Bad Apples in Bad Barrels Revisited: Cognitive Moral Development, Just World Beliefs, Rewards, and Ethical Decision-Making

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract:</jats:title><jats:p>In this study, we test the interactive effect on ethical decision-making of (1) personal characteristics, and (2) personal expectancies based on perceptions of organizational rewards and punishments. Personal characteristics studied were cognitive moral development and belief in a just world. Using an in-basket simulation, we found that exposure to reward system information influenced managers’ outcome expectancies. Further, outcome expectancies and belief in a just world interacted with managers’ cognitive moral development to influence managers’ ethical decision-making. In particular, low-cognitive moral development managers who expected that their organization condoned unethical behavior made less ethical decisions while high cognitive moral development managers became more ethical in this environment. Low cognitive moral development managers also behaved less ethically when their belief in a just world was high.</jats:p>

Sustainable Entrepreneurship Orientation: A Reflection on Status-Quo Research on Factors Facilitating Responsible Managerial Practices

“…Managers who possess a strong belief in a just world tend to avoid unethical behaviour when it directly influences other people at their workplace, and therefore prefer a more ethical style of decision making, as shown by previous studies [78]. When it comes to the individual level of the single entrepreneur, the existing literature suggests that sustainable entrepreneurs are value-driven, while enterprises that are established and run based on particular individual values include, but are not limited to, sustainability [79,80].…”

Narcissism: An Integrative Synthesis and Dominance Complementarity Model

“…Beyond the ethics problems directly attributable to narcissistic employees, unethical behavior can contaminate others if left unchecked (Ashkanasy, Windsor, & Trevino, 2006;Kish-Gephart et al, 2010). Unethical employees can create an organizational culture where unethical behavior becomes the norm, especially when leaders or authority figures are misbehaving.…”

Organizational Justice, Behavioral Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility: Finally the Three Shall Merge

“…Although managers and executives may gradually become morally compromised over time, research has shown that ethical decision making can be developed through training on such biases (Banaji, Bazerman, & Chugh, 2003;Moore, Tetlock, Tanlu, & Bazerman, 2006). Individual differences such as moral identity (Aquino & Reed, 2002) and locus of control (Ashkanasy, Windsor, & Treviño, 2006) are often considered relevant to ethical decision making in organizations, as are the ethical climates that exist within organizations (Mayer, 2014;Schminke, Ambrose, & Neubaum, 2005).…”