Rudeness and resulting resentment can foster cheating

I've blogged before on the work of Dan Ariely, a professor in the area of behavioral economics. The July-August 2009, issue of the Harvard Business Review has an interesting article of his, "The End Of Rational Economics." He talks about work done in the field of resentment, which I think has application to the work world. Here is one study. An actor meets with a a group of people, chosen at random in a coffee shop. They receive a piece of paper with letters on them and are told to find matching pairs. They get $5 for completing the task and sign a receipt when they get the money. Here is the twist: One group is the no-annoyance group, and the other group is the annoyance group. With the annoyance group, the actor interrupts his explanation of the project to the group by taking a cell phone call from a friend and talking about ordering a pizza. He makes no apologies for the interruption. He overpays this group by several dollars. He also overpays the no-annoyance group that was not interrupted by a phone call. Was the extra money returned? Only 14 percent of those in the annoyed group did so, while 45 percent in the no-annoyance group did. But what if the actor makes an apology for the interruption? The percentage of those in the annoyed group returning the money shoots up to 45 percent. My take-away is that rudeness empowers people to cheat, the thinking being "he did this to me, so I am entitled to do this to him." The same can be true in the workplace. An dissed employee will be more likely to skate by on an ethical issue. One who is dissed but receives an apology will be much less likely to do so. Look, we all lose our tempers and say things we should not. Employers should train managers to rectify these types of mistakes ASAP.