Current Article

Click on the Email icon to offer a comment or idea:

Do Managers Get More Stupider the Longer They’ve Been Out of School?

 

MBA programs teach Ethics and responsibility to the community.  Stewardship is often a focus.  MSW and MPA programs teach the same thing.  Students learn the benefits of long-term thinking, rather than sacrificing the future for short term gains.  In order to graduate, candidates are supposed to show that they understand these things.

 

But look around.  There are many people in the news who have been taking the easy, short-sighted, self-serving, and yes – unethical and illegal routes to “success”.  And those you are hearing about are only the ones who got caught.  Think tip of the iceberg.

Taught one thing; Do another.  What gives?

Is the fault with the schools?  Are people being handed degrees when they really have not understood the material?

Is the fault with the organizations they join after they graduate?  Are unethical behaviors so pervasive in “the real world” that they swallow every well intentioned individual who is hired?

Is the fault with governing or regulatory bodies?  Are they failing to perform their duties?  Does this permit cultures of “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” to persist?  Or is the problem with the rules and ethics themselves?  Do they fail to match up with societal values?

 

I am reminded of something that John Chase, the instructor of my Social Welfare Institutions class back when I was an undergrad, said many years ago:  “In less than a year after people graduate, their values more closely reflect those of their workplace than those they learned in school”.  I don’t know if he was citing a study or speaking from experience, but he spoke with a calm certainty.  As the years have passed, I have observed the same thing.    People who have been educated to behave one way are observed behaving in an entirely different manner.  Why?

 

Many of us who have been in non-profit settings for a while can describe the many recent graduates who were full of idealism when they got their first job in their field.  They were all going to change the world.  But somehow, the world changed them.  Having encountered so many bright-eyed newbies, I have to believe that some sort of belief system is being endowed by our educators.  It’s just not resilient enough.  Perhaps some prophylaxis would be helpful.  Take Mr. Chase’s statement a step further and say, “so this is what we’re gonna do about it”.  More emphasis needs to be placed on this because they will find many paths to follow once they are out of school, and the following will be pushing them toward the wrong roads.

 

The concept of the primary reference group is well known.  When these new graduates encounter difficult situations that they don’t know how to handle, they go to their more experienced co-workers for direction.  Even if the advice they receive is consistent with the values they held in school, the experience of “going through the wars” together breeds a sense of us vs. them.  The new worker gradually feels more and more a part of “us” – that is, a member of the organization – and less a part of them (i.e.- everyone else).

They learn shortcuts.  You know, ways to meet the minimum expectations of the job with a minimal amount of effort.  Over time, the focus changes from “How can we be the best?” to “How much do we have to do to get by?”, and eventually “How much can we get away with?”.  And then, as they gain experience, some of these folks find their ways to upper management positions.

 

Sometimes the pressure to abandon ideals comes from financial desperation.  A manager might ask “what good is it to be doing right if we have to go out of business to do it?”.  I have found such situational ethics to be all too common.  Of course, money doesn’t just become an overriding force when times are bad.  And it’s not only in the for-profits.  There are those who are looking to get rich in the non-profit arena too.  This is despite the concerted campaigns to trumpet the efforts of some corporations to be good citizens.  The mantra expressed in the 1987 movie “Wall Street” is alive and well, if perhaps not spoken out loud, in top management positions among organizations of all types: “Greed is good”.

 

Then there are also times when oversight bodies are not very vigilant and everybody is getting away with doing things that are irresponsible or a bit short of what’s proper.  Maybe it’s like cheating a little on a test, or exceeding the speed limit while driving.  I mean, everybody does it, right?  What’s wrong with selling out our organization’s future for short-term profits?  It’s not like we’re doing anything illegal.  Besides, if we did break some rule written by some ignorant SOBs, what are the odds that we’d ever get caught?

 

It seems that we managers need to ask ourselves some tough questions:

· Am I willing to work hard enough to get the job done to the highest ethical standards?

· Would I avoid shortcuts and skirting regulations and do things right, even if it meant my organization might to go out of business?

· Will I give up opportunities for quick wealth in exchange for the possibility of long-term benefits and  the satisfaction of knowing that I did things in an honorable manner?

· And, will I stick to those things even when those around me are pushing me to do otherwise?

 

Perhaps it’s got less to do with formal education & informal training gained in the workplace than the values we bring to the table as people – as human beings who were brought up to do the right thing.; to have a backbone and stick to the highest ethics even when pushed to do otherwise?  Maybe, in the end, nothing matters more than that.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________