Newsroom

Not all unethical workplace behavior rises to Bernie Madoff or Enron levels. Smaller transgressions, like padding expense reports or stealing office supplies, are far more common. It’s easy to excuse, ignore, and even justify these minor breaches of ethics, but in aggregate they can cause measurable financial damage. Businesses can use symbols in the physical environment to nurture a stronger ethical sense within the workforce.

Can Photos of Loved Ones Improve Ethics in the Workplace?

October 28, 2020 • By Drew Farrington

Chris Bauman, associate professor at the UCI Paul Merage School of Business, recently published a new study on how environmental cues in the workplace can affect behavior. In Show Me the … Family: How Photos of Meaningful Relationships Reduce Unethical Behavior at Work, Bauman, along with colleagues Ashley Hardin from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis and David Mayer from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, report the results of their study of how photos of family members and other loved ones can foster ethical behavior in the workplace. The piece will be published in the November issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Small transgression, big losses

Bauman and his team note that “organizations lose an estimated five percent of annual revenue as a result of employee fraud.” The fraud they’re talking about is a far cry from large-scale, headline-making corporate scandals. Rather, their study looks at smaller ethical violations like padded expense reports, swiped boxes of pens or dips into the petty cash box. Perhaps because they are small scale, these types of ethical violations get little attention, but they can have significant financial impacts. 

In a business-related setting or situation, it is common for people to get in the habit of examining situations through an economic lens, says Bauman. Much of the time, this “economic schema” is appropriate for the workplace, but prior research shows that this mindset also prompts people to exhibit a greater propensity to lie, cheat, steal and be less compassionate.

“I’d like to think most people aren’t interested in soaking others for millions of dollars,” says Bauman. “We can all agree that’s pretty awful.” 

The vast majority of unethical workplace events could be considered mundane by some. “None of us are angels,” says Bauman. According to Bauman, more than a few working people ask questions like: “Is it really that bad if I expense $18 for lunch if my actual cost was $8? After all, I easily could have ordered a more expensive item.”

Bauman says people tend to excuse themselves when they commit minor instances of wrongdoing. “Many people are pretty good at doing mental gymnastics that exonerate themselves from guilt and justify their low-value, high-frequency micro transgressions, even though, when added up, these transgressions do have an impact on the organization.”

A picture-perfect workspace

Bauman and his colleagues based their work on an emerging area of research that explores how symbols in people’s environment affects social behavior and decision making.

“Research on ethical behavior has traditionally emphasized the influence of individuals’ traits and characteristics and the social relations among people in a situation,” says Bauman. “What’s different about our research is that we look at cues in the physical environment.”

They investigated how the presence of photos “decreases the hegemony of an economic schema in people’s minds, which in turn decreases their propensity to commit unethical behavior.” Bauman explains that people make a simple cognitive connection. “Seeing pictures of loved ones reminds you who you are or want to be outside of work, which is just one aspect of your life,” he says.

Putting theory into practice

A company’s physical environment is especially intriguing to scholars and practitioners because organizations have considerable control over their spaces. Identifying features that inhibit unethical behavior could lead to interventions that are beneficial for employees and organizations alike. 

In a field survey and laboratory experiments, the researchers observed participants as they made financial decisions. In the lab, participants completed expense reports with the possibility of inflating expenses to receive extra payment, mimicking real-life incentives. In the tests, when photos of loved ones were present, unethical behavior was noticeably muted.

“Pictures of close relationships tend to squelch unethical acts,” says Bauman. “The pictures remind people of aspects of themselves other than self-interest.”

If including photos of family at work can inhibit an economic schema and decrease unethical behavior, it stands to reason that working from home may have an even stronger effect. It turns out that “work-life balance” is more than a trendy catchphrase.  “Our studies suggest that a little work-life integration can be healthy for ethical decision making,” says Bauman.

Moving the needle

“Displaying photos of loved ones at work isn’t going to outright end unethical behavior,” says Bauman. “Our studies suggest the needle moves a little bit when people have those reminders available. However, the bigger takeaway is that people’s physical environment can influence their ethical decision making and behavior.” 

Organizations that want to nurture a more ethical workplace, then, should pay attention to their physical environments.

“The goal of our research is not to tell companies that every employee should have three pictures of loved ones taped to their monitor,” says Bauman. Instead, “companies should realize that how they create their workspaces has implications for how people think, feel, and ultimately act.”

Photos are a small example of how people personalize their workspaces. Companies should also consider the impact of other symbols like performance awards, degrees, and certifications. “What is rewarded by companies and the message of who people ought to be when they’re at work says something about the values that a company promotes,” says Bauman.

Chris Bauman is a professor of organization and management at the UCI Paul Merage School of Business. His research addresses how people make sense of and respond to their social environment, including the individuals, groups and organizations with whom they interact. One line of his research focuses on how individuals determine issues of ethics and fairness. This work includes studies of individual decision making, group diversity, and corporate social responsibility. Other research examines information processing in negotiation and its implications for tactics that can increase individual or mutual gains.

Stay up to date with the latest research from the Merage School here.

 

 ###