The ingrained Law of Reciprocation – a Solomonite dilemma for our modern age

I love writing a weekly column for the Financial Mail. It is a licence to challenge aspects of business life we all recognise are important, but don’t necessarily have time to think about. It also allows me to express rational opinions on subjects often too thorny for polite conversation. Like this week’s one on reciprocity. When does a favour become an obligation? Or a bribe? It’s far from cut and dried. Years ago I attended a private session on ethics with the marvellous Dr David Lapin. It introduced a strange reality that we draw our lines in very different places. One man’s bribe is often another’s totally legitimate “introductory fee”. One journalist’s relationship building trip is regarded by another as a concrete obligation. Fascinating subject. Trust what follows will exercise your mind as much as it has mine. – AH 

Alec Hogg

By Alec Hogg*

Most days, travelling home requires stopping at a busy intersection infested with windscreen washers. Enthusiastic fellows who spray soapy water with abandon, swiftly wiping away their suds between light changes.

No motorist asks for the service. Some even ignore the imploring eyes. But most, even those whose windscreens were perfectly clean before the treatment, hand over a few rand.

These roadside entrepreneurs rely on one of the oldest principles in human relationships. The law of reciprocity. Mankind’s deep obligation to return a favour.

Reciprocity is so ingrained we’ve even worked it into languages. In English “much obliged” means thank you. In Portuguese there’s “obgrigado”. The Japanese “sumimasen” is even more accurate, meaning “this will not end”.

Kenyan anthropologist Richard Leakey popularised appreciation of this law by arguing reciprocity was the crux in defining humanity. Leakey claims civilisation only started one our forebears learnt to share food and their skills.

The business world has refined reciprocity into an art. Not always in a manner everyone would call ethical. Raising a dilemma to challenge even the biblical King Solomon.

A few years ago I got into a blazing row with Absa, then led by Steve Booysen. The banking group had invited me to join its executives for a few days on the horribly overpriced Rovos Rail. They even wanted to know my reading preferences so these, too, could be provided.

I protested that as there was no clear assignment, this was actually a poorly disguised bribe. Not so, the bankers countered. It’s legitimate networking. Come along and get to know our people. So the next time you engage, there will be better understanding between you. I declined.

The following year Absa emphatically answered my objection. It upped the ante by flying editors to the island of Reunion. Indignant, I subsequently challenged the Barclays executive responsible for the South African subsidiary. He brushed it aside with a “Well, we take people to Twickenham to watch rugby, don’t we?”

Which neatly sums up the issue. When does corporate hospitality evolve from legitimate relationship building into bribery? Should we simply ignore the law of reciprocity and partake in the privilege our positions sometimes bring?

Business is about relationships. We all prefer dealing with people we like. No matter how superior their price point, those who make our stomachs churn are avoided.

Relationships, in turn, are built – or not – away from formal meeting rooms. Over lunch. At rugby matches. And, yes, even on the Rovos Rail.

So how does a rational being deal with this dilemma?

Having mulled it over for years, the best I’ve now been able to come up with is to be fully aware. To clarify up front what is expected. Eliminate the law of reciprocity by asking uncomfortable questions. It’s my only way to have a clear conscience before accepting that trip, that ticket, that lunch.

But be prepared. It’s an approach that can be misinterpreted.

As a young reporter, a public relations consultant once arranged for me to visit Madrid, courtesy of Iberia. When asked the purpose, I was told it was merely to experience the airline’s in-flight service. No obligation.

Innocently taking him at his word, I enjoyed a pleasant long weekend in Spain. As there was no obvious story, readers of the Sunday Times never got to hear about any of it. That was the last time I was invited to fly Iberia. Or invited by tht aconsultant to “experience” any of his client’s wares. Go figure.

*Alec Hogg is a writer and broadcaster who founded Moneyweb. He now runs biznewz.biz. Rational Alternative appears weekly in the Financial Mail, SA’s leading business magazine.

 

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