Managers Can Guide Employees To Act Ethically
by Paul Schumann
Some employees are unethical. A retail store employee might steal merchandise from the store. An hourly production worker might falsify his or her timecard to hide unexcused early departures from work. A salesperson might falsify expense claims to inflate reimbursements. An accountant might embezzle money from the company.
Why are some employees unethical when other employees, who work in the same situations and under the same conditions, are not? Over the past 50 years, researchers have studied moral development to try to answer this question.
The research on moral development concludes that people progress through stages of moral development. However, not everyone progresses through all of the stages; some individuals remain in one of the lower stages of moral development throughout their lives.
A person’s moral development is influenced by life experiences, education in general and specific education in ethics. The research evidence is clear: People can be taught to be ethical.
Furthermore, people do not stop learning to be ethical when they are children. The research evidence is again clear: One is never too old to progress to higher stages of moral development. In fact, the research evidence is that some of the most dramatic and extensive increases in moral development happens when individuals are in their 20s and 30s.
If managers want to motivate employees to be ethical, then managers will need to tailor their policies to all of the six stages of moral development.
Employees at the lowest stage of moral development are motivated to be ethical by their fear of being caught and punished if they behave unethically. For these employees: “The only crime is getting caught and punished.” To motivate these employees to be ethical, managers will need to develop and implement employee discipline systems designed to catch and punish bad behaviors. Managers need to create a clear set of rules and communicate those rules to employees. Managers need to implement systems to monitor employee compliance with the rules. Managers need to create systems to catch and punish rule violations.
Employees at the second stage of moral development are motivated to be ethical by the rewards they’ll receive for their ethical behavior. They want to know: “What’s in it for me?” To motivate these employees to be ethical, managers will therefore need to develop and implement incentive systems that reward good behaviors.
Employees at the third stage of moral development are motivated to be ethical by their desire to be seen as a good person in the eyes of people close to them, whose opinions they most value. They want to be seen by their parents as a good son or daughter. They want to be seen by their friends as a good friend. They want to be seen by their coworkers as a good coworker. They want to be seen by their immediate supervisor as a good employee. At this stage of moral development, group norms are important — they want to live up to the expectations of their parents, friends, coworkers, and supervisors. To motivate these employees to be ethical, managers will need to develop ethical norms among the coworkers and their supervisors. Managers can use personality and integrity tests to identify ethical applicants for a job opening. Managers can use formal socialization and training programs to teach employees ethical norms. Supervisors can praise examples of ethical behavior.
Employees at the fourth stage of moral development are motivated to be ethical by their desire to be a good citizen, including a good corporate citizen. They are motivated by a desire to do their duty, both to their company and to their nation. These employees are unlikely to engage in unethical behavior that threatens their employer or society. To enhance the motivation of these employees to be ethical, managers can publicize examples of employees who are ethical corporate citizens, which employees who are at this stage of moral development will want to emulate.
Employees at the fifth stage of moral development are motivated to be ethical by their desire to develop and enforce rules that have been impartially decided to be in everyone’s joint best interest. They not only want to do their duty as a good citizen, they also want to help develop mechanisms to define what duties good citizens have. These employees are unlikely to engage in unethical conduct. To enhance the motivation of these employees to be ethical, managers can provide employees with opportunities to participate in creating and using due process procedures through participative management methods.
Employees at the highest stage of moral development are motivated to be ethical by their desire to live their lives according to universal ethical principles. These employees are unlikely to engage in unethical behavior, even if ordered to do so by someone in authority. To enhance the motivation of these employees to be ethical, managers can create an ombudsoffice that would work to resolve employee complaints of illegal or unethical conduct within the company in ways that are guided by independence, confidentiality, objectivity, and ethics.
By doing all of these things, managers can motivate employees to be ethical no matter what their stage of moral development.
Schumann is a professor of management at Minnesota State University. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of business ethics and human resource management. He can be reached at paul.schumann@mnsu.edu.
