Leadership
life-saving drug. A doctor ardently argued to reject the request, based on limited evidence of the drug’s clinical effectiveness. Another doctor passionately counter-argued that “we are in the business of saving lives”. A healthcare manager respectfully disagreed with both and reminded everyone that other patients with complex health needs should be included in the fairness equation. There is a risk of entering a spiral of endless conversations and persistent differences. However, decision-makers can manage this through two tactics. First, they can build consensus by extracting evidence from authoritative sources and letting the evidence drive the deliberation process. Second, they can bring clarity to the dilemma faced by imagining plausible responses from external stakeholders. For example: “Would a person on the street find logic in this argument?” Sense-breaking In even more complex cases, the letter of the guidelines appears to contradict the spirit in which they were written. This calls for a reflective and flexible approach, whereby the rationale and the language of the guidelines are adapted to the specifics of the case. We call this process sense-breaking. Decision-makers acknowledge their emotions, revisit the purpose of the guidelines, and draw on their personal sense of what is morally right. Sense-breaking exposes the potential limitations of any generic ethical guideline in ‘outlier’ cases and provides an opportunity for further learning, including potentially modifying the guidelines.
In one example that we observed, decision-makers debated a very rare request for brain surgery. They agreed that, based on the scientific literature, the procedure would probably not work and following the ethical guidelines meant rejecting the request. However, they intuitively felt that would be wrong. One said: “We can’t be so rule- bound and just walk away!” The group eventually agreed to approve the request by adapting the guidelines and the patient successfully underwent surgery. Sense-breaking is a balancing act that comes with risks. On the one hand, it requires leaders to combine their personal moral sense with analytical insights to diverge from conventional thinking. On the other hand, decision- makers know that they must stay aligned with the core ethical principles of the framework and not be swayed by their emotions. The process is delicate, but when it is handled in the spirit of collegial, ethical deliberation, sense-breaking helps to develop novel solutions to unique ethical dilemmas. As these examples show, designing an ethical framework is not a panacea for managing “As these examples show, designing an ethical framework is not a panacea for managing ethical issues”
ethical issues. People need to master the ethical expertise required to apply such guidelines. So how can leaders develop that expertise and apply their guidelines to implement ethical business practice? Here are four ways, based on our research. 1 Prioritise ethical expertise as a skillset Ethical expertise is a form of mastery that blends analytical skills with the ability to remain open to emotions and differing ethical standpoints. Ethical experts can distinguish between the spirit and the letter of ethical guidelines. They learn to control their intuition, adopt a critical mindset and consult those who offer a different perspective. 2 Train ethical expertise, not compliance Focus not just on adherence to ethical guidelines but also on enhancing employees’ critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence. Engage decision-makers in scenario-based simulations and role-play exercises to allow them to encounter ethical situations with varying degrees of ambiguity. By working through different scenarios in a structured way, decision-makers learn to discern when additional deliberation and recourse to common sense may be necessary before making decisions. Organisations can enhance this training by compiling a repository of past ambiguous cases for reference, and by using generative AI to create new scenarios. 3 Share ethical expertise Business leaders should foster an environment where team members are motivated to develop and share their ethical expertise.
Ethical expertise tends to remain confined to parts of the organisation where people can gain the experience of applying it. This hinders widespread dissemination. Business leaders can address this by setting up structured shadowing programmes. Pairing employees with the organisation’s ethical experts allows them to learn through direct observation. Moreover, leaders can create forums or teaching groups where ethical experts can share their experiences and insights on navigating real-life ethical dilemmas. 4 Foster open debate Leaders also need to create an environment where employees feel safe expressing their opinions without fear of judgement or dismissal. This is particularly important in complex scenarios where the morally right outcome may not always derive from strictly following the organisation’s guidelines. During the debate, employees
should be encouraged to rely on their initial reactions (sympathy or antipathy towards a request, for example), then subject those reactions to rational evaluation. “Leaders need to view ethical guidelines as a compass that employees must skilfully use alongside their ethical expertise” Define and communicate clear escalation pathways for addressing unresolved issues. Leaders need to view ethical guidelines as a compass that employees must skilfully use alongside their ethical
expertise, rather than a key that effortlessly unlocks a door. In 2021, no less than 40 human content moderators at Meta reviewed a contentious post and decided it should remain on the platform. But an independent ethics board forced the company to remove the post, concluding that the moderators had applied the letter of the firm’s hate speech policy rather than the intent. If the company’s human moderators had fully developed their ethical expertise, the company might have avoided the public backlash that the post caused. That expertise needs to be nurtured throughout an organisation to bring guidelines to life and prevent unethical behaviour.
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Sustainable Development Goals
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