Pressure can cause employees to focus solely on hitting their targets at the expense of moral considerations.
August 27, 2024
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High stress at work can destabilize people’s ethical compass, putting them at heightened risk of ethical lapses. When employees focus solely on achieving their targets, deadlines, or personal financial goals at the expense of ethical considerations — when doing the right thing feels burdensome compared to seemingly less-costly shortcuts — they can teeter on “ethical burnout.” To prevent this, it’s crucial to spot the signs and root out the contributing forces early. The authors present four warning signs that your employees may be heading toward ethical burnout — and strategies to counteract these forces before it’s too late.
Everyone has experienced stress-inducing pressure at work: ambitious financial targets, tough performance reviews, and shrewd competitors, and so on. The resulting stress can harm not just people’s personal well-being, research shows it can also erode their commitment to ethical behavior. This phenomenon, known as ethical fatigue, makes it challenging to take the high road and maintain integrity when faced with complex decisions.
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Richard Bistrong is CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC and advises major multinationals on real-world anti-bribery, ethics, and compliance challenges from his front-line perspective.
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Dina Denham Smith is an executive coach to senior leaders at world-leading brands such as Adobe, Netflix, PwC, Dropbox, Stripe, and numerous high-growth companies. A former business executive herself, she is the founder and CEO of Cognitas, and helps leaders and their teams reach new heights of success. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
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