Shame as a corrective tool
by Miki Saxon
I received a phone call in which the caller made a very potent argument regarding the ethical differences between metropolitan and rural areas commented on by Jesse. He said,
“Yeah, but in a sense, rural people have more “accountability” due to the incestuous nature of small towns.”
He’s right; the more public unethical, illegal, or immoral actions are publicized, the faster they are “fixed.”
But the action needs to cross the generally accepted social norm for the effect to happen; otherwise it’s a case of my opinion vs. yours.
This is just as true about corporate behavior as individual.
Great example is Microsoft, who used to ignore security concerns voiced directly to the company by the white-hat hackers who found them, until they started sending them to the media and announcing them on the web and their customers freaked. All of a sudden, security (supposedly) became Microsoft’s number one focus, blah, blah, blah. The community pressure worked enough that they now issue patches almost simultaneously with programs, but that’s still an improvement from the days they pretended there were no problems.
Public Walls of Shame have popped up all over and seem to make a difference.
So I invite you to post info on any unethical, immoral or illegal behavior that you’ve witnessed and together we’ll see if we can blow some whistles. (FYI, I’m the only person who can see your email address and it’s only used if you check the notify me box or I write you directly:)
