Dr. Wang’s new research explores why some leaders learn from mistakes while others repeat them.
Every leader eventually faces difficult decisions in their career. Sometimes mistakes happen, some recover - others make things worse. New research from UM is explaining why.
In his new SSHRC funded project Ebbs and Flows of Leader (Un)Ethicality, Dr. Wei Wang is creating practical tools to help the next generation of leaders hold on to ethical commitments through the challenges of their careers. Wang is a professor of Business Administration at the Asper School of Business and was named Associates Fellow in Leadership and Ethics in 2024.
“My goal is to support inclusive workplaces with self-directed tools that any manager can use to help them reflect on the complex decisions they face each day,” says Wang. “I’m inspired by Oscar Wilde when he said, ‘every saint has a past and every sinner has a future’, and I believe that compassion-based self-interventions are the future.”
For organizations and educators hoping to foster more ethical and effective leadership, pinpointing the different paths taken to a lapse in ethics will help reform.
Wang has identified four distinct pathways:
Moral Cleansing – When someone believes that good behaviour now will make up for mistakes in the past.
After decades ignoring health impacts, one tobacco producer testified against the rest to avoid repercussions for themselves.
Moral Licensing – The opposite of moral cleansing, when people believe their past good deeds justify bad actions later.
After decades of charitable work, one nonprofit leader rationalized taking money for personal use as a reward for his contributions.
Moral Escalation – When a commitment to good ethics get’s our of hand, and is used to justify conflict and hostility between co-workers.
One CEO ended her relationship with a key contractor over disagreements between staff, causing financial instability for her company.
Moral Landsliding – Often called the slippery slope – when small mistakes add up to major breaches over time.
One famous financier described for the court how embezzling billions began with minor thefts of hundreds and thousands.
Insights into these problematic paths will help leaders overcome challenges with practical professional development opportunities and develop more ethical working climates for their organizations.
A leader’s actions set the stage for their organization, and micro-interventions like self-reflection and goal setting can promote good habits and accountability. Employees take their cues from a leader’s actions, so subtle changes can have a butterfly effect across an organization.
“We need to normalize a little bit that people make mistakes, and that one mistake doesn't need to define an entire career,” says Wang. “If we can help leaders regulate their decisions by asking identity-based questions like "What should I do?" to "Who do I want to be?" we can prevent small mistakes from becoming career-long trajectories.”
Wang’s study incorporates established theories with observations of real leaders through a critical lens to test their social responses to real world management situations. Once complete, Wang will distill his findings into a publicly available that organizations and managers can use to strengthen ethical decision-making and building healthier workplace cultures.
Follow his progress and access the tool kit once ready the GLOW Lab webpage and the Open Science Framework Platform.
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