Worth a Look: Ethical Breakdowns
Scott Bellinger, a Police Academy Commander and Instructor at Munroe Falls Police Academy, recently shared an excellent article from Harvard Business Review in the LinkedIn FBI-Law Enforcement Executive Development Association group.
Ethical Breakdowns, by Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel, is valuable for two reasons. First, even though there is no reference to the policing industry in the article, you will see the relevancy quickly. Ethics issues are universal and we can learn a lot from the business world where lapses in ethical behavior make the headlines and organizations and the people in them are often destroyed. Second, its hbr. If hbr is not on your reading list it should be. The articles found there are on the leading edge for leadership and organizational behavior issues. Even articles deep in the hbr archives remain relevant today.
The police workforce has been changing and will continue to do so. Is it safe to assume that because people choose this career that ethics can be assumed? Let me know what you think.
If we find minor infractions acceptable, research suggests, we are likely to accept increasingly major infractions as long as each violation is only incrementally more serious than the preceding one.
Max H. Bazerman & Ann E. Tenbrunsel
© 2015 DAVID A. LYONS
