How Moral Leaders Create Ethical Organizations

1. How Moral Leaders Create Ethical Organizations Inland Empire Management Society David J. Cherrington david_cherrington@byu.edu 27 February 2008

2. Character Who you are: the virtues you have acquired, especially honesty and integrity What you represent: your ability to recognize moral issues and choose the right How you act when no one is watching: the degree of moral internalization

3. Conclusions of our first honesty studies: 1. Dishonesty is the greatest threat to America�s economy. 2. You cannot be a great transformational leader unless you are a moral person.

4. Graduation Speech at West Point �Great leaders must be trustworthy; no man who is unfaithful to his wife can be a truly great military leader.� Author: unknown Date: unknown Place: questionable

5. Officers in the Korean Demilitarized Zone �We could tell by their performance reports almost exactly when they started fooling around with the women in town.� Author: Ranking Officer in the Korean Demilitarized Zone for Seven Years during the 70�s Date: August, 1981 Place: American Psychological Association Meetings in Los Angeles

6. A female student who served in Bosnia, 2001 �Before we were assigned to Bosnia, we had the highest performance rating of any unit. But eight weeks later our unit fell apart when our commanding officer began an affair with another member of our unit. It was terrible! No one felt safe and everyone was transferring out. How do you trust someone who is dishonest and deceitful? How can you serve under someone who can force you to put your life on the line when you know he is not an honorable person.

7. Leadership Leadership: is the incremental influence one individual exerts over another above and beyond mechanical compliance.

8. Transactional Leadership Establishes goals and objectives. Designs work flow and delegates task assignments. Negotiates exchange of rewards for effort. Rewards performance and recognizes accomplishments. Searches for deviations from standards and takes corrective actions.

9. Transformational Leadership Charismatic: Provides vision and a sense of mission, gains respect and trust, instills pride. Individualized consideration: Gives personal attention, and treats each person individually, coaches. Intellectually stimulating: Promotes learning, encourages rationality, uses careful problem solving. Inspirational: Communicates high performance expectations, uses symbols to focus efforts, distills essential purposes.

10. �but, what about�? Were they really great leaders or did they occupy a critical position at a critical time? How much better could they have been if they had been people of high moral character?

11. Principles of Moral Leadership

12. Organizational Abuse

13. Definition of Organizational Culture Socially acquired rules of conduct that are shared by members of the organization, as found in its artifacts, norms, values, and assumptions. This slide provides a definition of organizational culture. The emphasis of this definition is on the �rules� the people follow in organizations.This slide provides a definition of organizational culture. The emphasis of this definition is on the �rules� the people follow in organizations.

14. Levels of Organizational Culture This model depicts the various levels of culture. These levels are described in detail in chapter 14.This model depicts the various levels of culture. These levels are described in detail in chapter 14.

15. Cultural Contrasts Inland Empire Management Society Artifacts Behaviors Values Shared assumptions versus Rock Concert Artifacts Behaviors Values Shared assumptions

16. Examples of Cultural Assumptions The Nature of Relationships: Are the relationships between people hierarchical, group-oriented, or individualistic in nature? Human Nature: Are people basically good, basically evil, or neither good nor evil? The Nature of Truth: Is �truth� (i.e. correct decisions) based on external authority figures, or discovered by personal investigation and testing? The Environment: Do people master the environment; does the environment control people; or do we live in harmony with the environment? The importance of honesty and integrity: � These assumptions, listed on slides 4 and 5, are also described in Chapter 14.These assumptions, listed on slides 4 and 5, are also described in Chapter 14.

17. Honesty as a Cultural Assumption:Which one do you believe, A or B? A: People are basically honest and can be trusted to tell the truth. They do not take things that do not belong to them; nor do they give false impressions or try to take unfair advantage of others. People can be trusted to monitor their own moral conduct. B: People are basically dishonest and will lie, cheat, and steal whenever it is expedient, if they think they can avoid being caught. To prevent dishonesty, people must be monitored and valuables must be secured. It is the company�s responsibility to prevent theft.

18. Illustration of a Dishonest Cultural Assumption:Conversation with a trucking company CEO �You really need to learn that operations research stuff. We use it all the time to tell us how much to overload our trucks. We have a formula showing that we can maximize our profit by running them two and a quarter tons heavy.� �But, what if you get caught?� �Of course we�re going to get caught! We know we�re going to get caught, and we know what the fines will be. We put all this in our formula.� �Aren�t you afraid of prosecution?� �Heavens no! You don�t put an entire trucking company in prison. This is just a money game � how do you maximize profits?�

19. What are the differences between a culture of honesty and one of dishonesty?

20. Honest Company Culture When companies assume people are honest: Supervisors trust people employees to do their assigned jobs without constant checking. Employees are trusted to resolve customer problems and build relationships. Employees provide timely feedback and offer creative suggestions. Employees feel empowered to build the company.

21. Dishonest Company Cultures When companies assume employees are dishonest: Employees are not given complete information about the company or their positions in it. The performance of employees is closely monitored and controlled. Control systems are more visible and repressive. Interpersonal relationships are more distant and suspicious. There are greater �transaction costs� with employee groups and other companies.

22. Chain of Consequences Ethical decisions create trust Trust is essential for commitment and dedication Commitment and dedication create motivation and effort Motivation and effort build organizational success.

23. Impact of a Culture of Honesty on Inventory Shrinkage Rates Study of 22 retail stores Shrinkage rates WERE NOT related to the external crime statistics in the surrounding neighborhoods Shrinkage rates WERE related to the attitudes of employees regarding honesty Shrinkage rates and attitudes of honesty WERE related to the Culture of Honesty within each store

24. Measuring a Culture of Honesty5-point scales, Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree The top management in this company has a very high, well-defined standard of honesty. Our company has a very explicit code of ethics. Most of the employees around here would steal if they got a chance. � This company is not very concerned about honesty and does not care much about it so long as the amounts are small. � Most employees do not get prosecuted for stealing even when they get caught. � It would be extremely difficult to steal from this company without the theft being discovered. Some of the people I work with would probably help me steal from the company if asked them. �

25. Measuring a Culture of Honesty� In some situations, there are good reasons why it is all right to steal from the company. � I am the kind of person who would let a good friend use my employee discount. � There are no real incentives encouraging me to report thefts or help to prevent them. � I feel a personal responsibility to prevent dishonesty among my co-workers; every employee should be a bit of a �watch dog.� If I knew another employee had stolen something, I would tell on him. Taking company property without permission is a common practice at this company. � There is a critical need to raise the standards of honesty and integrity in this organization. �

26. Does a culture of honesty really matter?

27. Illustrations of Dishonest Cultures: American Woolen Kickbacks on dyestuffs Graft on the purchase of raw materials Personal expenses were charged to the company Corruption cascaded throughout the management hierarchy

28. Illustrations of Dishonest Cultures:Equity Funding Unrealistic growth goals Co-insurance contracts A decade of deceit by a department of 75 employees and managers who fabricated policies Using life insurance policies on �deceased� people to pay for group parties The corruption extended to the individual lives of the employees.

29. Illustrations of Dishonest Cultures:Tyco Industries Executive perks that knew no limits $30 million apartment A yacht Expensive jewelry Art works CEO Dennis Kozlowski spent $2 million in company funds on a toga party in Sardinia to celebrate his wife�s birthday. Source: Wall Street Journal, 20 June 2005, A10

30. Illustrations of Dishonest Cultures:U.S. Military Contractors in Iraq A contractor charged the U.S. $3.3 million for phantom employees assigned to an oil-pipeline repair contract. Iraqi construction firms allegedly paid U.S. soldiers to help steal construction equipment from the interim government. At least a third of the government-owned vehicles and equipment that Halliburton was paid to manage were believed lost. The U.S. failed to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to the new Iraqi government, much of which appears to have been embezzled. Source: Wall Street Journal, 26 July 2005, A1.

31. �I think the most disheartening part of fighting this war is not the insurgent attacks and roadside bombs. It�s all the corruption that you see going on all over the place. We just can�t seem to stop it and no one really seems to care enough. It�s very discouraging to a lot of people.� Source: Personal communication

32. Illustrations of Dishonest Cultures:American Insurance Group - AIG The company has admitted beautifying its income statement by playing games on its derivatives trading desk and vastly understating its loss reserves. Ex-CEO Hank Greenberg: �All I want in life is an unfair advantage.� �There was a disdain for regulators, and it fostered a corporate ethos that wasn�t good for the company.� Source: Devin Leonard and Peter Elkind, �A Fortune Investigation,� Fortune, 8 Aug 05: 76-96

33. �When all else failed, Spitzer�s complaint charges, AIG simply made numbers up. CFO Smith created fictitious �topside� adjustments, increasing reserves to the levels analysts wanted, according to the complaint. Smith personally directed the changes, rattling them off to a subordinate who jotted them down in a spiral notebook, the suit claims. ��For quarter after quarter,� says the complaint, �AIG�s official books and records were altered on the basis of nothing more than Smith�s say so and the handwritten sheets, with hundreds of millions of dollars shifting from account to account.�� Source: Devin Leonard and Peter Elkind, �A Fortune Investigation,� Fortune, 8 Aug 2005: 76-96.

34. �Jury Convicts Five of Fraud in Gen Re, AIG Case� Five former insurance executives were convicted on charges stemming from a fraudulent transaction between AIG and General Re Corp., and prosecutors said they plan to �work up the ladder� seeking more indictments. The Wall Street Journal, 26 February 2008, A1

35. Illustrations of Dishonest Cultures:Enron Enron used off-shore investments to protect its balance sheet and hide debt. BUT, its accounting irregularities were spawned by a unique culture that was out of control.

36. Enron�s Downfall

37. How did Enron�s human resource policies contribute to its collapse? First, they changed their selection criteria to create a new corporate culture From a slow, stodgy, regulated energy bureaucracy to a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, free-capital enterprise. Employee selection focused on hiring the best and the brightest � rather than hiring engineers and accountants, they hired finance and investment banking students, especially MBAs

38. Second, they promoted from within using fast-track promotions � 20% of their turnover was from internal promotions Pressure for earnings growth Pressure on short-term results Pressure on perceived promotability, e.g Lynda Clemmons.

39. Illustration of Quick Promotions

40. Third, performance reviews were brutal and dysfunctional �Rank and yank� � the people in each department were rated each year and the bottom 15% were terminated. Managers were evaluated by a Performance Review Committee of 20 executives. Top 5% were rated superior - $1 mil bonuses Next 30% were rated excellent - $200k - $500k bonuses The evaluations destroyed group cooperation and created groupthink

41. Fourth: They abolished seniority-based pay and replaced it with a pay for performance system with huge cash bonuses and stock options Pressure to look good Pressure to keep stock prices up Pressures for earnings growth

42. Fifth, they created a management style of empowerment and control � �loose and tight� Young MBAs could authorize $5 mil decisions with no review They focused on managing by the numbers. The pressure for quarterly performance was absolutely intense.

43. Illustration of Quarterly Earnings Pressure

44. Illusion of Invulnerability

45.

46. Illusion of Morality

47. Consequences of Enron�s Fall Arthur Anderson was destroyed. From the time it was founded 88 years ago by a well-respected Northwestern University accounting professor, Arthur Anderson was one of the most highly respected accounting and consulting services companies in America. Its involvement with Enron sounded the death knell for this venerable, once highly respected company.

48. Implications of Enron�s Collapse Thousands of employees lost their jobs and their life savings Thousands of investors lost millions in their retirement savings Other companies were seriously injured, especially Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, and Merrill Lynch. The economic recovery was impeded. Some think Enron�s fall will be more historically meaningful than the September 11th attack.

49. How do you create a culture of honesty?

50. Illustration of Culture Building:J. C. Penny - Orem Inventory shrinkage of 0.2% for eight years �Expectations� by management Excellent leadership by a great transformational leader New employee orientation Management by walking around

51. Illustration of Culture Building:Pacific Security National Bank Development of a code of ethics Employee involvement in submitting ethical issues Employee participation in the ethics committees Discussions of the code of ethics with employees and their agreement

52. Illustration of Culture Building:LDS Church Clearly defined internal control procedures Who receives financial contributions Who processes financial contributions How the funds are deposited How disbursements are made Maintenance of receipts Regular audits and oversight Regular reports to multiple officers

53. Illustration of Culture Building:Verizon Wireless Strict Decency Standards No exposed male or female genitals No bare buttocks No explicit, obscured, or implied sexual acts No crude words or profanity No language intended to incite violence No hate speech No derogatory references to Verizon Covers all content, including text, music, pictures, video, audio, games, and downloaded files to �protect Verizon Wireless�s brand image� Source: Wall Street Journal, 27 April 2006, B1

54. Illustration of Culture Building:URMMA Clear vision of mission and purpose Clear standards of honesty and ethics Policies and procedures aligned with its ethical standards Budgets Performance evaluations Salaries and pay incentives Claims settlement policy

55. Illustration of Culture Building:Bristol-Myers Deferred prosecution for channel stuffing and financial misrepresentations Admission of wrongdoing Full cooperation Willingness to disclose