“There’s a small percent of people out there who know that they aren’t good people. But most of us tend to think that we’re pretty good people,“ says Max Bazerman, a Harvard Business School professor. Bazerman’s concept of bounded ethicality focuses on the psychological processes that lead even good people to engage in ethically questionable behavior that contradicts their own preferred ethics. In other words, instead of focusing on a bad apple – like Bernie Madoff – Bazerman argues that the majority of unethical events occur as the result of ordinary and predictable psychological processes, meaning good people often engage in unethical behavior without their own awareness on a regular basis.
You Will Learn
How to make situationally-informed decisions
How to identify your behavioral patterns
How to protect yourself against unintentional unethical behavior-- what are the "blind spots" that could lead you to make an unethical decision?
- Harvard Business School Professor in Business Psychology
Max Bazerman’s concept of bounded ethicality focuses on the psychological processes that lead even good people to engage in ethically questionable behavior that contradicts their own preferred ethics. In other words, instead of focusing on a bad apple – like Bernie Madoff – Bazerman argues that the majority of unethical events occur as the result of ordinary and predictable psychological processes, meaning good people often engage in unethical behavior without their own awareness on a regular basis.In this lesson, Bazerman examines the all-too-human decisions that led to NASA’s Challenger tragedy and offers three key takeaways that you can apply to help you see past your blind spots.Lessons from the Challenger StoryLesson 1: Heighten your awarenessNote the decision-making climate.Is this situation politically or emotionally charged?Are we asking the right questions?Lesson 2: Establish firm groundingCommit to prioritizing ethical considerations.Is this a moral course of action?Le...
“There’s a small percent of people out there who know that they aren’t good people. But most of us tend to think that we’re pretty good people,“ says Max Bazerman, a Harvard Business School professor. That’s why the focus of his book Blind Spots is on the large majority of people who have responsible jobs and believe that their integrity and honesty is protection against unethical acts.On the contrary, Bazerman argues that honesty and integrity are only protection against intentionally acting unethically. They are not protection against unintentional unethical behavior.The important question then becomes, what can you do about your blind spots? In this lesson, Bazerman offers three strategies for surfacing beliefs, preferences and patterns of behavior that you didn’t know you had.Look at the data.Consider the contributions of others.Identify conflicts of interest.