Using Business Students \u27 Precepts To Predict Ethical Decision Making

A 13-item questionnaire was administered to 259 business students on two college campuses, with a combined population of 1,872, to determine if religious affiliation, upbringing, profession, college major and several other independent variables (labeled precepts) could be used to predict students\u27 perceptions of some main problems of philosophy. Stepwise multiple regression models revealed several significant differences, with p\u3c.05 in four separate models. Precepts are predictive of business students\u27 perceptions of some of the basic problems of philosophy. Understanding the influence of religion affiliation, upbringing, profession, and college major on students\u27 perceptions of right and wrong decision making can be useful for educators when planning for ethics instruction in business education

The effect of values, conscientiousness, and self-efficacy on ethical decision-making

This research explores the roles that values, conscientiousness, and self-efficacy play in ethical decision-making. Although previous research has shown that values affect ethical decision-making, few researchers have evaluated the effect that conscientiousness has on ethical decision-making. Research has evaluated the effect that self-efficacy has on ethical decision-making, but a relationship has not been found. The current study hypothesizes that individuals high in self-transcendence values will make more ethical decisions than individuals high in self-enhancement values. Also, individuals high in conscientiousness are expected to make more ethical decisions than individuals low in conscientiousness. Third, individuals high in self-efficacy are expected to make more ethical decisions than individuals low in self-efficacy. Finally, values are expected to moderate the relationship that conscientiousness and self-efficacy have on ethical decision-making. The study was conducted on 148 students enrolled in graduate business courses. The results revealed that values affected ethical decision-making. Individuals high in self-enhancement values made less ethical organizational decisions

The role of individualism and collectivism as predictors of attributions for unethical work behavior : an empirical examination across two culturally diverse groups

This dissertation addresses how the cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism affect the attributions people make for unethical behavior at work. The moderating effect of ethnicity is also examined by considering two culturally diverse groups: Hispanics and Anglos. The sample for this study is a group of business graduate students from two universities in the Southeast. A 20-minute survey was distributed to master\u27s degree students at their classroom and later on returned to the researcher. Individualism and collectivism were operationalized as by a set of attitude items, while unethical work behavior was introduced in the form of hypothetical descriptions or scenarios. Data analysis employed multiple group confirmatory factor analysis for both independent and dependent variables, and subsequently multiple group LISREL models, in order to test predictions. Results confirmed the expected link between cultural variables and attribution responses, although the role of independent variables shifted, due to the moderating effect of ethnicity, and to the nuances of each particular situation

A Social-Cognitive Approach To Marketing Ethics: Institutionalization, Integrity, And Power

Presented for a dissertation, I report on a survey-designed study that empirically investigates the relationship between environmental and individual traits leading to the practice of ethical behavior within a marketing firm. Drawing upon extant ethical constructs, and using both the General Theory of Marketing Ethics and Social Cognitive Theory as guides, I find strong support for the potential synergy between individual tendencies and firm characteristics in order to facilitate ethical behavior on the part of marketing employees. In addition to shoring up earlier constructs, I discovered surprising relationships between the individual and firm dynamic, where the effects of certain characteristics (such as firm tightness-looseness) do not act as one would have imagined, leading to a new school of thought for how to implement a culture of ethics within the marketing industry

Individual Reactions To Organizational Ethical Failures And Recovery Attempts: A Recovery Paradox?

The vast majority of behavioral ethical research focuses on the antecedents of unethical behavior. Consequently, questions involving the consequences of organizational unethical behavior remain largely unanswered. Therefore, extant business ethics research largely neglects the impacts of organizational unethical behavior on individuals. Moreover, questions involving what organizations can do to correct or recover from having engaged in unethical behavior as well as individual responses to those efforts are also mostly ignored. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of unethical activity on employees and explore organizations that have failed ethically and their attempts at recovery. This study explores two issues. First, how do employees react to organizational unethical behavior (OUB) and to what extent are those reactions dependent on contextual and individual factors? Second, to what extent can organizations recover from the negative impacts of ethical failure? More specifically, is it possible for organizations that fail in their ethical responsibilities to recover such that they are paradoxically better-off than their counterparts that never failed in the first place? To explore these issues I review, integrate and draw upon the ethical decision-making and service failure recovery literatures for theoretical support. Empirical testing included two studies. The first was a field study using survey data acquired from the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) in which over 29,000 participants were asked about their perceptions of ethics at work. Second, a supplemental field study was conducted in which 100 employees rated the characteristics of unethical acts (e.g. severity). Results revealed a negative direct effect of severity and controllability of the OUB on perceptions of organizational ethicality and a negative direct effect of controllability of the OUB on organizational satisfaction. Ethical context moderated the relationship between OUB controllability and perceived organizational ethicality. Partial support was found for the moderating effects of ethical context on the relationship between OUB severity and perceived organizational ethicality. Results also supported an ethical failure recovery paradox

The effect of leader moral disengagement and influence tactics on follower cognitions and ethical sensemaking

During times of organizational crisis followers often rely on their leader’s experience and knowledge to provide ethical guidance. However, crises also provide leaders increased opportunity to influence followers to commit unethical acts. The current study examined how leaders use deliberate strategies like moral disengagement and proactive influence tactics to achieve follower compliance. Using a model of ethical sensemaking, results indicate follower sensemaking processes and behaviors were significantly affected by leader strategies. Overall, a leader’s use of proactive influence tactics significantly impacted follower moral disengagement, forecasting, and ethical decision making. Additionally, leader moral disengagement and specific strategy pairs significantly influenced follower conformity and collusion with their leader to act unethically. Implications regarding theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed

The Effect of Perceived Salesperson Transparency, as Enabled by Technology, on Unethical Salesperson Behavior

Recent technological developments have enabled sales managers to increase the behavioral transparency of their sales force. This study focuses on the impact that salesperson perceptions of their own transparency has on the ethicality of their behavior. Perceived transparency is broken down into two dimensions: access to and use of information by management. Empirical support is shown that perceived use of information has a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived managerial access to information and the likelihood of unethical salesperson behavior. Further, bothsubjective salesperson job performance and salesperson control beliefs are shown to have moderating effects on the interaction between use of information and likelihood of unethical salesperson behavior

Consequences Identification in Forecasting and Ethical Decision-making

This study examined how the number and types of consequences considered impacts forecasting and ethical decision-making. Undergraduate participants took on the role of the key actor in several ethical problems and were asked to forecast potential outcomes and make a decision about each problem. Performance pressure and environmental conflict were manipulated within the problem scenarios. The results indicated that forecast quality was associated with decision ethicality, and the identification of the critical consequences of the problem was associated with both higher quality forecasts and more ethical decisions. Additionally, the identification of a larger number of consequences was associated with higher quality forecasts. Neither performance pressure nor environmental conflict impacted forecast quality or ethicality of decisions. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Nonsexual Boundary Crossings in Psychotherapy: Factors in Ethical Decision-Making

Seminal ethics studies in psychology have evidenced significant variance among practitioners in their ethical attitudes toward and engagement in various nonsexual boundary crossings; they have also identified therapist and client factors that account for some of that variance (Borys & Pope, 1989; Pope, Tabachnick, & Keith-Spiegel, 1987). Boundary crossings, as defined by Gutheil and Gabbard (1993), are deviations from common clinical practices that are not necessarily unethical. Examples of traditional crossings include nonsexual touch and nonsexual multiple relationships. This study was designed to update the literature regarding nonsexual boundary crossings in light of contemporary study designs and demographic categories, significant American Psychological Association (APA) demographic shifts, revisions of the APA Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct (APA, 2017), and the advent of the Internet. Approximately 250 U.S.-practicing doctoral-level clinical psychologists were surveyed for their demographic characteristics and either ethicality ratings and practice frequencies for seven boundary crossings, including both traditional and Internet-based boundary crossings. Ordinal and binary logistic regressions were performed to test hypotheses regarding factors accounting for variance in these ethicality ratings and practice frequencies. Exploratory analyses were conducted to examine differences in data between traditional and digital crossings, and between the findings of this study and previous studies regarding ethicality ratings and practice frequencies. Therapist gender, theoretical orientation, clinical experience, and client gender were found to predict significant variance in ratings and frequencies for specific crossings. There was no significant interaction between therapist and client gender in predicting either ratings or frequencies. Therapists found two digital crossings (advertising online and providing psychoeducation online via social media) generally ethical, but found two other digital crossings (searching for client information online and accepting a social media request from a client) generally unethical. Therapists also appeared to more often express uncertainty regarding the ethicality of digital crossings than with regard to traditional crossings; and, they provided practice frequencies for some digital crossings that were inconsistent with corresponding ethicality ratings. These findings may reflect several decades of ethics training regarding traditional crossings, inconsistent ethical training regarding digital crossings, and the continuing need to emphasize self-awareness in formal ethics training