Empowerment, Not Punishment,
Fuels Ethical Behaviour
To
promote ethical behaviour, firms should emphasise community, not only
consequences.
In
recent years, the financial sector has produced one shocking scandal after
another. The latest outrage came when news broke of how Wells Fargo’s cutthroat
sales culture drove low-level employees to open more than two million
unauthorized customer accounts. The ensuing firestorm saw Wells Fargo lose its
standing as the U.S.’s most valuable bank and get slapped with $185 million in
corporate fines. Meanwhile, John G. Stumpf retired as chairman and CEO of the
164-year-old bank, with vested stock worth more than $100
million to cushion his fall.
This
gaping disparity between individual and collective consequences echoes past
financial scandals, and almost assures that there will be more to come. As long
as leaders can gamble with their company’s reputation, not to mention the
welfare of external stakeholders, without placing their personal circumstances
at risk, the mindset required to do the right thing will remain elusive. The
pull of self-interest is strong enough to warp even a fairly steady ethical
compass.
By
the same logic, however, inducing feelings of greater social belonging and
communal connectedness should counteract self-interest, effectively creating an
ethical workaround. Indeed, my recent
paper (co-written by Irina Cojuharenco of
D’Amore-McKim School of Business and Gert Cornelissen of Universitat Pompeu
Fabra) finds that people act in a more socially responsible way and more in
keeping with their values, once a chord of fellow-feeling has been struck in
them.
The
opposite of selfishness is self-belief
Past
research has turned up solid evidence that thinking in terms of “we” rather
than “I” leads to more socially responsible behaviour. Since feeling connected
to others is a fundamental psychological need, it makes sense that such
feelings would enable us to be our best selves. Further, researchers have shown
that feelings of belonging encourage swifter adaptation to collective norms and
goals.
Our
paper offers new insight into how feeling connected to others affects
behaviour. We find that identification with a social group has an empowering
effect on individuals. People who are highly socially motivated may surrender
some aspects of their individuality, but receive in return a sense of strength
in numbers that gets absorbed into their own self-image. Consequently, they
have a greater belief in the effectiveness of their individual actions, and a
clearer conception of how their own choices directly impact the collective.
Making
a difference
We
surveyed more than 600 adults in the United States on their consumer habits as
well as on their social values, sense of connectedness to others, and how
effective they perceived their actions as individuals to be. Analysing the
responses, we found that individuals with a high sense of social connectedness
felt their individual actions would generate a greater impact on a larger scale
and, as a result, tended to be the most socially conscious consumers. Overall,
the social values self-reported by the respondents were a less reliable
predictor of behaviour than the feeling that they, as individuals, could make a
difference. This result is consistent with the idea that while values enhance
ideological support for a policy or an inclination to behave ethically, the
belief that one's actions can make a difference is necessary to produce a
change in actual behaviour.
In
two subsequent studies, we attempted to influence people’s decision-making
process using the above insights. To temporarily enhance one’s sense of
connectedness to others, we asked one group of people to recall and describe a
situation when they were doing something for someone: namely, buying a gift.
The second group was asked to write about buying something for themselves. We
found that after completing the writing exercise, people in the first group
felt more socially connected, plus were more likely to believe in the efficacy
of their individual actions, and, importantly, to donate time to an NGO,
compared to those in the second group.
The
same pattern occurred when we added real money into the mix, by allowing
participants to donate part of their fee to an NGO promoting ethical business
and free trade.
Communication
strategies
These
findings add up to good news for well-meaning managers in scandal-prone
industries such as finance. We suggest that the combination of two elements
that are proven to be responsive to intervention—the sense of connectedness
and, consequently, of effectiveness of one’s actions—can raise just about
anyone’s appreciation for the consequences of their behaviour.
However,
conventional communications campaigns designed to promote more ethical or sustainable
behaviour tend to focus more on consequences than community. Because the former
has less meaning for people without the latter, that’s the wrong way
around. Communicators should keep in mind that communal awareness is often
a prerequisite for ethical behaviour. Your best bet is to frame your
appeal in terms of “we”, rather than “I” or “you”.
Case
in point: In a field experiment among hotel guests,
researchers found that signs encouraging towel reuse that invoked social norms
(e.g., “the majority of guests in this room reuse their towels”) worked better
than those employing statistics about aggregate environmental impact. Signs
addressed to “citizens” or “men and women” rather than hotel guests were even
more effective.
The
above example suggests that we’re at our ethical best when we feel part of
a human community that transcends our immediate surroundings, e.g. when we’re
hailed as human beings rather than employees. Otherwise, we may confuse (either
implicit or explicit) organizational norms with ethical mandates – as Wells
Fargo managers did when they pressured
their subordinates to the point of desperation.
Natalia Karelaia is
an Associate Professor of Decision Sciences at INSEAD.
Read more at http://knowledge.insead.edu/responsibility/empowerment-not-punishment-fuels-ethical-behaviour-5000?utm_source=INSEAD+Knowledge&utm_campaign=a5d2ba1b09-27_Oct_mailer10_27_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e079141ebb-a5d2ba1b09-249840429#mOqk6T32H4gydQCS.99
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