Cognitive Dissonance

For decades, the employees of Boeing had every reason to be proud. The company, founded in 1916, was seen as a model of American engineering prowess. Through regular, robust training programs and stringent quality control measures, Boeing had built a stellar reputation for aviation safety and security. Employees were encouraged to report concerns through well-established channels, creating a culture of safety and accountability. The company was much beloved in its original home state, Washington, and it provided employment to thousands of people, directly as well as through sub-contracting.

Sadly, starting in 1997, when Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, the company started to change. The cultures of the two companies could not have been more different. Under the new leadership, the focus of the company shifted from safety and engineering excellence to enhancing shareholder value and cost reduction. In the years leading up to the horrific 2018 and 2019 crashes of the 737 MAX aircraft, many of the employees of the plane’s maker, Boeing, experienced strong emotions. The company they had joined – in many cases, it was their first job more than 30 years ago – was not the same. Accustomed to practices of safety and strong feelings of pride in their engineering, they now experienced inadequate safety inspections, repeated calls for speed in delivery, clear pressure to avoid raising concerns and a general feeling that shortcuts were okay.

What these employees felt was a cognitive dissonance that would cause several experienced men and women to quit their job, thus further eroding the aircraft manufacturer’s competence in building high-quality aircraft. The term ‘cognitive dissonance’ was coined by the psychologist Leon Festinger in the nineteen-fifties, and it describes an imbalance between conviction and evidence or behaviour. This can cause people to feel psychological discomfort when they hold contradictory beliefs or, more powerfully, when their behaviour contradicts with their values and beliefs.

While the above example from Boeing is well-known, there are several everyday examples from corporate life:

• The sales manager wants to be honest but the company insists that she hide inconvenient truths
• The manager supports diversity policies but unconsciously favours candidates from a similar background
• The employee values family time but consistently works 70-hour weeks
• The leader advocates empowerment but is unable to stop micromanaging his team
• The leadership has a zero-tolerance policy for unethical behaviour and yet turns a blind-eye to a star performer’s transgressions
• The department head believes that innovation needs a culture of experimentation and tolerance for failure but criticizes or penalizes employees for failed initiatives
• The leader believes that honest feedback makes us better leaders but becomes defensive or dismissive when receiving constructive feedback.

People who experience cognitive dissonance can respond in multiple ways: they can behave in ways that align with their values, or change their belief systems, or minimize in their mind the impact of their actions, or even ignore information that causes discomfort. Cognitive dissonance in the workplace can have serious effects on employees, impacting morale, trust, engagement, and long-term retention. When there is a gap between what a company says and what it does, employees notice, and this creates internal conflict.

Under tremendous pressure to improve, Boeing has started to fix its safety problems. It has updated its safety & quality plan, launched more than a thousand “employee involvement teams,” rolled out mandatory training programs, and most crucially, instituted a “Speak Up” system so workers can report issues without fear.

As a leader, how do you ensure your teams do not experience cognitive dissonance? I would love to hear your stories.

P.S. In his fascinating 1956 book, “When prophecy fails,” Festinger writes about a doomsday cult in Chicago whose members believed the world would end and they would be saved by aliens. When their prophecy failed, rather than abandon their beliefs, they became even more committed. Recommended reading.