The impact of COVID on poor ethical behaviour in the workplace
Have you ever made it look like you were working when you weren’t, exaggerated work hours to look more productive, or lied about why you were absent?
Perhaps it may make you feel feel better to know, you are not alone. And what’s more, things seem to have got worse on that front since COVID.
The Research
Hillebrandt and Barclay note that:
The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant ethical challenges for organizations. For example, a global integrity report from Ernst and Young (2020) indicated that 90% of companies report that COVID-19 poses a risk to ethical conduct in the workplace. Similarly, the popular press has highlighted the ethical toll of the pandemic with headlines such as “COVID-19 accelerates unethical behavior” (National Herald, 2020). Indeed, a survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic indicated that many employees are willing to engage in unethical behavior, including falsifying customer records (32%) or providing false information to management (29%) (Bhattacharyya, 2020).
More than just Rotten Apples, Bad Barrels or Sticky Situations
What’s interesting though is the research from Hillebrandt and Barclay that suggest the impact of environmental factors such as Covid can lead to increased workplace cheating. We know that there are factors that can impact poor workplace ethics, but they’ve usually been related to the individual’s moral compass, organisational cues around what’s valued and ethical, and sticky situations that an individual has got themselves into. This study takes it out of the workplace and examines whether broader environmental factors can also be at play.
COVID Anxiety
Essentially, the anxiety provoked by COVID can increase self interest which can lead to an increase in workplace cheating.
My first thought on reading the study was that perhaps it was flexible working or working from home which had led to these behaviours. After all, it’s one of the big fears that managers have around their employees working from home. But no.. This study focused on employees who were still working in the workplace.
Pro Social Messaging
But it’s fascinating that at a time when many of the broader community messages have been pro social and about keeping the wider community safe, the focus on the individual workplace may have lessened, allowing for these sorts of behaviours to increase.
Hillebrandt and Barclay note that:
We argued that anxiety focuses individuals on their own self-interest and can prompt workplace cheating behavior because this self-interested behavior is aligned with attentional focus on the self. Theoretically, this suggests that drawing employees’ attention towards the interests and concerns of other people may attenuate the relationship between anxiety and workplace cheating behavior. We propose that organizations may accomplish this by delivering prosocial messages—ideological messages that “enabl[e] employees to understand how their contributions will benefit others” (Grant & Hofmann, 2011, p. 176; see also Thompson & Bunderson, 2003). Given that prosocial messages can help employees understand how their work can benefit other people (e.g., Grant, 2008; Grant & Hofmann, 2011), such messages should theoretically shift employees’ attentional focus towards the concerns and interests of others and away from their own self-interest. Indeed, public health studies have indicated that prosocial messages can amplify the tendency for individuals to engage in behaviors that can benefit their community (e.g., Kelly & Hornik, 2016; Li et al., 2016; Pittman, 2020). For instance, Heffner et al. (2021, p. 110420) found that prosocial messages during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., “Together, we can stop the coronavirus. Everyone’s actions count … Together, by self-isolating we can save millions of lives”) can enhance the tendency to self-isolate (see Jordan et al., 2021 for a similar effect with vaccination decisions). That is, drawing individuals’ attention towards needs of others can enhance these behaviors.
Within organizational settings, prosocial messages are commonly delivered by organizational leaders (e.g., Grant & Hofmann, 2011; Thompson & Bunderson, 2003). For instance, leaders can highlight the positive impact of employees’ work on society, provide mission communications that emphasize the significance of employees’ work for customers or beneficiaries, or draw employees’ attention to their contributions to the community. Examples of prosocial messages provided during the COVID-19 pandemic include Weston’s (2020) (CEO of Loblaw Companies) message noting: “Our extraordinary teams are motivated by what they see as a responsibility to Canadians and the opportunity to make a difference.” Similarly, Metro Inc. (n.d.) (a grocery store chain) issued the statement: “The METRO family plays an essential role within its communities, and this is truer today than ever before.”
Or in non academic speak – show the link between job and wider purpose and you lessen the likelihood of this sort of behaviour.
The Takeaway
The “why” of jobs has probably never been so important with the Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting and other forms of employee protest. More than ever, employees are looking to organisations to provide more than a transaction. Here’s just another example of why being able to show the link makes a tangible difference to everyday behaviours.
More Resources..
Rotten Apples, Bad Barrels and Sticky Situations
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