Ethical and Unethical Practices: Where do we draw the line?

In early 2018,\nFacebook was implicated in a political scandal known as The Facebook–Cambridge\nAnalytica data scandal.  It was revealed\nthat Cambridge Analytica, had accessed personal private information of users,\nand used it without their consent for political advertising purposes. These\nallegations were first reported by Harry Davies, who reported that Cambridge\nAnalytica was working for a United States Senator, allegations to which\nFacebook refused to comment on.  In March\nof the same year, however, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica,\nChristopher Wylie, exposed how the information was accessed and used. He\ndescribed how the CEO, Alexander Nix, attracted support and help to access\nmillions of Facebook profiles, which were in turn used for political\nadvertising purposes without the users’ consent. The result was a massive fall\nin Facebook's stock price and calls for tighter regulation of tech companies'\nuse of personal data.

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The Facebook scandal\nis one of many examples in which corporates have engaged in unethical business\npractices time and time again in the quest of getting ahead.  In doing this, there is a major disregard of ethical\nregulations that are meant to guide business practices.  Some individuals upon assuming positions of\nauthority, neglect to adhere to codes of practice, and use their assumed\npositions to advance their own personal agendas.  The example of the Facebook scandal sheds\nlight on three psychological dimensions that lead to unethical behaviour;\nomnipotence, cultural numbness, and justified neglect.

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Omnipotence is the\nbelief in an individual that they have unlimited power, so much so that rules\nof accountability do not apply to them.  This happens in the corporate world on a daily\nbasis, when decisions are made based on an individual’s own interests more than\nthe best interests of the organisation. \nBefore someone makes a decision, they are more likely to ask the\nquestion, “what’s in it for me?” The\nresult of this is decision making influenced by personal needs, hampering the\nsuccess of the organisation at large.

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The second dimension\nwe find in this instance is Cultural Numbness. \nThis is when individuals observe the unruly behaviour, go along with\nthis behaviour, and gradually come to accept this behaviour as normal.  In the Cambridge Analytica Scandal,\nChristopher Wylie highlighted how the CEO had help from the Breitbart editor\nand Cambridge Professor in accessing this personal information and making it\navailable for illicit use.  In doing this,\nthe accomplices knew they were indulging in unethical behaviour, but\nparticipated regardless, as they realised they could potentially gain\nfinancially from this.  Scandals of this\nnature are uncovered on a regular basis in the corporate world.  Disregard for ethical practices continues to\npersist, despite there being guidelines on conducting business practices.

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The third dimension,\njustified neglect, is also covered in the scandal.  Justified neglect is when people do not\nexpose unethical behaviour because they are more concerned about staying on the\n‘good side’ of the authority figure. \nStaying on the good side would potentially mean benefits which may\ninclude increased remuneration, promotion to similar positions of authority and\nstaying in employment.  An individual may\ndo a cost-benefit analysis, and find that it is more beneficial for them to\nparticipate in the activities, as opposed to exposing them. 

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In light of all this, the question that remains is where do we draw the line in our practices?  How much are we willing to break codes of conduct in advancing our own interests? Are we willing to incur major financial loss before we draw the line somewhere in conducting ourselves? The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal is a good example of how costly breaching ethical guidelines can be on an organisation, and why it is always important to be compliant in all business practices 

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Lindah\nMavengere is a Business Consultant at Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt)\nLtd, a business management and human resources consulting firm.

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LinkedIn:\nhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lindah-mavengere-552b32b2/

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Phone:\n+263 242 481946-48/481950

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Mobile:\n+263 717 988 319

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Email:\nlindah@ipcconsultants.com

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Main Website:\nwww.ipcconsultants.com.