Banking crisis
Can banks prevent a banking crisis by giving all staff a psychological test?
No, because a psychological test looks at individuals. A test can discover whether people are incompetent or lack ethical principles. That focus on individual rotten apples, though, is not going to help prevent a new banking crisis.
The ethical behaviour displayed by a company is rooted in the group of colleagues to which the staff belong. The way the group is managed also plays a part. Is making as much money as possible the only thing that matters, no matter how? Then, management are pushing people in the wrong direction. This is obvious from research on all kinds of companies throughout the world.
Groups act as ethical anchors. People are eager to belong to the group, so they behave in a way the group considers normative. You can foster ethical behaviour in colleagues if that is the norm among staff, with the manager taking the lead. This means that it is no good removing rotten apples if you do nothing about an organisation's rotten culture.
Naomi Ellemers, Professor of Social Psychology