Achieving an ethical organizational culture is often easier said than done. Doing the right thing will sometimes deprive us of what we want, or other times an organizational culture may encourage the poor decisions.
Doing the right thing comes down to taking action even if it may not be what we wanted for ourselves. The reason rationalizations work so well is because we want to convince ourselves we are alright. People who have no conscious don’t need to rationalize at all, but this is very rare.
Before being able to make ethical decisions it is necessary to understand the difference between a rationalization and a rational decision. In a rational decision the person reasons first and then comes to a conclusion. In a rationalization the person starts with a conclusion and simply justifies it. This is one of the reasons lawyers get a bad reputation, their job is to rationalize a decision which has already been made. A rational process comes to whatever conclusion is dictated by facts, principals and values.
Where are you tempted to rationalize? Where have companies you’ve previously worked for been tempted to rationalize? What excuses have been used to justify decisions that appear to be good business?
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I really appreciate the video “Rationalizations”. I am a real estate appraiser. I have been an appraiser since 1974. In 1974 when someone, say a bank needed an appraisal they would ask for a honset appraisal. They would say they need to know the true or real value in order to make the right decision. Since mortgage orginators were allowed to go on commissions and banks where allowed to sell the mortgage before the closing. I believe less than 10% of customers ask for the truth. I have lost so many assignments and enormous amounts of income because of refusing rationalizations. Many young appraisers now believe it is their job to hit a target number. I will be retiring very soon and will have to work the rest of my life at something. That is just fine with me. I have never rationalized my analysis in favor of someone’s request for a predetermined number. Rationalization is as the video infers an ability to lie to one’s self and feel ok about it. I’ll pass and feel good about it.
Thanks for the video and please keep up this work! The people of the U.S need to hear this message.
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