Take 'em out in handcuffsJohn Gormley called yesterday for white collar criminals to be led out in handcuffs as happens in the USA. In the past I have not felt that the practice of doing this served much useful purpose. I think it reinforces a rather childish goodies and baddies viewpoint. That you can pin the blame for problems on one bad person and once you remove the baddie everything will be OK again. The reality is that no-one is wholly good or bad and that we are all influenced in our behaviour by those around us. This explains why people can behave in unexpected ways or behave very differently at work and at home, what is sometimes called multiple ethical selves. Taking out a couple of baddies doesn’t change the culture of the organisation. However I am coming round to the idea that a couple of high profile ‘walks of shame’ may be what is needed to create enough of a disincentive to engage in bad behaviour. Maybe if this happened it would at least give people pause for thought when they were being pressurised or persuaded into a course of action. Certainly senior people in the banking sector in Ireland seem to feel that they are untouchable and still owed substantial remuneration no matter how poor their performance. I’m not implying that Brian Goggin of Bank of Ireland has engaged in any criminal activity but the RTE interview in which he said he expected his remuneration this year to be no more than €2M seems to indicate that he is totally removed from the real world. This on the same day that Bank of Ireland's estimate of bad loans increased from €3.8bn to €6bn. Does he have no appreciation of what is happening to his customers and other people around him? Add a CommentYour comment will appear once it has been approved. |