Talk About Hypocrisy

One of the great things about working at a university is that you can have such interesting, illuminating conversations.  A recent one with Eliot Lloyd is an example.

We started on solid ground exploring how we can develop our teaching of strategy then ranged across Innocent Drinks, Eliot’s blog on Evernote, Antarctica, Ponseti technique, quantum cryptography and bungalows before landing lightly on the positive value of hypocrisy.  Not surprisingly after all that, we both had to get on with some work so we decided to continue the conversation through this blog. In fact we had reached the precise point where we were returning to business matters so this post will get us to that point again and then await a post from Eliot when he has some spare minutes.

The idea of hypocrisy as a positive thing is that there are some values which cannot be denied: they cannot be denied in speech but they cannot be totally denied in action either.  We are used to that idea with the divergence of public speech and private action.  The politician’s hypocrisy when they proclaim family values while having an affair is resented and condemned.

By contrast, consider statements of values where the action driven by that value is essentially visible, public.  So, consider democracy.  Democracy is proclaimed as a value across many parts of the world even in places where you don’t see it pursued with any great gusto.  Some places do deny it or ignore it but many countries play lip service to it.  I went to an international politics summer school a few years ago and we discussed the effect on the actions of rulers of this publicly undeniable value.  The professor of African politics set out that even many dictators pay some kind of homage to elections and seem to need at least a rubber stamp of an election, however flawed.  When elections cannot be removed, there is a floor to things, a base which can be worked on, criticised and campaigned about.

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It’s that transition from disputing a value to superficial compliance which is interesting.  It means that prevailing values – or that much maligned concept political correctness – influences public actions.  Over my lifetime I have seen this progress with drinking and driving which is unacceptable while speeding is still often seen as something you can get away with unless you are unlucky.  Employing and promoting women in business has become normal in my lifetime.  Now I would consider that promoting women to the most senior levels is a publicly undeniable value but gusto to pursue it is widely absent: there is at least a floor that most large companies have some women on the board.

Eliot and I were just beginning to consider hypocrisy and environmental policies in business.  “Well”, said Eliot.  “That’s really interesting because I was thinking the other day...  Must go.  I have a seminar.”

So, over to Eliot for Hypocrisy Part II.  It might not be as exciting as quantum cryptography but you have to agree it’s more interesting than bungalows.

About the Author: Elizabeth Parkin 

Elizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.