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Lying is pervasive. It seems that while humans are not the only primates to deceive, they do have the unique intelligence and language skills to construct lies. As a result, the fine art of lying can be an effective strategy used to gain wealth and security, to build social status, or even to attract a mate. Lying can be very effective because most humans are not very good at deciphering lies from truth-telling. (Persaud, 2005) In accordance, lying and getting away with it also are pervasive in the business environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine lying behavior in the business environment. The definition and classification of lies are provided as well as a discussion of the increasing use of lying in the business environment. Thereafter, the when and why of lying behaviors are presented, followed by the results of lying and specific strategies that individuals use to neutralize the effects of lying. The next section of the paper examines how to detect a lie and presents the most difficult lie to detect, self-deception. Then, the article ends with a discussion of how to build honesty in a business organization, followed by a conclusion.
INTRODUCTION
Lying is pervasive. It seems that while humans are not the only primates to deceive, they do have the unique intelligence and language skills to construct lies. As a result, the fine art of lying can be an effective strategy used to gain wealth and security, to build social status, or even to attract a mate. Lying can be very effective because most humans are not very good at deciphering lies from truth-telling. (Persaud, 2005) Lying and getting away with it also are pervasive in the business environment. For example, 40-70% of individuals have exaggerated on their resumes while only 36% of businesses have fired an employee after uncovering a lie on the resume. (Wood, et.al., 2007) However, most people are genuinely reluctant to lie or deceive when they feel it will result in serious harm to themselves or others. (Aquino, et.al., 2005)
The purpose of this paper is to examine lying behavior in the business environment. The definition and classification of lies are provided as well as a discussion of the increasing use of lying in...