Scraping the barrel: are ‘bad apples’ the problem?

Professor Guido Palazzo (+41 (0)21 692 33 73, Guido.Palazzo@unil.ch) is academic director at Executive Education HEC Lausanne and director of the centre’s Ethics & Compliance Certificate of Advanced Studies (https://execed.unil.ch/en/formation-continue/certificate-compliance/). His research focuses on the impact of globalisation on corporate responsibility, immoral decision-making and organised crime.

Proverbially, a bad apple is sure to rot its neighbours. Yet the reverse can be true when it comes to corporate culture – toxic environments have a corrosive effect on individuals’ behaviour. Professor Guido Palazzo discusses a holistic understanding of human risk and the vital role of leadership.