1. Ethics
Brett Dillon
RESNET Conference 2010

2. Ethics Values
Prevention
Failure

3. Ethics & Morals
Ethics Morals
System of beliefs Standards of behavior
Critical thinking Legislated
Internalized Externalized

4. Dr. Mallard
NCIS
played by David McCallum
CBS
www.moviesoundclips.net

5. Critical Thinking
• Recognize problem
• Research
• Decide what to do
• Justify to self & others

6. Failure
Moral
Standard
Actions

7. Causes of Failure
• Pressure
• Pleasure
• Power
• Pride
• Priorities

8. Moral Disengagement
• Not “result justifies the action”
• Cognitive mechanism
• De-activates moral self-regulation
• Frees us from self-sanction & guilt
• Caused by unethical behavior

9. Strategic Forgetting
“Bad behavior motivates moral leniency and leads to
strategic forgetting of moral rules.”
- Shu, Gino, and Bazerman 2009

10. How we view ourselves
Us Them
More fair Less fair
Less self-interested More self-interested
Less interested in $ More interested in $
More honest Less honest
More trustworthy Less trustworthy

11. Permissive Environments
“People respond to the permissiveness of their
environment and seize the opportunity to behave
unethically.”
- Shu, Gino, and Bazerman 2009

12. Pre-emptive Justification
• Past ethical behavior
• Future ethical behavior

13. Will we?
Future behavior
50%
33%
17%
Prediction
0%
Actual

14. Concurrent Justification
Sports Magazine Swimsuit with Sports Articles
100
75
50
25
0
Sports Articles Importance of articles
Chance & North 2009

15. Gender Bias
Groups Male Female
More
More
education,
1 experience,
less
less education
experience
More
More
education,
2 experience,
less
less education
experience

16. Self-deception
O what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!
- Sir Walter Scott, Marmion

17. Cope through Forgetting
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

18. Prevention
• Written code of ethics
• Frame decision making

19. Written Code of Ethics
• Exposure to code reduces
unethical behavior
• Signing moral code virtually
eliminates it

20. Framework for Decision Making
• Economic analysis
• Legal analysis
• Ethical analysis

21. Guidelines
• Take responsibility
• Develop discipline
• Know yourself
• Align priorities & values
• Admit wrongdoing & ask
forgiveness quickly

22. Guidelines
• Put family ahead of work
• Put people over profits
• Keep your word
• Be loyal
• Know your boundaries & enforce
them

23. Actions
"It is no use to
preach to [children]
if you do not act
decently yourself."
Theodore Roosevelt
Speech to Holy Name Society,
Oyster Bay, August 16, 1903

24. Scenario #1
It is your first day on the job at
WeBeGreenEnergy, a rating company
that has a great reputation.
On your first field verification with your
supervisor, he tells you that the key to
making money at this is to make sure
that you don’t cause the builder any
trouble- hinting that failure is not an
option. You observe him writing down
test results from the blower door that
are lower than the gauge numbers.
What should you do?

25. Values
• Golden Rule
• How do you want to be treated?
• Valued
• Appreciated
• Trusted
• Respected
• Understood
• Not taken advantage of

26. The RESNET Code
• Professional Conduct
• Representations of Services and
Fees
• Conflicts of Interest
www.resnet.us/standards/practice/ethics.htm

27. Professional Conduct
• Keep your certifications up to date
• Comply with the Standards & Procedures
• Remain objective in recommendations
• Participate in Quality Assurance Program
• Don’t embarrass the organization
• Don’t embarrass the profession
• Don’t disclose client information
• Commit to Professional Development

28. Representation of Services & Fees
• Don’t mislead people
• Fully disclose fees, scope and
deliverables PRIOR to doing work

29. Conflicts of Interest
• Comply with disclosure form
requirements
• Don’t double dip without consent
• Inform clients of right to competitive
bid for recommended work
• Don’t allow interest in any business
to affect rating

30. Scenario #2
A friend of yours (who works for a
competitor) invites you to dinner. When
you arrive, she asks you if you could give
her some advice. It seems that the
company she works for is certifying
homes based upon projected ratings, not
confirmed ratings. They spot check
homes for the TBI, but do not reinspect
failures of the TBI since that would
increase the cost to the builder- they also
do not perform duct and infiltration
testing on every home. They are not a
sampling provider. What do you do?

31. Bibliography
• Chance, Zoë, and Michael Norton. 2009. ““I read Playboy for the
articles” Justifying and rationalizing questionable preferences”.
Harvard Business School Working Paper 10-18
• de Vries, Paul, and Barry Gardner. 1992. The Taming of the Shrewd:
A Marketplace Handbook for Smart Ethics, Scrupulous Strategy, and
Sound Decision-Making. Thomas Nelson, Inc.
• Hosmer, LaRue. 1996. The Ethics of Management. Irwin McGraw-
Hill.
• Maxwell, John C. 2003. There's No Such Thing As "Business"
Ethics: There's Only One Rule For Making Decisions. Warner Books.
• Owen, James P. 2005. Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn
from The Code of the West. Stoecklein Publishing & Photography.
• Shu, Lisa L., Francesca Gino and Max H. Bazerman. 2009.
“Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience: Self-Preservation Through Moral
Disengagement and Motivated Forgetting”. Harvard Business School
Working Paper 09-078.

32. Contact
Brett Dillon
bdillon@ibsadvisorsllc.com
www.ibsadvisorsllc.com
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