Fun and games - and ethics - playing scruples with family-business people

Nation's Business, Nov, 1989 by Sharon Nelton

Fun And Games--And Ethics

The CEO examined the cards that were dealt to him and said, with obvious satisfaction, "Straight flush. How about that?"

But it wasn't a game of poker. Instead of a fistful of neatly numbered diamonds, his hand contained cards posing such dilemmas as:

* "An official of a large company demands a payment in return for giving you a lucrative contract. Do you pay?"

* "As a famous athlete, you are offered $100,000 to endorse a product you wouldn't use. Do you endorse it?"

* "Your teenage children ask if you ever smoked marijuana. You did. Do you admit it?"

The CEO was one of a handful of family-business people who accepted a challenge from Nation's Business to play the Milton Bradley game "A Question of Scruples." There's a general belief that family-business people are more ethical than other business folks, and we hoped a few rounds of Scruples would give us a handle on the truth.

Scruples raises hundreds of ethical issues on which players must make "yes," "no," or "depends" decisions, and they also must convince one another of their sincerity. The fun lies not in who wins or loses but in the explosive discussions that the questions raise.

Our test group consisted of three married couples: two chief executives of family firms and their wives (one a physician, the other a business-savvy homemaker) plus another CEO's son and daughter-in-law, who both work in the business.

The physician didn't believe her husband when, in response to one question, he insisted that if he were a politician, he would vote against his conscience on abortion if it meant being re-elected.

One of the CEOs faced a question that offered him the opportunity to preview a competitor's product surreptitiously and secure a patent on it first. Would he do it? He weaseled out by answering, "depends."

The dilemma that most clearly divided the scrupulous from the unscrupulous--and the men from the women--went to one of the wives: "You're in an exclusive boutique. While trying on clothes in the dressing room, you get lipstick on a designer dress. Do you inform the salesperson?"

"Absolutely not," she said. All the women agreed, and the men disagreed. One husband was stupefied. He declared that if he did something similar--ripped a pair of pants, for example--he would own up to it.

Another husband speculated that the women didn't have much experience in handling big sums of money and feared having to pay for a costly dress they did not want. "The money is different for us than it is for you," he said, turning to one of the women. "You never made a $10,000 decision in your life!" To which she frostily replied that days earlier, she had signed a $135,000 check.

And so the evening went. Our game of Scruples didn't prove whether or not family-business people have an edge on ethics, but we all enjoyed the mix of hilarity and disbelief, charges and countercharges.

Here's one for you: "You own a restaurant. In the kitchen, you witness a cook drop a lamb chop on the floor, then wash, reheat, and replace it on the plate. Do you allow it to be served?"

Well, do you?

Sharon Nelton, Nation's Business special correspondent, writes about family firms.