Is greed the driver of a booming stock
market and explosive budget deficit? Can greed ever be a good thing?
Frequently, various measures of the
performance of the world’s largest economy—the United States— make the news. I
see blurbs telling me of stunning multiyear highs for the S&P stock index,
incredibly low unemployment, and budget bursting deficits. And I wonder about
greed.
Is greed the major reason
why everyone seems to join the party and ignore the day when debt payments must
be paid?
Meanwhile, wise individuals assess their level
of greed balanced against their appetite for risk. And some consider the virtue
of generosity and their social obligations.
What
is Greed?
Greed is a
desire to get more and more of things regardless of personal needs. Greed may
be situational, but it may also be dispositional—a personality trait. Greed is
usually linked to goals of getting more food, money, and material things. The Cambridge
Dictionary lists related words like avarice, materialism, and rapaciousness.
Beyond the dictionary list, researchers (for
a summary, see Bruhn & Lowery, 2012) find that regardless of national
culture, people seek to satisfy five needs: security, shelter,
sustenance, sex, and self-expression. Values are related to perceptions of need.
In the United States, values include material comfort, wealth, competition,
and individualism.
Ambition is a benign term for socially
acceptable greed. Greed is ambition beyond the
norms of a culture. High levels of greed interfere with personal, corporate,
and national well being.
Greed is a biopsychosocial motivational
force that appears to be a part of human nature. It isn’t surprising to see
some tout the values of greed despite general religious teachings condemning
greed.
Greed:
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
If I were a famous researcher, I think I
would like to write a piece for a major news outlet called Greed: The Good, the
Bad, and the Ugly because, I believe the answer to the question, “Is Greed
a Double-Edged Sword?” (Zhu and others, 2019)
is yes. On the one hand, people with high levels of greed aim for higher levels
of social status and the associated benefits, which includes a variety of
material goods.
The “good” of greed for an employer can be
the respect for those in authority who are in a position to control the
advancement of the greed-driven employee, not to mention the high job
performance. Greedy people want more and never seem to be satisfied—
these are the two elements of greed described by Seuntjens, Zeelenberg, van de
Ven, & Breugelmans (2019).
The “bad” of greed include the lack of
performance when employees view their organisation as not distributing benefits
in a fair manner and destructive competition. Greed is also linked to a
willingness to take bribes and break rules (e.g., Seuntjens et al., (2019).
Bruhn & Lowery (2012) identify the downside using terms like “envy, power
lust, exploitation, manipulation, deception, and a sense of entitlement”
(p.138).
I also note the work of Gray, Ward, and
Norton (2014) demonstrating a “paying it forward effect.” In their studies,
people pay forward equality and generosity, though they tend to be less
generous. But they tend to excess when paying forward greed and acts of
cruelty.
Managing
Greedy People and
Fair play is critical to prevent greed-linked
cheating. The findings from Zhu et al. (2019)
suggest government and organisational leaders ought to ensure a culturally fair
distribution of resources to benefit from the energies of greedy people.
Boundaries are needed at all levels of
society to establish acceptable norms for ambition.
Monitor acts of Paying it Forward. It’s important to reward positive acts of kindness and generosity. But it’s equally important to be quick to address the payback of greed and harm, which can quickly lead to harmful relationships and an unsafe culture (e.g., Gray et al., 2014).
Leaders’ public pronouncements of regret
may be helpful. Expressing regret about greedy
behaviour and unfairness appear to have some impact on strengthening norms about
fairness. Conversely, leaders who tout the virtues of greed can influence
violations of social boundaries (van der Schalk, Kuppens, Bruder, & Manstead,
2015).
Public exposure of deception is
important. National leaders, the press,
organisations, and individuals play an important role in exposing the tricks of
the greedy who use misrepresentation, lies, and deception to exploit others in
their pursuit of goods (Steinel & De Dreu, 2004). A free press and support
for whistleblowers are needed to curb measurable harm from the negative effects
of greed.
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See Creating Surveys to help measure attitudes, values, and behavior in organizations.
See the Dispositional Greed Scale as a measure of Greed.
Also see the related concept of Altruism and the work of Batson.
References
Bruhn,
J. G., & Lowrey, J. (2012). The good and bad about greed: How the
manifestations of greed can be used to improve organizational and individual
behavior and performance. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and
Research, 64(2), 136–150. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029355
Gray,
K., Ward, A. F., & Norton, M. I. (2014). Paying it forward: Generalized
reciprocity and the limits of generosity. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: General, 143(1), 247–254. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031047
Seuntjens,
T. G., Zeelenberg, M., van de Ven, N., & Breugelmans, S. M. (2015). Dispositional
greed. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 917–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000031
Steinel,
W., & De Dreu, C. K. W. (2004). Social Motives and Strategic
Misrepresentation in Social Decision Making. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 86(3), 419–434.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.3.419
van
der Schalk, J., Kuppens, T., Bruder, M., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2015). The
social power of regret: The effect of social appraisal and anticipated emotions
on fair and unfair allocations in resource dilemmas. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: General, 144(1), 151–157.
https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000036.supp (Supplemental)
Zhu,
Y., Sun, X., Liu, S. & Xue, G. (2019). Is greed a double-edged sword? The
roles of the need for social status and perceived distributive justice in the
relationship between greed and job performance. Frontiers in Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02021