When leadership requires skill in wisely choosing between right and wrong, and between right and right, how do you fair?
When this topic comes up in my coaching conversations, I recall what business ethics professor and author Joseph Badaracco wrote in “The Discipline of Building Character” (Harvard Business Review, 2006):
We have all experienced, at one time or another, situations in which our professional responsibilities unexpectedly come into conflict with our deepest values…we are caught in a conflict between right and right. And no matter which option we choose, we feel like we’ve come up short.
Joseph Badaracco
Research and empirical studies on moral standards and business ethics is sparse. But if we look at self-reporting surveys we can see some trends. For example:
- An assessment of manager’s values finds that 86% of managers claim moral standards at work are set by the expectations perceived in the work environment.
- A study of organizational ethics finds that a corporation’s culture a strong determinant of individual thought, behavior, and organizational norms.
- Corporate or organizational culture is recognized as a key contextual influence in establishing and maintaining norms.
Leadership Today
The morality and ethics of the modern workplace are influenced by the leaders of the organization. In my years as a coach, I find that there is an increasing sense of distrust of leaders’ motives when they are seen to serve shareholders and themselves, rather than the employees, the community, the environment, or even the customers. They are seen as not telling the truth, and doing whatever it takes to increase stock value.
Such erosion of trust may be pandemic. But as Dr. Marc J. Epstein and Kirk O. Hanson write in Rotten: Why Corporate Misconduct Continues and What to Do about It (Lanark Press, 2020), “While we don’t argue here that corporate behavior has necessarily gotten worse in recent years, we certainly don’t believe it has gotten better.” In many ways, I agree.
When misconduct happens by leaders, it colors all employees’ views of how leaders operate. And when corporate culture is undermined by distrust, the original excitement and enthusiasm about a job turns to cynicism, alienation, and disengagement. When this happens, work suffers.
What do you think? When choosing between right and right, how do you fair? I’d love to hear from you. I can be reached here, on LinkedIn, or give me a call: 561-582-6060.
