Failure: understand it
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No tC Ethical
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Good people often let bad things happen. Why? by Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel
This document is authorized for use only by Raju Majumdar until January 2012. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860.
op yo rP os t
Failure Understand it
Good people often let bad things happen. Why? by Max H.
Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel
This april 2011
2 Harvard Business reviewdocument is authorized for use only by Raju Majumdar until January 2012. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860.
illustration: Daniel HoroWitz
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No tC ethical
Breakdowns
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FoR aRticle RepRints call 800-988-0886 oR 617-783-7500, oR visit hBr.orG
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the vast majority of managers mean to run ethical organizations, yet corporate corruption is widespread. Part of the problem, of course, is that some leaders are out-and-out crooks, and they direct the malfeasance from the top. But that is rare. Much more often, we believe, employees bend or break ethics rules because those in charge are blind to unethical behavior and may even unknowingly encourage it.
Consider an infamous case that, when it broke, had all the earmarks of conscious top-down corruption. The Ford Pinto, a compact car produced during the 1970s, became notorious for its tendency in rear-end collisions to leak fuel and explode into flames. More than two dozen people were killed or injured in Pinto fires before the company issued a recall to correct the problem. Scrutiny of the decision process behind the model’s launch revealed that under intense competition from Volkswagen and other small-car manufacturers, Ford had rushed the Pinto into production. Engineers had discovered the potential danger of ruptured
fuel