CHEATING
We've all been reading about dishonesty among American corporate executives. Enron, Worldcom, Tyco and others fill our newspapers and tv newscasts. Even Martha Stewart is engulfed by the wave of criticism of our business leaders. The New York Times reports that a large American company openly flouts the law regarding payment to employees for overtime. Congressmen are indicted for corruption. So it wasn't a complete surprise to read a recent survey that revealed that 82% of the business leaders surveyed cheat at golf. Still, it was troubling to find out that such a big group of people who should serve as examples to us all find it necessary to cheat at a game. What's the point? In golf, as in other pursuits, you score what you score. Who are they trying to fool? Is it their opponents, their wives, their colleagues? Is it so important to look good that they can't be honest? Are they trying to fool themselves? Do they feel better about their golf games when they cheat their way to an apparently better score?
I've often said that we can learn everything about people by watching them at golf. Someone who would cheat at golf would cheat at anything. When we see business leaders cheat at golf, we have reason to fear they're cheating at other things. How can we work for them? How can we invest in their companies? How can we trust them to lead us?
There's something horrifying about cheating. It takes away from the activity, it takes away from everyone else, it makes everything worse. I would venture to say that even the cheater is worse off because of cheating. As we're seeing now in the various corporate criminal cases, the cheaters are in disgrace, they may go to jail. But the rest of us are even worse off: We lose our investments, we lose our jobs, even worse, we lose our trust in our leaders, in the very system we depend upon.
A recent article about Enron quoted a leading figure as saying the rules don't matter when cheating succeeds. That's the culture of corruption that led to the Enron problem and the other scandals we're currently vexed with. Corrupt leaders believe that it's ok to cheat if they don't get caught. We're all now faced with the problem of rooting out that belief, changing the culture of corruption. It's a big job.
Those who favor governmental solutions to problems argue for more comprehensive rules, more draconian penalties for missteps. I take a contrary view: Let's try to change the culture, try to change the hearts of our fellow citizens, try to make it impossible to cheat because of the shame a cheater would feel about his conduct.
The government is making halting steps to improve things, politicians are railing against the misconduct, disgruntled investors are calling for the heads of the transgressors. I think the answer is both simpler and more difficult: We have to believe ourselves that the rules matter, that the rules are for everyone's protection, that it's a disgrace to ignore the rules. If we can simply accept that we all must obey the rules people who feel themselves above the rules, who believe that cheating is ok, will truly become the exception, will find themselves in disgrace, will feel themselves unworthy whether or not they get caught. The penalty will be the shame and that shame will be a greater penalty than any society can impose.
10-28-02
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