The term “moral injury” is relatively recent term that is mostly applied to the military and police forces. A soldier or a police officer who kills an innocent civilian or fails to protect a vulnerable person, and is a principled or moral person, that person can experience a moral injury.

I believe, however, that we in the workplace also can be morally injured when we are involved in an inappropriate activity.

Recently, the Ethics Resource Center released its National Business Ethics Survey® of Fortune 500® Employees. Among the statistics reported is that 16 percent of those surveyed reported that they have felt pressured to do something inappropriate.

If this statistic rings true to the rest of the 156 million workers in this country, then it is safe to say that one in eight of every worker has experienced pressure to do an inappropriate act in the workplace.

I have been teaching ethics and leadership classes as an adjunct instructor for Oklahoma Wesleyan University and Indiana Wesleyan University for several years. Invariably, someone will report in class of having experienced undue pressure to do an inappropriate act in the workplace. Are you that person in your workplace?

Enron has become a household word regarding a company that went to the dark side and took a lot of people down in the process. Sherron Watkins has been given credit for being the whistleblower who exposed its internal problems to her boss, Kenneth Lay. Here are excerpts from that email:

Dear Mr. Lay,

Has Enron become a risky place to work? For those of us who didn’t get rich over the last few years, can we afford to stay?

[Jeffrey] Skilling’s abrupt departure will raise suspicions of accounting improprieties and valuation issues…

The spotlight will be on us, the market just can’t accept that Skilling is leaving his dream job…

I am incredibly nervous that we will implode in a wave of accounting scandals. My eight years of Enron work history will be worth nothing on my resume, the business world will consider the past successes as nothing but an elaborate accounting hoax. Skilling is resigning now for “personal reasons” but I would think he wasn’t having fun, looked down the road and knew this stuff was unfixable and would rather abandon ship now than resign in shame in two years.

Is there a way our accounting gurus can unwind these deals now? (The full text of her email can be seen here: http://www.itmweb.com/f012002.htm.)

Did Sherron Watkins suffer a moral injury?

I have no way of knowing about Ms. Watkins. However, if we are principled people, then, when we are pressured into doing something that goes against our integrity, we can experience a moral injury.

Again, I ask: Are you that person in your workplace?

I would like to hear from you. Please share your story with me.

I look forward to this blog becoming a community in which we can discuss moral injury in our workplace.

Sincerely,

Joe Lynch