Using an ethical decision making process will guide companies and its employees in the right direction to success and respect within the communities they serve. Most people involved in business whether functioning as a small business owner, employee, or chief executive officer of a multination company eventually face ethical or moral dilemmas in the workplace. Such dilemmas are usually complex, for they force the person making the decision to weigh the benefits that various business decisions impart on individuals including him or herself and groups with the negative repercussion that those same decisions usually have on other individuals or groups. What is Ethics? Business ethics is a subject that can be difficult to define. Any discussion of business ethics is a subjective one, for everyone brings different concepts of ethical behavior to the table. These moral standards are shaped by all sorts of things, from home environment to...

Words: 2343 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Ethics During Change

...organization runs efficiently and stays profitable. Each organization makes its ethics known immediately when hiring an individual, or during the interview. In this paper, we will talk about ethics and its outcomes during a change plan, and most important how the employees change behavior during the changing process. Ethical culture is something that is over looked while implementing a change even through the organization has a conduct of ethics and conduct manuals. With technology changing in the business sector, often morals and ethics is the last thing senior management and supervisors have a habit of overlooking. When the organization changes, the whole thing, including the ethical culture of the organization. Surprisingly if the organizational culture change, the workplace ethics will change also. Ethics and Change Throughout the early stages of change, there will always be resistance to new changes. One apparent motive of resistance to change is because of the organization ethical culture. Upper management and supervisors are also subject to resistance of change. Addressing ethical issues during a change can prevent the misuse or abuse of ethical behaviors (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2006, Pg. 151-152). Ethical behavior with respect to the employees will help the organization build a stronger company. It is the...

Words: 1037 - Pages: 5