If you witnessed someone doing something unethical at work, would you speak up? For instance, if you saw a fire officer accept a valuable gift from a business owner while on an inspection, or knew that firefighters were falsifying training hours for their EMT certifications, would you do something about it?
Most of us like to think we are ethical people and would always do the right thing. But experience sometimes proves otherwise. In both cases above, and in a number of other instances, firefighters often do not say anything even when they know that what they have witnessed is wrong.
What makes one group or individual behave more ethically than another? Many people would answer that question with one word: Leadership. This is a correct conclusion, although what makes the difference might not always be the kind of leadership you expect.
Many people assume that ethics in organizations come from the top down. If the leader of the organization — the chief, for example — always behaves in an ethical way, that will create an expectation of ethical behavior among all the ranks. This is true, but only to a point.
Peer pressure
What researchers have sometimes overlooked is the influence of peers when making ethical decisions. Certainly having an overriding sense of mission is a good thing and will create a climate for good decision making. But when it comes to a specific decision, individuals often look to their peers rather than their leaders when deciding what to do.
More than one fire department has been in the news for ethical (and sometimes legal) violations related to recertification training. By law, they are required to do a certain number of hours of training to gain certification.
But somewhere along the line, someone decides the training is a waste of time, and if they just say they’ve done it that’s good enough. And before long, in some cases, dozens if not hundreds of people are doing the same thing.
How can this happen?
On the surface, everyone individually knows it is wrong to lie about training, and in some cases to even accept overtime payment for training that was never done. Such unethical decisions usually begin with just a small group of people, but often grow large without anyone saying anything.
But what would happen if one person did speak up when the initial bad decision was being considered?
Ethics test
A recent experiment gives some idea of the difference that could make. In the experiment, a group of adults were told that they were to solve a problem together, but could not access the Internet as part of their solution. If they successfully solved the problem, they would all receive a cash prize.
Shortly after the experiment began, the researchers had one participant tell the others he had figured out a way to access the Internet using his phone, and could therefore guarantee their success with the challenge. What happened next is what made the difference in the study.
In one case, at least one other participant spoke up and said that using the Internet in this way was wrong and that they should not do it as part of the problem solving challenge. In another case, at least one participant spoke up and reinforced the idea of undermining the rules of the game.
In both cases, the people who spoke up were part of the experiment. What the researchers were interested in was what the rest of the group did in response. And what they found was that when peers reacted ethically, more than twice as many people were willing to speak up about the ethical problem.
These findings are not really new. A number of important studies were done in the 1960s and beyond that clearly show that people are motivated to conform with others in their group and not single themselves out even when they see something they know is wrong.
What is important about this study and others like it is that it underscores the importance of peer behavior in ethical decision making. Sometimes people feel they have no power because they are “only” a firefighter, a volunteer, a cadet, a new officer.
But when it comes to ethics, these individuals have tremendous power, even if it is just in saying no, or expressing personal doubt about a decision.
Chances are others feel the same way, but are looking for an ally before standing up. Doing the right thing, even as one individual, is the ultimate act of leadership and courage.
