Author: Robert Hoyk and Paul Hersey
ISBN No: 97807 49453350
Review date: 16/12/2025
No of pages: 160
Publisher: Kogan Page in association with Stanford University Press
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
Ethical traps are universal and we all fall prey to them, says a book on business ethics that can help fraud and security people understand what they are up against; and how to spot wrong-doing for what it is.
Ethical Executive: how to avoid the traps of the unethical workplace is by clinical psychologist Robert Hoyk and academic Paul Hersey. They write: ‘These leaders (involved in financial or other scams) are no different from you or us. The way we act is the result of a complex weave of situational factors, history, and personality. Even if we have good ethical values to begin with, given certain situational pressures, every one of us can become unethical.’
They go on to identify what they term 45 ‘traps’ which might lead leaders to unethical behaviour and suggest ways to avoid such traps. These traps, they say, are found in any organisation. Many of them are psychological in nature, creating ‘webs of deception’ that distort our perception of right and wrong so we actually believe our unethical behaviour is normal and appropriate.
So rather than talk baldly of fraud, the authors describe how corrupt people may see victims as faceless, or beneath contempt; or justify themselves with phrases such as ‘everybody does it’. Equally, fellow worker may feel loyalty to the wrong-doer, especially one in authority, rather than blow the whistle. More sublty, sinisterly, the unethical people may seek to de-sensitise the good people, and stifle dissent, by twisting words (to an Enron employee, lies were ‘marketing’). The authors use case studies from business scandals, besides writing in terms of psychology. For instance: “Power can cause executives to devalue their employees. When this happens, the executive’s reflexive role that necessitates making profit may become unchecked; the executive pushes his or her employees too hard and too fast. To cope with the pressure, employees may then take unethical short cuts.” If staff betray investors, collude with suppliers, and break rules, and meet target and get promotion; does that make the head of loss prevention or security’s job lonely?
