The Dark Pattern
The Hidden Dynamics of Corporate Scandals
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- CHF 17.00
Beschreibung des Verlags
From the creators of the theory of ethical blindness comes an investigation into how corporate scandals happen, revealing the common pattern behind them and how your organization can avoid them
Too often, the stories of corporate scandals are narrated like Hollywood movies in which once-celebrated CEOs are unmasked as sociopaths and ultimately convicted for their crimes. What we fail to realize, however, is that most bad things are done by average people with honorable values and without bad intentions.
In The Dark Pattern, two experts in business ethics and decision-making challenge the conventional view that corporate misconduct happens because of a handful of bad actors. Instead, the book shows how entire organizations can fall off the moral cliff because good people become ethically blind.
Drawing on the latest insights from behavioral science, the authors identify nine toxic elements that lead to corporate scandals and offer nine actionable lessons for building morally resilient organizations. Essential reading for business leaders, The Dark Pattern offers real-world guidance for defending companies against the subtle dynamics of moral erosion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This penetrating debut study from Palazzo and Hoffrage, both business professors at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, argues that corporate malfeasance stems from dangerous combinations of "toxic leadership," "manipulative language," and seven other factors. Examining how each played into major scandals, the authors suggest that "rigid ideology" and "destructive incentives" precipitated two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes in 2018 and '19, positing that executives' unwavering conviction that everyone would benefit from a single-minded focus on maximizing shareholder value pushed engineers to prioritize profits over safety. The authors' analysis is bolstered by their perceptive understanding of human psychology, as when they pull from psychologist Albert Bandura's research on moral disengagement to show how executives hide the ill consequences of their actions behind euphemistic language (" ‘Creative accounting' not only sounds better than tax evasion, but it also makes it easier to engage in it"). Additionally, Palazzo and Hoffrage detail informative examples of companies that have established more ethical practices, describing, for instance, how Zappos (prior to its acquisition by Amazon) cultivated a collaborative culture by replacing competitive annual review metrics with frequent coaching sessions assisting employees with how to meet their self-directed goals. It's a vital resource on fostering a more ethical workplace.
