Does Competition Favor Unethical Behavior - Research Paper Example

?Running head: DOES COMPETITION FAVOR UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR SUCH AS CHEATING? Does Competition Favor Unethical Behavior Such As Cheating? Insert Insert University 12 December 2013 Does Competition Favor Unethical Behavior Such As Cheating? In contemporary society, emotions play a significant role in influencing behaviour of people, either in ethical or unethical sense. Generally, people are always seeking ways to succeed in life, and in doing so, they encounter psychological phenomena that either gives them confidence of anxiety in pursuit of success. This makes people to rely heavily on emotions than rationality in pursuant of their interests, thus leading to unethical behaviors such as cheating and fraud that would influence their success. Different aspects in the society dictate the kind of behaviour that people portray in society. With competition being witnessed in almost every spectrum in the society, people have been forced to use all means, including the unethical ones to gain competitive advantage or to win. For instance, it is common to see business enterprises cheating about the composition of their products or their financial status in order to enhance their competitive advantage in the market by wooing customers or investors. Another example may involve a sportsman using energy enhancing drugs in order to boost his performance on the field, or an employee cheating about his or her professional qualifications in order to secure a job. All these cheating behaviors are dictated by the societal norm of competition for success. Indeed, the society tends to value or recognize those who appear successful in one way or another more than those who are less successful, thus forcing people to cheat in order to portray themselves as successful. However, competition tends to influence emotional aspects of people negatively and may be the reason behind the gap between the successful and the less successful, more so in relation to the effort people put in achieving success. Many authors and researchers have indeed researched about the relationship of competition and unethical behavior in various social settings and produced varying results. This paper will discuss the influence of competition on unethical behavior such as cheating, especially in relation to human emotion. In most societal settings such as in business, examinations, courtrooms, and sports, cheating may be considered as a criminal offence, as it involves breaking rules that govern the society, thus justifying why cheating is done in secret. In business and schools, cheating has become a white-collar crime, where firms cheat about their financial performance in order to evade tax and students cheat in order to gain favorable grades (Friedrichs, 2009). In other instances, a firm may inflate its performance in order to portray a positive image with an intension of boosting its share’s performance in the stock market, thus attracting more investors and customers. Even with the harsh rules regulating taxation and fair business practices, firms are still cheating in order to beat competition. Indeed, according to Franzoni (2000), punishment from breaking taxation laws is meant to prevent and avert cheating on financial records, but the urge to maximize profits and build a competitive edge against competitors is more superior to the expected punishment, thus the increasing tendency for firms to cheat. Cheating is directly proportional to the level of competition such that, the higher the competition, the more likely are the chances of cheating. This is common in schools and colleges where students are ranked based on their performance in exams. When the culture of the school is to value and recognize good grades over bad grades, students feel the pressure to cheat in order to boost their grades, even with the shear knowledge that cheating is unethical. Indeed, this tends to be a departure from the primary intension of going to school, that is, instead of pursuing learning, they are pursuing competition for high grades (Anderman and Murdock, 2007). Moreover, Anderman and Murdock (2007) conducted an experiment on students and established that, those schools that emphasized on high grades and test scores witnessed more cheating cases than schools that did not take into account good grades and test scores. In addition, the two authors also established that cheating was less in schools that emphasized on understanding over memorizing and where errors are taken as normal human occurrences rather than failure. Therefore, in the environment that worships good grades, the intension of students in cheating is to look impressive in expense of understanding the ideas in learning. One disadvantage of competition in schools is its focus on performance rather than on learning, thus eroding intrinsic motivation and academic self-confidence (Kohn, 2007). Another aspect of competition that motivates cheating in schools involves rewarding good grades and punishing low scores. Here, Kohn (1999) observes that rewarding students as a motivational tool is counterproductive, as it forces students to cheat in order to be ranked higher than their colleagues and be rewarded. This is emphasized further by Labaree (1997), who claims that in a society where relative achievement is valued, students may seek “to gain the highest grade with the minimum amount of learning” in order to beat other students in competition, thus tending to justify cheating as a rational choice. From all these incidences, it is clear that cheating is more prevalent to the low performers than to the high performers. Nevertheless, it should also be noted that, even teachers and school authorities engage in cheating tendencies in order to rank their school ahead of other competing schools in the educational sector. Competition generally stimulates psychological pressure in such a way that it pushes individuals to force their way into social stardom rather than following the norms of fairness and merit. According to Harbring and Irlenbusch (2008), in a society that emphasizes on personal success from heightened competition, individuals may find cheating as a legitimate means to gain their personal social share without considering whether they are sabotaging others. This aspect is also evident in groups that provide competitive incentives such that, individuals tend to provide distorted information in order to influence group decision that would place them in favorable position to gain. Nevertheless, people with low ability to a task may turn to cheating as a way of boosting their chances of gaining from competition. Achievement from competition is more of an emotional aspect than effort when looked at from socio-psychology perspective. Therefore, people who face competition from others may be inclined to use their emotional connections in pursuit of success. Here, cheating becomes the most convenient tool for most competitors, especially those in intense competition and those who are poor performers. According to Schwieren & Weichselbaumer (2010), people who are less competent in certain tasks such as sports or academics are more likely to cheat not only to be at par or better than their competitors are, but also to avoid embarrassments come with failure. Moreover, given that women are more emotionally affected than men, they tend to be more inclined to cheat in order to eliminate or conceal the feeling of inferiority in a competitive environment. Nevertheless, Spielberger and Butcher are on the opinion that higher performers are more likely to cheat whether in competition or not while low performers are highly likely to cheat when in competition, more so because they are emotionally pressurized to compete against their competitors. Ability and availability of resources may have some influence on cheating in a competitive environment. According to Kerkvliet and Sigmund (1999), people who are less endowed in terms of ability are more likely to cheat when competition against people with high ability to perform. In addition, those who have fewer resources to engage in competition may revert to unethical tactics in order to succeed. For example, a company that wishes to set-up a new plant but does not have enough resources to fulfill all the legal requirements may present dubious and dishonest reports in order to deceive the authorities about its ability. Another example related to ability may be found in women tending to cheat more because of their inability to perform some tasks when compared to men. According to Levin (2013), unethical behavior, especially cheating, is manifested in almost every segment of the society, and is usually engineered towards achieving relative success. Despite the increased campaign to adhere to code of conduct by various professional bodies, people are always inclined to cheat in order to score higher than they legitimately deserve. Unsurprisingly, Levin (2013) observes that the current and future generations would be influenced to cheat as a trade they learn from their alleged role models or mentors who have adopted the culture of cheating as a means to justify the end. Competition may influence people to cheat and achieve their desired success, but there are emotional consequences to that. Literary, many people believe that cheating is justifiable as long as it provides positive results and does not harm other people. However, one thing is for sure: cheating is an immoral act that tends to create something out of nothing illegitimately, the result of which is negative feelings and a sense of guilt and shame. However, Ruedy, Moore, Gino, And Schweitzer (2013) are on the view that, those who cheat tend to experience positive feelings, especially when the successfully achieve their desires without being caught. Their opinion is that, cheating does not cause interpersonal harm to the victim, but constitutes a moral decadence that eludes honesty and fairness. Another author, Ekman (2009), established that people experience a feeling of joy after successfully cheating others, and labeled this feeling as delight duping. For instance, when an athlete wins a race after doping, he or she exudes a feeling of joy despite it being a deception to the society about the reality. However, this joy lasts only as long as the cheater is not caught, otherwise shame, embarrassment and bad mood will engulf the person. This joy or delight intensifies when others, especially those who are made to witness the success, albeit it being illegitimate (Ekman, 2009). One example that rings the mind is the case of Hitler after duping and lying about his conquest on Polish soldiers. However, despite people competing in order to win competition, people are also inclined to cheat in order to experience the fun side of it especially when it involves a taboo or an illegal act. Indeed, some people enjoy the pleasure of doing something that is forbidden without being caught and without harming others. Nevertheless, cheating should be taken as moral wrong that needs be eradicated in order to foster a society that reaps from its efforts and competence. In conclusion, the above discussion has established that competition is a catalyst to cheating, especially due to the value that society places on high performers. Although cheating leads to a feeling of achievement on its perpetrators, it should be considered as a moral impropriety that denies the society its deserved honesty and fairness. One social disadvantage of cheating is that it tends to eradicate competence and handwork in the society under competition, as those who cheat do not put any efforts in their achievements. For instance, with academic competition dwelling on grades and scores rather than on learning, there is possibility of a society that is bloated with highly rated but incompetent graduates, simply because students are more likely to inflate their grades by cheating rather than mastering the concepts taught. In relation to gender, women tend to cheat more than men do when subjected to competitive pressures, and this may be attributed to the emotional volatility that women are usually associated with. Moreover, ability and resource endowment tend to influence cheating significantly, when people are in a competitive environment such that, those who have less ability to perform a task seem to be more likely to engage cheating. This emanates from the cultural norm of rewarding performance and punishing or despising failure, thus forcing the poor performers to use dubious or unethical tactics in order to claim their position in the society. Nevertheless, given the emotional attachment to competition, it is important for the society to put less pressure on performance and concentrate on the means to achieve the performance in order to eliminate the chances of unethical behavior. Indeed, fairness in competition will not only enhance honesty, but will also create a win-win situation in the society. Word count: 2017 words References Anderman, E. M. and Murdock, T. B. Psychology of Academic Cheating. Burlington: Elsevier. Ekman, P. (2009). Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage. New York, USA: W. W. Norton. Franzoni, L. A. (2000). Tax Evasion and Tax Compliance. In Bouckaert, Boudewijn and Gerrit de Geest (eds.), Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, Vol. 4, (pp. 52-94) Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Friedrichs, O. (2009). White Collar Crime In Contemporary Society: White Collar Crime in Contemporary Society. Ohio, USA: Cengage Learning. Harbring, C., and Irlenbusch, B. (2008): How Many Winners are Good to have? On Tournaments with Sabotage. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 65(3-4), 682- 702. Kerkvliet, J., & Sigmund, C. (1999). Can We Control Cheating in the Classroom? Research in Economic Education, 30(4), 331-343. Kohn, A. (1999). Punished by Rewards. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Kohn, A. (2007). Against Competitiveness. Education Week. Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/edweek/competitiveness.htm Labaree, D. (1997). How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning: The Credentials Race in American Education. New Haven: Yale University Press. Levin, J. (2013). Blurring the Boundaries: The Declining Significance of Age. New York, USA: Routledge. Ruedy, N., Moore, C., Gino, F., & Schweitzer, M. (2013). The Cheater’s High: The Unexpected Affective Benefits of Unethical Behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105(4), 531–548 Schwieren, C., & Weichselbaumer, D. (2010). Does competition enhance performance or cheating? A laboratory experiment Journal of Economic Psychology, 31 (3), 241-253. Spielberger, C., & Butcher, J. (2013). Advances in Personality Assessment. New York, USA Routledge. Read More