This week we're grappling with a risk type that's of great importance. Workplace Misconduct; it's a big, complex, and scary topic. So I find it useful to break it down into two different categories. On the left side of the diagram, we have misconduct that damages the organization and is solely motivated by personal benefits. It includes things like fraud, absenteeism, bullying, damage to property, and even repeating gossip. On the right-hand side, we have misconduct that's motivated by desire to benefit both the organization and the individual. For example, an employee might make a misleading claim about the organization services, no attempt to boost sales, or she might destroy files, that would make the organization look bad. Employees might do this, because they expect an indirect personal benefits, like a promotion or a bonus payments, but there is a clear benefit to your organization. Thinking about these two types of misconduct, which would you say is most common; most difficult to address, or most damaging? On the left-hand side, the damage is mainly within the organization: loss of property, high staff turnover, low morale, and law profits. On the right side, the damage is typically to external stakeholders, like customers. But if the misconduct is discovered, then the organization may have to offer expensive compensation to customers, or other wronged parties. Indirect damage can also be significant, such as legal costs, fines, new regulations, and loss of market share due to reputational damage. Turning to the causes of misconduct, we can break things down into several broad categories. Misconduct might be caused by bad apples, deviant individuals, you do the wrong thing because there's something unique to them as people. It could also be caused by characteristics of the organization, by bad barrels. Or taking it further, it might be a problem endemic to the entire industry, a bad orchard. This week, we'll be focusing primarily on misconduct that's motivated by the desire to benefit your organization. We'll be doing a deep dive into the causes of misconduct, and we'll also be developing some strategies for responding to misconduct. I expect that you might have done some ethics education or training in the past. Unfortunately, universities haven't always done a good job of teaching ethics. Ethics has often been presented in an overly philosophical way. The aim has been to teach people to analyze complex problems, but this generally hasn't translated into more ethical behavior. It turns out that most ethical programs of the past have achieved little or nothing, in this regard. The approach we'll be taking is quite different to pass programs offered in universities, and reflects more modern scholarship in this space. Most ethical dilemmas in the workplace are not terribly complex. The right course of action is pretty obvious. The difficulty is figuring out how to respond, and that will be our focus. It's a practical rather than theoretical approach to ethics. Your first task this week, before watching any more videos, is to do a quiz on your personal attitudes in this area. The quiz isn't assessable, and only you will see the results, but be sure to take the quiz, as it will help you engage with some important issues.
