Pressures to Succeed
Vince Lombardi, head coach of the Green Bay Packers for many years, once said, “Winning isn’t everything—it’s the only thing.” This attitude still prevails in the business world. There are no officials wearing striped shirts and blowing whistles to make sure that everyone plays by the rules, but the pressure to make the numbers and attain competitive goals is extremely intense in today’s corporations.
Employees become cynical when they see their leaders cut corners or turn the other way when something is done that is clearly a violation of company policy. Many a new hire is taken aside and told “That’s not the way things are really done around here.” There is often a considerable amount of peer pressure to conform to the informal or unofficial way things are done than to adhere to the ethical standards spelled out in the organization’s policy statement (assuming there is one!).
How do these informal codes of ethics get created and ultimately stray so far from what was originally intended? Where do these pressures to succeed come from? How do normally honest people rationalize their contradictory behavior?
Internal pressure changes the way employees behave and influences decision making. Here is a story that illustrates the pressure employees in one company were under to meet financial goals and how the stress affected the workforce.
Setting Goals for the Year Ahead
XYZ Company leaders had been meeting each year to set goals for the company and its managers. “The Plan,” as it was referred to, was considered to be the ultimate performance measurement. The development of the plan was a complicated process that required careful review and scrutiny by all of the top executives of the corporation, with final approval from the CEO. However, the approval process was particularly difficult this year: The new CEO sent the first proposals back to the Executive Committee, charging them with the responsibility to challenge the organization to reach profitability levels never before dreamed possible. “If we don’t constantly set our sights higher each year, we will never be any better than we are today,” the CEO liked to say.
Finally, a plan was presented and approved that set goals far more aggressive than ever before in the company’s history. The CEO was pleased. In the company’s newsletter, he congratulated everyone in the organization for taking on ambitious and challenging goals. He expressed his confidence that the company would meet this challenge and make this plan a reality.
“That’s easy for the top dog to say, sitting in his big office at headquarters,” Joe Sullivan told a co-worker as he read the newsletter. “But we’re the ones out here in the trenches who have to try to make all their lofty goals become reality.” Joe Sullivan was a senior sales representative with twenty-four years in the company. He was used to getting more-challenging goals each year, and always felt that what was being expected of him was reasonable. Until this year, that is…
“I’m afraid we don’t have a choice, except to do everything we possibly can to meet this plan. I’m sorry Joe, I don’t agree with what’s going on either, but like you, I have others I have to answer to,” Joe’s boss told him as they discussed the new plan over the telephone.
Kevin Jacobson had this same conversation with each of the salespeople who reported to him throughout the company. Everyone was feeling the pressure. They had already been working extremely hard to reach this year’s goals. Adding to their workload and pressures did not seem fair, even to Kevin. Personally, he was glad he only had a few more years until he could take retirement. Then he wouldn’t have to deal with all this pressure anymore. He was not sure how he was going to increase sales enough to be able to meet the expected volume that was being asked of him, so he called all of his salespeople together for a meeting shortly after the new year began to develop a strategy.
At the meeting, Kevin challenged the group to work together as a team. He also had more bad news to share with the group. To earn their annual bonus, everyone would have to increase sales. There was a collective groan from the group as Kevin finished explaining how the new bonus plan was designed. He attempted to try to offer some inspirational and even motivating comments about meeting the challenge that lay before them, but it was of little use. The mood in the room was one of shock and anger over how the “rules” they had worked under for so many years had suddenly changed.
“Boy, that’s just great,” Joe Sullivan said to several other sales reps during the break. “Not only do those big shots in headquarters set impossible goals for everyone to reach, but they also set it up so we lose our bonuses as part of the package. I don’t get it—is this supposed to motivate us, or just make us more depressed about what they’re shoving down our throats? Sounds like just another way to get more sales out of us and not have to pay us our bonuses next year. I guess it is a pretty clever plan after all!”
Steve Clark, a sales representative who was in charge of West Coast sales, listened intently to Joe’s comments. “Maybe those bonuses aren’t out of reach after all,” he offered.
“Yeah, right. We all have customers banging our doors down trying to increase their orders to help us get our bonuses. We’ve been having enough trouble just meeting last year’s goals, never mind higher ones!” Joe replied.
“I didn’t say that it was going to be easy to reach these goals. I’m just saying that I’m not ready to throw in the towel on the bonus,” Steve replied, defending himself. “I got kids going to college next fall and I need to have that bonus. Maybe there are ways to still be able to make these goals and get our bonuses. Like Kevin explained, the payoff for reaching these goals is definitely worth the effort.”
“There would definitely be a payback, but I would rather have a smaller bonus that I could realistically earn than be offered a bigger one that is out of reach,” said Joe.
“I’m not sure I agree with that,” Steve said as they took their seats.
Joe leaned over and whispered in his ear. “I just don’t understand why you are so confident that you can meet these sales goals. I happen to know that they far exceed what you were able to sell last year.”
“Let’s just say I’ve got a secret weapon,” Steve replied.
“Come on. Quit playing games. We’ve known each other too long not to be straight with one another. What in the world are you talking about?”
“All right already, I’ll let you in on a secret, but you have to promise you won’t tell anyone else about it. You would ruin it for everyone. You remember my cousin I told you about, who lives in New England?” Steve whispered.
Joe pretended to pay attention to the presentation as he spoke. “Yeah, I remember you mentioning him from time to time. Isn’t he the one who works for our biggest competitor?”
“That’s him. Well, it seems that he got fed up with the company about something or other, and he’s looking for another job. He also wants to get out of this type of business entirely. Based on what is going on around here, I can’t say that I blame him. I think that he is going to start his own business— a bagel shop, I think.” Steve replied.
“What’s that got to do with us and our bonus?” Joe was confused about what Steve’s cousin had to do with their current dilemma.
“We never discussed business when we saw each other at family gatherings and other special occasions—we thought it would be a conflict of interest. But now it’s different—he’s leaving the company, so he doesn’t feel any allegiance to them anymore, particularly when he is mad at them about not getting a promotion he wanted. I guess he feels that giving me information that could help our company is his way of getting back at them.”
Joe sat there and thought about getting competitive intelligence from Steve’s cousin. He was more than a little uncomfortable with the whole idea. After about thirty minutes, he turned to Steve and whispered, “I’m not so sure that this is a very good thing to do.”
“Why? We’re not breaking any laws or anything. This kind of thing goes on all the time. Why shouldn’t we benefit from this information if it is there for the taking?” responded Steve.
“Well, I don’t know. I don’t care what you say—this just doesn’t sound right to me,” said Joe.
“What’s not right is completely changing the rules on us just so those big shots in headquarters can get bigger bonuses next year at the expense of ours. It’s a pretty clever plan—they get more money and we get nothing because we don’t reach our goals. Even if we do better than last year.”
Kevin Jacobson stood up to make his presentation. “I know how you are all feeling about this year’s plan… Okay, maybe I don’t fully understand how this news is affecting everyone. But I can tell you this. The goals that have been set are achievable if you decide that they are. I’ve been hearing a lot of negatives all morning and this is the first thing we need to change. I just want you to know that the company is going to provide us with the support we will need to achieve these goals. And we can achieve them.”
“That’s easy for him to say. He knows he is going to retire in a couple more years. Most of us still have a long way to go,” Steve whispered.
Kevin put up a chart on the projector. “We are going to significantly increase our advertising efforts during the upcoming year. We will have a detailed presentation on this campaign by our advertising people later this afternoon. We are also going to offer further discounts for our larger-volume customers. And the most exciting news is that our research team has developed an entirely new product that should put us way ahead of the competition for a number of years to come. All these things should help you achieve this year’s bonus.”
Joe turned to Steve. “See? You don’t need to do anything unethical to have a shot at qualifying for the bonus this year! Sounds like we are going to be getting all the support we will need to at least make it possible to achieve these goals.”
“You’re looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, aren’t you?” Steve retorted. “Where do you think the idea for that new product line probably came from?”
“Like Kevin just told us, it came from our research people.”
“I just happen to know that my cousin’s company has also been looking into a brand-new product. You never know where companies get their best ideas,” Steve replied.
Was Steve implying that the company stole the idea for the new product from another company? Is there a correlation between the increased pressures that were placed on the organization by its leadership and employees thinking about doing something unethical to achieve these goals? Does the one justify the other?
The real question is this: How can this organization continue to reach its performance goals and still maintain its ethical standards?
Ethics and business success are not mutually exclusive. It is up to the leadership as well as the employees of any organization to constantly keep this in mind as they perform their jobs.