The Price Leaders Pay for Cutting Ethical Corners

Authors

• Isaac Smith, Brigham Young UniversityFollow
• Maryam Kouchaki, Northwestern University
• Justin Wareham, Oklahoma City University

Keywords

unethical requests, motivation, value incongruence

Abstract

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for leaders to ask their employees to cross ethical lines. Consider the following examples from a pilot study we recently conducted: A sales representative at a retail company was asked to grant credit approval to unqualified customers who were friends of her supervisor; a field technician at a communications company was asked by management to close telephone repair tickets for elderly customers whose phones were not fixed; and an engineer in the transportation industry was asked to approve projects that he felt were at risk for structural failure.

Original Publication Citation

"Smith, I. H., Kouchaki, M., & Wareham, J. P. (2021). The price leaders pay for making unethical requests: Asking employees to cut corners at work can hurt their motivation and their performance. MIT Sloan Management Review, 62(4), 11–13."

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Smith, Isaac; Kouchaki, Maryam; and Wareham, Justin, "The Price Leaders Pay for Cutting Ethical Corners" (2021). Faculty Publications. 9317.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/9317

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2021

Publisher

MIT Sloan Management Review

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Marketing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

Copyright Use Information

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/