Why good people sometimes

do bad things.
The psychology behind ethics & integrity
Ethical Decision-Making
• Deciding what is right: a prescriptive approach (philosophy)
• Deciding what is right: a descriptive approach (behavioral ethics,
psychology, sociology, …)
[1

Characteristics of Individuals[
1.Individual Differences
2.Cognitive biases

Individual Ethical Decision Making & Behaviour

Moral Moral Ethical
Awareness Judgment Behaviour

Characteristics of Organizations
1.Group & Organisational Pressures
2.Organizational culture
Program
1. Kohlbergs theory of moral development. (p. 38 course text)
2. What does science say?
2.1. Social pyschology
2.2.Behavioral ethics
3. Cognitive barriers to good ethical judgment: Personal reflections on
Ford Pinto fires case. (course text p. 41-44)
4. Why good people sometimes do bad things. (See PDF on Canvas)
Focus

• In general, what did I learn about the psychology of

moral judgment and professional responsibility?
• How do these insights help me to become a more
ethical professional?
• Based on these insights, what would be my advice for
managers trying to stimulate ethical
thinking and behaviour of their staff?
1.Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.
Questions to determine the level of moral
development.
1. Should Heinz have stolen the drug?
2. Would it change anything if Heinz did not love his wife?
3. What if the person dying was a stranger, would it make any
difference?
4. Should the police arrest the chemist for murder if the woman died?
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.
Kohlberg: Moral development psychology
Level I. PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL

• Stage 1: Obedience and punishment orientation.

Sticking to the rules to avoid physical punishment. Obedience for its
own sake.

• Stage 2: Instrumental purpose and exchange.

Following rules only when it is in one’s immediate interest. Right is an
equal exchange, a fair deal.
Level II. CONVENTIONAL LEVEL
• Stage 3: Interpersonal accord, conformity, mutual expectations
Stereotypical ‘good’ behaviour. Living up to what is expected by
peers and people close to you.

• Stage 4: Social accord and system maintenance.

Fulfilling duties and obligations of the social system. Upholding laws
except in extreme cases where they conflict social duties.
Contributing to the society or group.
Level III POST-CONVENTIONAL
LEVEL
• Stage 5: Social contract and individual rights.
Being aware that people hold a variety of values; that rules are relative
to the group. Upholding rules because they are the social contract.
Upholding nonrelative values and rights regardless the majority
opinion.

• Stage 6: Universal ethical principles.

Following self-chosen ethical principles of justice and rights. When
laws violate principles, act in accord with principles.
How can Kohlberg’s theory be helpful in
an organisational context?
Breakout '

Answer these questions and mail to patrick.geussens@thomasmore.be

1. Should Evelyn contradict her boss’s report? Explain why/not?

2. Give one typical argument for each of the stages of Kohlbergs
theory.

You can use Kohlberg's theory to determine the quality of a given

argument.
2. What does science say?
2.1. Social psychology
1. Milgram Obedience study
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYLCy5PVgM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W147ybOdgpE
Milgram experiment(s) on obedience
• They measured the willingness of study participants, men from
a diverse range of occupations with varying levels of education,
to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts
conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led
to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in
which they had to administer electric shocks to a "learner."
These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that
would have been fatal had they been real.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
2. Stanford Prison
Experiment (Zimbardo)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=760lwYmpXbc
• https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=_Xljvdjugxs
3. The Asch experiment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRh5qy09nNw&list=PLB4A2FC716669BD95&index=4

4. The Bystander Effect - experiment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcowGVd6GqY&index=10&list=PLB4A2FC716669BD95

5. Kohlberg

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5czp9S4u26M
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqT8IHCeLE&t=16s
2.2. Behavioral Ethics
• Behavioral ethics studies why people make the ethical (and unethical) decisions
that they do in order to gain insights into how people can improve their
individual ethical decision-making capacities and promote ethical culture in
organizations.
• Behavioral ethics examines how we make moral decisions and offers insights
into how we can be our best selves.
• It is a relatively new area of study drawing on research from fields such as
behavioral psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and evolutionary
biology. Its findings show that people are often influenced, subconsciously, by
psychological biases, organizational and social pressures, and situational
factors that impact decision making and can lead to unethical action
• https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/subject-area/behavioral-ethics
 Behavioral ethics.

Watch the three videos

• Intro to Behavioral Ethics
• Self-Serving Bias: The self-serving bias causes us to see things in ways
that support our best interests and our pre-existing points of view.
• Ethical Fading: Ethical fading occurs when we are so focused on other
aspects of a decision that its ethical dimensions fade from view.
Break out
Discuss:
How are these ideas relevant for the two main questions:
• How do these insights help me to become a more ethical professional?
• Based on these insights, what would be my advice for managers
trying to stimulate ethical thinking and behaviour of their staff?
• How does Kohlberg's findings relate to the findings of Zimbardo,
Milgram & Ash?
3. Cognitive barriers to good ethical judgment: Personal reflections on Ford Pinto fires case.

• Read course text p. 41-44. Personal reflections

• See PPT: Ford Pinto Case.
• Answer questions
• Identify a situation in which you have used "script-processing" in a work or other life
situation.
• Do you believe that scripts can override one’s value system?
• What does it mean to say that organizational culture is a collection of scripts?
• Do you think a person is behaving unethically if the situation is not even construed in
ethical terms? If there is no moral awareness?
Cognitive barriers to good ethical
judgment:
"The key question is how, in the space of two short years, could I have
engaged in a decision process that appeared to violate my own strong
values – a decision process whose subsequent manifestations continue
to be cited by many observers as a supposedly definitive study of
corporate unethical behaviour?" Dennis Gioia
Normal human information
processing: Script-processing

• Develop cognitive strategies for simplifying the overwhelming amount

of information;
• Structure the information into cognitive “schemas”, or more
specifically “script schemas”, that guide understanding and action
when facing common and repetitive situations
• Scripts offer marvellous cognitive shortcuts because they allow you to
act virtually unconsciously and automatically, and thus permit
handling complicated situations without being paralyzed by needing
to think consciously about every little thing
How to deal with conflicting scripts
• Personalized scripting of information processing
• Scripts are context bound: socialization processes and the overriding
influence of organizational culture provide a strong, if generally
subtle, context for defining appropriate ways of seeing and
understanding.

• Gioia: I had internalized values for doing what was right as I

understood rightness in grand terms, but I had not internalized a
script for applying my values in a pragmatic business context.
Human behavior and human identity are
contextual
The organisational context strongly affects individuals on a more
fundamental level: one’s personal identity becomes heavily influenced
by corporate identity.

Before assuming your career role, identity derives mainly from social
relationships. Upon putting on the mantle of a profession or a
responsible position, identity begins to align with your role. And
information processing perspective follows that identity.
Breakout
• Share your answers to the four questions in your group:
• Identify a situation in which you have used "script-processing" in a
work or other life situation.
• Do you believe that scripts can override one’s value system?
• What does it mean to say that organizational culture is a collection of scripts?
• Do you think a person is behaving unethically if the situation is
not even construed in ethical terms? If there is no moral awareness?
• How do these insights form Gioia help me to become a more
ethical professional?
• Based on these insights, what would be my advice for
managers trying to stimulate ethical thinking and behaviour of their staf
Lessons learned
• First, develop your ethical base now! Articulate and affirm your values now,
before you enter the fray!
• Second, recognize that everyone, including you, is an unwitting victim of his or
her own cognitive structuring.
• Third, because scripts are contextbound and organisations are potent contexts,
be aware of how strong, yet how subtly, your job role and your organisational
culture affect the ways you interpret and make sense of information (and thus
affect the ways you develop scripts that will guide you in unguarded moment).

Articulate and affirm your values now, before you enter the fray! Develop your
moral compas!
INTERMEZZO:
The dark factor
http://www.darkfactor.org/
Ethically, morally, and socially questionable behavior is part of everyday
life. Psychologists use the umbrella term "dark traits" to subsume
personality traits that are linked to these classes of behavior — most
prominently, Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy (among
many others).

The Dark Factor of Personality (D) specifies what all dark traits have in
common, i.e., their common core.
Your Scores

• For all scores, the scale ranges from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high).
• Below the score, your relative position (rank) compared to the other
xxxxx participants of this study is shown. For example, a rank of 80%
means that your score is equal to or higher than the score of 80%
of the participants.
• In interpreting the results, please note that the participants of this stu
dy are not representative for the general population, so that the ranks
are certainly inaccurate. Also note that the results can only be reliable
to the extent that you responded seriously and honestly.
The D-factor=
D describes the tendency to ruthlessly pursue one's own interests,
even when this harms others (or even for the sake of harming others),
while having beliefs that justify these behaviors.
D-factor
D is defined as the tendency to maximize one's individual utility —
disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking disutility for others
—, accompanied by beliefs that serve as justifications. Put simply,
individuals high in D will ruthlessly pursue their own interests, even
when it negatively affects others (or even for the sake of it), while
having beliefs that justify these behaviors.
The D-factor=
• Amorality= the belief that ethical rules don't apply to oneself
• Egoism= a focus on one's own achievements,
• Greed = the belief that one deserves more than others,
• Machiavellianism =willingness to manipulate people to get one's way
• Psychopathy = callousness and antisocial behavior,
• Sadism= pleasure from hurting others,
• Spitefulness= the desire for revenge, even at one's own expense,
• Narcissism =grandiose selfishness .
Determine your D-factor (Homework)
• www.darkfactor.org
• Print result.

Breakout:
• How was the feedback meaningful or useful?
• In general? In a personal/professional/managerial way?
4. Why good people sometimes do bad
things. Muel kaptein
• Why do even the most honest and conscientious employees
sometimes go off the rails?
• What pushes upstanding and intelligent managers over the edge?
• What causes benevolent organizations to lead their customers,
employees, and shareholders up the garden path?
Essential knowledge: attention to human behavior within
organizations and what causes this behavior.

• For all those who work in or for organizations and for anyone
dependent on them, it is essential to know what explains the good
and bad behavior of people within those organizations.
• If we can explain this, we are better placed to judge, predict and
influence both our own behavior and that of others.
• Social psychology offers a wealth of answers to the question of why
people do bad things, some of them very surprising, thereby
explaining the way in which social mechanisms influence the psyche
and thereby people’s behavior
7 factors that influence behaviour in
organisations
1. Clarity for directors, managers and employees as to what constitutes desirable
and undesirable behavior: the clearer the expectations, the better people know
what they must do and the more likely they are to do it.
2. Role-modeling among administrators, management or immediate supervisors:
the better the examples given in an organization, the better people behave, while
the worse the example, the worse the behavior.
3. Achievability of goals, tasks and responsibilities set: the better equipped people
in an organization are, the better they are able to do what is expected of them.
4. Commitment on the part of directors, managers and employees in the
organization: the more the organization treats its people with respect and involves
them in the organization, the more these people will try to serve the interests of
the organization.
5. Transparency of behavior: the better people observe their own and others’
behavior, and its effects, the more they take this into account and the better
they are able to control and adjust their behavior to the expectations of others.
6. Openness to discussion of viewpoints, emotions, dilemmas and
transgressions: the more room people within the organization have to talk
about moral issues, the more they do this, and the more they learn from one
another.
7. Enforcement of behavior, such as appreciation or even reward for desirable
behavior, sanctioning of undesirable behavior and the extent to which people
learn from mistakes, near misses, incidents, and accidents: the better the
enforcement, the more people tend towards what will be rewarded and avoid
what will be punished.
Homework

• Choose two of the 7 factors

• Read 2 chapters for every chosen factor
• Prepare a short presentation: explain what you learned (no longer
than 5 minutes)
• Think about options from a managerial perspective to deal with these
factors: what to do in order to prevent people to misbehave? Give at
least one suggestion/tip for each chapter you read. (4 tips in total)
Challenge!
• by questioning and confronting ourselves,
• by holding issues up to the light and cross-examining one another,
• by confronting important issues in an open, constructive, stimulating
manner, in order to open our eyes and ears and those of others,
• by posing a question, expressing a feeling, or presenting an interesting
example or dilemma
• by constructive openness
• by addressing assumptions, viewpoints and ways of doing things,
contesting them and raising questions without imposing an answer or
starting out with a preconceived idea of the conclusion
Change your questions, change your
organisation
• Aren’t you jumping to conclusions?
• Aren’t we missing the point here?
• How about looking at this from another point of view?
• Where will we be in three years’ time?
• What’s your gut feeling?
• Can we reconcile this with our starting point?
A challenge is a moment of intervention:
a signal to stop what we’re doing, call a time-out,
and ask if we are doing the right thing,
whether we have forgotten anything,
whether we are listening to what others say and
what we should be telling ourselves.
• Challenging issues enables organizations to self-cleanse and self-
regulate.
• Challenging oneself and one another is a powerful medicine against
bad behavior. In fact, it is a powerful vitamin for a healthy
organization and a healthy individual career.
• An organization’s moral level is reflected in the extent to which there
is room for argumentation, and by the quality of the argumentation.