Keywords: decision-making; workplace; leadership; moral psychology; deviance;
Overview:
This scenario is about a junior employee put in an awkward position by a supervisor who encourages them to invent numbers in order to complete a report on time. Regardless of whether the employee agrees to do so, they end up being faced with rationalizations — either the opportunity to engage in rationalization to help themselves feel better, or the opportunity to respond to a rationalization in order to defend their own integrity. This case is an exploration of a common problem faced by early career employees. It is also an opportunity to discuss a point drawn from the literature on wrongdoing, which is that very often “good people do bad things” because they are able to make use of rationalizations.
Possible Questions for Discussion:
- How common do you think rationalizations and excuse-making are in the average workplace?
- How do you think an individual might feel after offering a rationalization for something that they are pretty sure is against the rules?
- If someone tried to get you to do something you thought was wrong, and told that “Everybody does it,” what would YOU say in response?
- If someone told you they did something you thought was wrong, and told that “It’s not my fault, because I was ordered to do it,” what would YOU say in response?
- When you hear someone offering those kinds of rationalizations, what do you tend to think about that person, their values, or their situation?
Links:
Ethics and Rationalization (from the Ethical Realism blog)
Rationalizations (video from Ethics Unwrapped)
Twelve Common Rationalizations and Excuses to Avoid (from the Josephson Institute)