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Hindustan Times: Professional people are more vulnerable to unethical behaviour: Study

10 Feb 2022
Employees or managers who viewed themselves as professional were more vulnerable to unethical behaviour such as conflicts of interest

Originally found at Hindustan Times

"I noticed that many professional advisors, such as financial advisors and physicians, claim that their 'professionalism' protects them from corruption and unwanted influence from conflicts of interest; that they can 'manage their own brains,'" said the study's author

It is an everyday story of professionals working in any field, to say that they are required to "behave professionally", even if the situation was such that it required a human reaction to it. A new Cornell University study found that employees or managers who viewed themselves as professional were more vulnerable to unethical behaviour such as conflicts of interest.

Safeguards from bias are more likely to fail in people with a high self-concept of professionalism, according to the study, "The Professionalism Paradox: Professionalism Increases Vulnerability to Conflicts of Interest," was published in the journal Academy of Management Perspectives.

Read the original research in Academy of Management Perspectives

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