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PART 1
Background
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CHAPTER 1
Human Nature and Unethical Behavior in Organizations
After reading this chapter, you will be able to: • Explain the competitive advantages of creating and maintaining an ethical organization
• Describe some common types of unethical behaviors that occur in all types of organizations—for-profits, nonprofits, educational institutions, and government
• Appreciate that unethical behaviors can occur in all organizational operations
• Understand that unethical behaviors can be very costly to organizations
• Discuss human nature in terms of people being pleasure-seekers who can choose to do good or bad
Businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies significantly improve the quality of life on Earth by providing goods and services that fulfill consumer needs.
Look around. A business built the house you live in, the alarm clock that wakes you up, the bed you sleep in, the clothes you wear, the newspapers you read, the chair you sit in, the food you eat, the music you listen to, and the car you drive to work. Providing goods and services that enrich the quality of life, and employment, are very ethical endeavors.
Ethics should permeate all aspects of organizational operations. Unfortunately, due to human nature and inappropriate management control systems, many organizations are ethically challenged.
This chapter discusses why managing ethics is essential, moral imperfection among human beings, and the nature and negative ramifications of unethical activities within organizations. Almost every decision made every day has ethical ramifications. Managing ethics appropriately leads to superior financial performance.
Daily Occurrence of Ethical Dilemmas
When an organization employs someone, that individual brings to work not only unique job skills, but also his or her ethics. Ethics is the set of principles a person uses to determine whether an action is good or bad. Ethics permeates every stakeholder interaction involving owners, customers, employees, lenders, suppliers, and government officials.
People experience a multitude of ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, beginning with whether to get out of bed or hit the snooze button when the morning alarm goes off. Almost every decision and action a person makes the rest of the day has an impact on other people, beginning with arriving at work on time and ending with unfinished tasks at the end of the day. Each decision and action is subject to ethical analysis.
An action sequence consists of the motivation behind the act, the act itself, and the consequences of the act. An ideal ethical situation is one in which a person has good motives and the act results in good consequences. The most unethical situation is one where a person has bad motives and the act results in bad consequences.
Is it ethical for you to inform a subordinate about next year’s business plan? It depends. If you have permission to share the information and doing so improves the subordinate’s performance, then it is very ethical. However, if sharing the information violates a confidentiality agreement and the subordinate is likely to misuse the information, then it is very unethical.
On the ethics continuum, some situations fall between the two extremes. Sometimes, good motives can generate bad consequences. For instance, trying to help a colleague perform one task might distract the person from meeting an important deadline. Sometimes, bad motives can generate good consequences. Your selfish refusal to support a colleague in need of assistance may result in the colleague obtaining even better support from someone else. When evaluating these less-than-ethically-ideal situations, some people place greater ethical weight on having proper motives, while others place greater weight on achieving favorable consequences.
Without having been trained in philosophy, few managers realize that almost every business decision has ethical ramifications. For instance, in 1985, Ken Lay, chief executive officer (CEO) of the regional Houston Natural Gas (HNG) company, had to decide whether to accept a merger offer from InterNorth, which owned North America’s largest natural gas pipeline (see In the Real World). The ethical implications of this business decision are profound. Lay’s decision would impact all InterNorth and HNG shareholders, all HNG employees and their families, and the cities of Houston, Texas and Omaha, Nebraska.
IN THE REAL WORLD
Merger Opportunity—1985
In 1985, corporate raider Irwin “The Liquidator” Jacobs proposed a hostile takeover of the financially troubled InterNorth, an Omaha, Nebraska firm that operated the largest national gas pipeline in North America. InterNorth’s CEO contacted Ken Lay, the CEO of a regional company called Houston Natural Gas (HNG), about a potential merger. InterNorth proposed purchasing HNG’s $47 stock at $70 a share, for a total price tag of $2.4 billion, much of it borrowed money. Jacob’s hostile takeover of InterNorth would be prevented because, even if he sold all the newly combined company’s corporate assets, Jacobs could not profitably pay off its huge debt.
The merger proposal made strategic sense for the regional HNG. The federal government was in the process of deregulating the energy industry and the combined entity would be a dominant force in the natural gas market. In addition, Lay and other executives could sell their HNG stock options at the premium price being offered by InterNorth.
But there were some potential negative merger ramifications for Lay to consider. The InterNorth/HNG entity would have to manage a daunting $4.3 billion debt. Also, it would be a merger of unequal partners. InterNorth, with $7.5 billion in revenue, was three times larger than HNG. Such a size disparity typically resulted in the smaller firm being taken over by the larger one. Bureaucratic redundancies would be eliminated to achieve cost reductions. Only one CEO would be needed, not two, and corporate control would transfer from Houston to Omaha. DECISION CHOICE. If you were the CEO of HNG, would you:
Reject InterNorth’s proposal to protect your job and keep HNG headquartered in Houston?
Merge with North America’s largest natural gas pipeline company, although it meant the risk of managing a large debt, relocating corporate headquarters to Nebraska, and losing jobs due to redundancies?
Why?
Competitive Advantages of Ethical Organizations
Ethical organizations consist of ethical employees empowered to operate within a culture of trust. Research findings (and common sense) strongly suggest that, in the long term, ethical organizations financially outperform unethical organizations. Eight competitive advantages of achieving high integrity within a culture of trust appear in Exhibit 1.1.
If you were a job applicant, would you rather work for an ethical or an unethical organization?
An ethical organization attracts high-quality employees and leads to higher levels of employee satisfaction and loyalty. If the pay is similar, job candidates consistently choose the ethical organization rather than the unethical organization. Individuals only choose the unethical organization if pay and benefits are substantially higher. A survey of MBA students found that 94% of them would accept an average of 14% lower pay to work for an organization with a reputation for high ethical standards.1
EXHIBIT 1.1
If you were a customer, would you rather purchase products or services from an ethical or unethical organization?
A stellar ethical reputation is priceless marketing and leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. When product price and quality are similar, potential customers consistently choose the ethical organization over the unethical organization. In fact, consumers are willing to pay a modest premium for products and services supplied by an ethical company. They purchase from an unethical organization only if the price is substantially lower.
If you were a supplier, would you rather sell your products and services to an ethical or unethical organization?
An ethical organization attracts high-quality suppliers and increases supplier satisfaction and loyalty. Potential suppliers consistently choose to sell to the ethical organization that pays a fair price rather than the unethical organization. Suppliers depend on customers to pay their bills on time so that they can manage a smooth operation.
If you were an investor, would you rather do business with an ethical or unethical organization?
High-quality investors are attracted to ethical organizations, which leads to high...
