Tag Archive for: Compliance & Ethics, Ethics Pays

Testing, Testing: Drawing Conclusions From Test Environments

One challenge identified in academic literature on behavioral ethics and business is finding practical applications for the lessons learned from test environments. All of us at Ethical Systems, including our collaborators and partners, are working on how to best leverage these findings.

This challenge is succinctly presented by Donald C. Langevoort of Georgetown University in a recent article about behavioral ethics and behavioral compliance. As he points out, the lessons from behavioral ethics are intuitive and while the outcomes aren't necessarily predictable, they are often unsurprising. It makes sense, for example, that 'just in time' communications improve ethical decision-making because the reminder of the moral fallout of one's choices become prominent. In another example, Langevoort describes the concept of ethical blind spots- as popularized by two ES collaborators, Max Bazerman and Ann Tenbrunsel- distorting good judgment and sensible decision making. 

New proof that good ethics is good business

[This essay was originally posted to The Conflict of Interest Blog]  In a simpler economic time, the tangible rewards to oneself from doing good for others were fairly self-evident. A memorable articulation of this (from a chronicler…