Richard Shell, JD, tells students, “If you want to stay healthy, don’t go swimming in a dirty pond.” It is a vivid analogy for persons he calls ethics refugees. They are often young people who earned degrees and landed a great job only to fall into an ethical or moral trap set by a boss, a co-worker or the company culture. Sexual harassment, discrimination, fraud, lying, cheating and peer pressure are among the list of unsavory and illegal behaviors perpetuated.
Good people are put in bad situations, or they navigate to bad situations without knowing quite how they got there.”
Source: Knowledge @ Work, Wharton, June 8, 2021. Link. Shell chooses person of conscience versus whistleblower when dealing with a moral dilemma at work.
To be a person of conscience — to bring your conscience to work, to bring your values to work and make a commitment to acting on them — is an essential leadership skill.” – G. Richard Shell, JD
INSIGHTS: Shell acknowledges the risks in pushing back against an unethical culture. People who push back risk being fired, demoted, blackballed and threatened for standing up. But he believes there is a longer-term personal cost in slinking away from the problem.
It is often easy to capitulate. Make a habit of it and you become part of the problem.