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By Lekshmy Sankar | 11-Mar-2018

I was in a meeting this week where a group of people who – prior to the meeting – were individually very passionate in their views about a decision. As soon as the meeting began, the individual with the greatest positional power expressed his view and, lo and behold, suddenly everyone abandoned their own view and latched onto this person’s viewpoint. I chuckled to myself because it reminded me of high school and the overwhelming need to follow the popular crowd despite one’s beliefs that a different course of action may be best. Another way to think about it is “don’t rock the boat” or “stay in your lane.”

It got me thinking about Kohlberg’s cognitive moral development (CMD) theory, mostly because it is the only ethical theory that I remembered from my university days. Before I share my opinion and analysis on organizational ethics, here is a summary of how I would explain Kohlberg’s CMD theory (you can Google the theory to learn more and maybe even fact check me). But boiled down to a very basic framework, Kohlberg believed in three levels with various stages to describe how people make moral decisions:

Level 1 – Pre-conventional level

Stage 1 – Obedience vs. punishment. If you can think of the United States as an organization, this would be the basis of criminal and civil law. If you murder someone, you go to jail. If you pollute, you get fined. If you steal, maybe you get community service. You get the point.
Stage 2 – Individualism and exchange. This is your typical organizational method to increase efficiency or sales by providing a commission-based bonus or pay raise or a fancy title to reward those who perform. Essentially, you do something so you can get rewarded.

Level 2 – Conventional

Stage 3 – Accord conformity. This is the example that I provided earlier. It’s where you follow the crowd. It’s all about conforming to the prevailing view or activity of the organization.
Stage 4 – Social accord and system maintenance. The way I like to think of this stage is thinking about the Patriot Act. Do you remember when the government used the Patriot Act to access phone data? It arguably invaded the personal privacy of users but companies were willing to allow the intrusion because they were complying with the law.

Level 3 – Post-conventional

Stage 5 – Social contract & individual judgment. This is how I view certain actions of innovative companies like Apple. Remember when the FBI requested Apple to decrypt an iPhone following the San Bernardino attacks? Apple said “no” because they felt that the privacy of their users was more important despite the devastating effects of those attacks.
Stage 6 – Universal ethical principles. This one is a difficult stage to explain or even envision. It’s when an individual or an organization can act independently free of external influences. The closest I can think of is Yoda. That said, Yoda was a Jedi and he was bound by the Jedi code and so he isn’t a good example. It would arguably be the very first Jedi who may have created the Jedi code shaping and developing it as she sees fit.

This is obviously a very high-level summary of the theory but it does help you understand or somehow categorize how organizations shape ethical behavior. It can be a little confusing so I created the bullets below to help:

Stage 1 - Punishment (e.g., disciplinary actions, demotions, cuts in pay)
Stage 2 - Rewards (e.g., commission based bonuses, promotions, raises, paid vacations, corner office)
Stage 3 - Conformity (mix of stage 1 & 2 to condition behavior)
Stage 4 - Clear and robust policies and procedures (mix of stage 1 – 3)
Stage 5 - Social gadfly (mix of stage 1 & 2 to condition behavior)
Stage 6 - By shaping the behavior, the individual will no longer be part of stage 6 by definition

In particular, because of my own experiences working in the public sector, I look at stage 3. I am not really exploring here whether stage 3 is good or bad. It’s just what my experience has been. I am, however, curious to understand how an organization can move from one stage to another – if it so desired. I’m also curious about whether it’s possible for an individual who predominantly views their world at a Stage-5 level to survive working in a Stage-3 organization?

Do I think an organization is stuck in one stage? No, absolutely not. I do believe that organizations can move between various stages depending on the circumstance or moral intensity of the situation. But I guess I’m wondering if it’s possible to consciously encourage one level over another. Or maybe I’m over-simplifying it.

What do you think? Do you think an organization has the power to shape an individual’s ethical behavior? Do any of the stages speak particularly to your experience? Let me know in the comments below.

How Organizations Shape Employee's Ethical Behavior

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