Steve Kerr’s seminal “Folly” article astutely noted that all too many organizations—and the individuals who populate them—invariably violate a fundamental law of social nature by rewarding the very behaviors that they are supposedly trying to discourage, while failing to reward the behaviors they desire to reinforce. But as Kerr notes in his interview, it is simply more than a faulty reward system that has allowed these malfunctions to continue. Building upon Kerr’s insights, we offer two proposed “Folly” updates regarding how we can create better functioning organizations. First, we discuss the provocative option that there are only two, not four, causes to the “Folly.” Second, we offer the context of character as one explanation (and possible solution) for the fact that even after more than 40 years too many organizations remain frequent repeat “Folly” offenders.
AdornoT.Frankel-BrunswikE.LevinsonD. J.SanfordR. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. New York, NY: Harper.
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
3.
ArielyD. (2012). The (honest) truth about dishonesty: How we lie to everyone—Especially ourselves. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
4.
AschS. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 70(9, Whole No. 416), 1-70.
5.
BabiakP.HareR. (2007). Snakes in suits: When psychopaths go to work. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
6.
BanduraA. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
7.
BanduraA. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 193-209.
8.
BaronR. M.KennyD. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
9.
BatsonC. D.KobrynowiczD.DinnersteinJ. L.KampfH. C.WilsonA. D. (1997). In a very different voice: Unmasking moral hypocrisy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1335-1348.
10.
BatsonC. D.ThompsonE. R. (2001). Why do moral people act morally? Motivational considerations. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 54-57.
11.
BatsonC. D.ThompsonE. R.SeuferlingG.WhitneyH.StrongmanJ. (1999). Moral hypocrisy: Appearing moral to oneself without being so. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 525-537.
12.
BazermanM. H.TenbrunselA. E. (2011). Blind spots: Why we fail to do what’s right and what to do about it. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
13.
BeckerG. S. (1974). Crime and punishment: An economic approach. In BeckerG. S.LandesW. M. (Eds.), Essays in the economics of crime and punishment (pp. 1-54). Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Publishing
14.
CallahanD. (2004). The cheating culture. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.
15.
CorkeryM. (2016, September9). Wells Fargo fined $185 million for fraudulently opening accounts. The New York Times, p. B1.
16.
DeGroatA. S. (2016). Exploring the lived experience of the post 9-11 army veteran in transition: Toward a theoretical framework (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.er.lib.k-state.edu
17.
GiacaloneR. A.PromisloM. D. (2013). Broken when entering: The stigmatization of goodness and business ethics education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12, 86-101.
18.
GlazerE. (2017, April11). Wells slams former bosses’ high-pressure sales tactics. The Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A9.
19.
HareR. (1993). Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
20.
HofferE. (2010). The true believer. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.
21.
HunterJ. W. (2000). The death of character: Moral education in an age without good or evil. New York, NY: Basic Books.
22.
KerrS. (1975). On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Journal, 18, 769-783.
23.
KerrS. (1995). On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Executive, 9, 7-14.
24.
KerrS. (2009). Reward systems: Does yours measure up?Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
25.
LanceC. E. (2011). More statistical and methodological myths and urban legends. Organizational Research Methods, 14, 279-286.
26.
LarssonH.AndershedH.LichtensteinP. (2006). A genetic factor explains most of the variation in the psychopathic personality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 221-230.
27.
LockeJ. (1693-2007). Some thoughts concerning education (Including of the conduct of the understanding). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc.
28.
MilgramS. (1965). Some conditions of obedience and disobedience to authority. Human Relations, 18, 57-76.
29.
MyersR. J. (1993). What everyone should know about social security. Washington, DC: The Seniors Coalition.
30.
PetersonC.SeligmanM.E.P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. New York; Washington, DC: Oxford University Press, American Psychological Association.
31.
SkinnerB. F. (1938). Behavior in organisms. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
32.
SkinnerB.F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York, NY: Macmillan.
33.
SkinnerB. F. (1972). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
34.
SuttonR. (2007). The no asshole rule: Building a civilized workplace and surviving one that isn’t. New York, NY: Warner Business Books.
35.
VandenbergR.J. (2006). Statistical and methodological myths and urban legends: Where prey tell did they get this idea?Organizational Research Methods, 9, 194-201.
36.
VelasquezM. G. (2002). Business ethics: Concepts and cases. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
37.
WeberM. (1947). The theory of social and economic organization. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
38.
WrightT. A. (2004). When a student blows the whistle [on himself]: A personal experience essay on “delayed” integrity in a classroom setting. Journal of Management Inquiry, 13, 291-306.
39.
WrightT. A. (2011). Character assessment in business ethics education. In FisherD. G.SwansonD. L. (Eds.), Toward assessing business ethics education (pp. 361-380). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
40.
WrightT. A. (2015). Distinguished scholar invited essay: “Reflections on the role of character in business education and student leadership development.”Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 22, 253-264.
41.
WrightT. A.EmichK. J.KlotzD. (2017). The many “faces” of well-being. In BurkeR. J.PageK. M. (Eds.), Research handbook on work and well-being (pp. 37-58). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
42.
WrightT. A.GoodsteinJ. (2007). Character is not “dead” in management research: A review of individual character and organizational-level virtue. Journal of Management, 33, 928-958.
43.
WrightT. A.HuangC.-C. (2012). The many benefits of employee well-being in organizational research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33, 1188-1192.
44.
WrightT. A.KlotzD. (2017). Character, personality, and psychological wellbeing. In CooperC. L.LeiterM. P. (Eds.), The Routledge companion to wellbeing at work (pp. 85-99). London, England: Taylor & Francis.
45.
WrightT. A.LauerT. (2013). What is character and why it really does matter. Organizational Dynamics, 42, 25-34.
46.
WrightT. A.QuickJ. C. (2011). The role of character in ethical leadership research. The Leadership Quarterly, 22, 975-978.
47.
WrightT. A.QuickJ. C.HannahS. T.HargroveM. B. (2017). Best practice recommendations for scale construction in organizational research: The development and validation of the Character Strength Inventory (CSI). Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38, 615-628.
48.
YangY.RaineA.LenczT.BihrleS.LacasseL.CollettiP. (2005). Prefrontal white matter in pathological liars. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 187, 320-325.
