Why dishonesty is increasing in business

In China, for instance, the command culture system often overrides any expectation that superiors will be forthcoming with underlings. North American employees also face dilemmas in countries where payoffs or bribes are standard operation for doing business.

Workers from the US, for instance, often view a bribe as dishonest, and have a tough time repressing disdain for the practice if encountered overseas.

That ethical act can do something dramatic: It sets the stage for an honest workplace. When corporate cultures breed dishonesty. Share using Email. By Eric Barton 16th July If a leader is being dishonest If he did stretch the truth, Obama, a father of two, has plenty of company. Honesty vs transparency Honesty in business is often high on lists of what employees say they want in the workplace.

Every little lie we tell about ourselves subconsciously validates assumptions that we are not good enough. This behaviour implies that we are flawed and that these flaws are unacceptable. Companies are always built on integrity and a positive public perception, though this can easily be lost which can lead to stocks falling, investors pulling out, ruined working relationships, customers leaving and the resignation of employees.

Unreliable and dishonest businesses destroy customer loyalty. Businesses and people who are unreliable, never true to their word, lack transparency, are unrealistic with what they commit to and never follow through with what they promise, and ultimately dishonest will clearly not benefit from repeat business and referrals but may suffer from poor damaging reviews.

Increasingly consumers are deciding to purchase products or services based on company ethicality, of which honesty and integrity plays a large role. It can take years to build and maintain a good reputation but takes even longer to recover after dishonesty has destroyed a reputation.

Address concerns regarding workplace dissatisfaction. Low morale or employee dissatisfaction is more likely to incite employee theft, unproductivity and misuse of company time and expenses. Create policies and systems to prevent employee dishonesty.

Include any repercussions such as suspension, termination or legal action. Some researchers point to group decision-making processes or psychological traps that snare leaders into justification of unethical choices. Certainly those factors are at play, but they largely explain dishonest behavior at an individual level and I wondered about systemic factors that might influence whether or not people in organizations distort or withhold the truth from one another.

This is what my team set out to understand through a year longitudinal study. We analyzed 3, interviews that were conducted as part of organizational assessments to see whether there were factors that predicted whether or not people inside a company will be honest.

Our research yielded four factors — not individual character traits, but organizational issues — that played a role. The stakes here are high. A lack of strategic clarity. They tout values and missions to rally confused employees.

Tesla offers a painful example. The company, now under criminal investigation for misleading investors, overpromised its production targets for its Model 3.

As CEO Elon Musk continued to promise hitting his 5, vehicles per week target, issues of worker injury, safety and stress came to light. Everyone from the CEO to the front-line employees, everyone must have the chance to discuss, debate and embrace each strategic objective. Unjust accountability systems. We intentionally excluded compensation in our research, because incentive structures can sometimes play disproportionate roles in influencing behavior, and simply looked at how contribution was measured and evaluated through performance management systems, routine feedback processes, and cultural recognition.

I fill out the appraisal forms at the end of the year, he signs them and sends them to HR. We pretend to have a discussion, and then we start over.