By SCOTT BELLOWS
Abasi worked as a branch manager at an upscale
clothing retailer in Westlands. He prided himself in strong
relationships with his staff and the commensurate trust that he bestowed
upon them. Unfortunately, during an internal audit conducted by the
firm’s Upper Hill headquarters, a Sh754,000 stock deficiency was
uncovered spanning the past three years.
Horrified, Abasi called all employees in to an urgent staff
meeting. Knowing that the regional manager would demand an explanation
by the next morning, he asked his staff one by one if they knew anything
about the uncovered fraud. Not surprisingly, every worker stated that
they knew nothing about it. Abasi felt hopelessly unable to provide any
answers before the confrontation with his boss.
Corporate fraud often cripples businesses and on
average represents seven per cent of sales revenue. Estimated annual
commercial fraud in the United States alone represents almost $1
trillion. Here in Kenya, firms such as Safaricom and KCB publicly
release their fraud statistics. Forensic auditors investigate such fraud
incidence. But if no specific trail of evidence exists underpinning
the fraud, managers are left with rooting out the honesty of their staff
through psychological means.
Hollywood makes special use of lie detector tests
from movies to talk shows. However, sociopaths who do not elicit
physical responses such as elevated heart rates and increased
perspiration can game such devices, thus making polygraph tests not
admissible in court cases in most countries.
Fortunately, you can learn as a manager to uncover
lies without expensive polygraphs or MRI brain scanners. First,
recognise that lying is complex. We both hate it all the while using it
ourselves. Pamela Meyer, author of Lie Spotting, delineates that in
animals, the larger the neocortex, then the higher the probability of
being deceptive.
There exist documented cases in the animal kingdom
of gorillas fooling others. In humans, babies cry then stop and look to
see who else is listening or coming, then continue crying based on who
is around them. By five years old, a child lies to other people through
flattery. By nine years old, children can even cover-up actions. Every
parent knows the humour and frustration of dealing with lying in our
children. Many people also overly suspect lying in their romantic
partners.
Susan Carnicero in her book Spy the Lie points out
that people on average lie 10 times per day, ranging from detrimental
lies all the way down to someone asking how you are doing and telling
them a simple lie just to avoid going into detail. Fortunately, both Ms
Carnicero and Ms Meyer go into great detail about how to judge on a
one-on-one basis whether someone is lying.
Examples include liars freeze their upper bodies
when they lie, but culturally we expect a liar to fidget. Western
culture thinks that liars will avoid eye contact. However, a liar makes
eye contact a bit too much as compared to an honest person. Western
society thinks that honest people smile more often.
However, in Sub Saharan African culture, a smile
culturally means the opposite. There exists a difference between a
genuine smile and a fake one. A real smile can be seen in the skin on
the sides of the eyes that cannot be consciously contracted.
Organisational culture
As a manager, one must create organisations that
diminish the likelihood of employees lying. Steven Grover disturbingly
uncovered that organisational cultures that emphasised honesty did not
experience decreases in lying among their staff.
No matter how many statements in meetings that your
firm values honesty or postings of the Ten Commandments on the walls of
your office, it will not improve honesty in your company.
A method of decreasing lying involves reducing
structural constraints that cause employees difficulty in carrying out
their duties. Fix the underlying issues that employees lie about or lie
to gain.
Steven Grover in earlier research also found that
organisations that hold employees in conflicting roles leads to
psychological distress. The distress causes the employees to
dramatically increase lying. While lying increases under such
conditions, individual dishonesty rates vary based on someone’s moral
maturity, commitment to their workplace role, and locus of control being
close to them or further away. Employees nearly all lie during
bargaining situations while only some staff lie when faced with more
mundane mildly conflicting expectations.
David Gill, Victoria Prowse, and Michael
Vlassopoulos uncovered recently that the amount of cheating and lying in
workplaces goes up commensurate with the degree of perceived unfairness
in bonus and compensation schemes.
If employees feel that the company fails to provide
performance measures and, in particular, bonuses fairly, then they
increase their degree of cheating. Inasmuch, increasing employees
perception about organisational justice and performance reviews fairness
will decrease the amount of fraud and lying in your organisation.
Discuss workplace honesty on Twitter with other Business Daily readers through #WorkplaceLies.
scott@ScottProfessor.com or @ScottProfessor
scott@ScottProfessor.com or @ScottProfessor
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