Organizations Appear More Unethical than Individuals

Jago, Arthur S.; Pfeffer, Jeffrey

doi:10.1007/s10551-018-3811-8

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…For example, following a negative incident, people express greater anger at the organization than at its CEO for the transgression (Hans & Ermann, 1989;Rai & Diermeier, 2015) and assign greater blame and responsibility to an organization actor than an individual actor (Lee Hamilton & Sanders, 1999;MacCoun, 1996). Furthermore, they are more likely to believe that an organization would use its legal rights to harm others than individuals would (Jago & Laurin, 2017), and to judge the same transgression by an organization as more immoral than that by an individual (Jago & Pfeffer, 2018).…”

Section: Perceptions Of Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The morality of organization versus organized members: Organizations are attributed more control and responsibility for negative outcomes than are equivalent members.

Tang¹,

Koval

Larrick

et al. 2020

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Seven experiments demonstrate that framing an organizational entity (the target) using an organization frame ("an organization comprised of its constituent members") versus a members frame ("constituent members comprising an organization") alters people's attribution of responsibility to the target following a negative outcome, despite identical information conveyed. Specifically, the target in the organization (vs. members) frame was perceived to have more control over a negative outcome, which led to an increased attribution of responsibility (Studies 1-3). This effect surfaced for both for-profits and non-profits (Study 5). However, when the target in the members frame had explicit control over the outcome (Study 3), or when participants held strong beliefs in individual free will (Study 4), the effect of frame on responsibility attenuated. To the extent that framing increased perceptions of control, punishment for the target also increased (Studies 6a and 6b). By demonstrating how a subtle shift in framing can impact people's perceptions and judgments of organizations, we reveal important knowledge about how people understand organizations and the psychological nature of organizational and group perception.

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Section: Perceptions Of Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The morality of organization versus organized members: Organizations are attributed more control and responsibility for negative outcomes than are equivalent members.

Tang¹,

Koval

Larrick

et al. 2020

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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show abstract

“…They concluded that these company these companies violating ethical codes to maximize profit. In a similar nature of the study, Jago and Pfeffer (2019) concluded that compared to individuals, big companies and organizations are more engage in unethical trading. However, there are three fundamental factors behind unethical practices in big firms, these are; aggressive tax policies, frequent changing of the external auditor, and an increase in financial difficulties (Ghafoor, Zainudin, & Mahdzan, 2019).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 87%

Assessing Islamic Business Ethical Practices Through Clients’ Perception

Ismail

Ullah

Zaheer

2020

NRJSS

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This study evaluates the Islamic business ethics practices in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of Pakistan from the clients’ perspective and how they perceive it. The study focuses on three Shariah values i.e. obligatory values (Faraid), the prophet’s traditions (Sunnah) and the voluntary rectitude (Nawafil) and checks their impact of merchants’ business ethical practices. The Shariah values are further divided into nineteen Islamic business ethical values adopted from well-established prior studies. In addition to this, the study is also focused to assess the most ethical business sector among ten selected business sectors. The study was conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is a relatively conservative/religious province of the country. To achieve the objectives of the study, a quantitative method was adopted. The data was gathered through a well-designed structured questionnaire in various universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and regression analysis. This research concluded that Islam has a significantly positive impact on individuals’ business ethical practices as perceived by the clients. Among other independent variables, the voluntary rectitude effect was found to be more significant in individuals’ business ethical practices. It is further concluded that most ethical practices are found in the communication and transport sectors while the least ethical sectors are hospitals, doctors, and solicitors. The study contributes to the established Islamic business ethics literature.

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“…Corporations are granted personality traits, much as humans are (Aaker, 1997;Aaker, Vohs, & Mogilner, 2010). Corporations are held morally responsible for their actions, sometimes even more so than individuals (Jago & Laurin, 2017;Jago & Pfeffer, 2019;Michael & Szigeti, 2019; though see Haran, 2013). Reasoning about corporate and human behavior engages overlapping neural substrates, especially in brain areas implicated in theory of mind (Jenkins, Dodell-Feder, Saxe, & Knobe, 2014;Plitt, Savjani, & Eagleman, 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…People grant consciousness and other experiential states to corporations only reluctantly (Knobe & Prinz, 2008;Rai & Diermeier, 2015) and in general attribute fewer mental states to them (Critcher & Dunning, 2014;Cooley et al, 2017;Jago, Kreps, & Laurin, in press). There is also a tendency to see profit-driven corporations as bad moral actors (Plitt et al, 2015;Bhattacharjee, Dana, & Baron, 2017;Jago & Pfeffer, 2019), which may further degrade their incipient humanity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Corporate Insecthood

Strohminger¹,

Jordan²

2022

Preprint

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Whether the corporation should be considered a person is a matter of active academic and public debate. Here, we examine whether, and in what ways, ordinary citizens conceptualize the corporation as a person. We present evidence that corporations are anthropomorphized, but only to a certain degree. Compared with other entities, the average corporation is considered about as similar to a person as an ant. Corporations differ in the extent to which people are willing to grant them personhood however, and this pattern is predicted by how salient the organization's mental and moral traits are. This process of anthropomorphization has important downstream consequences, increasing support for granting legal rights and responsibilities to corporations. Because our studies show that this relationship also obtains for animals, we conclude that perceptions of corporate personhood draw on a more general set of rules for assessing an entity's personhood.

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Organizations Appear More Unethical than Individuals

Cited by 20 publications

References 38 publications

The morality of organization versus organized members: Organizations are attributed more control and responsibility for negative outcomes than are equivalent members.

The morality of organization versus organized members: Organizations are attributed more control and responsibility for negative outcomes than are equivalent members.

Assessing Islamic Business Ethical Practices Through Clients’ Perception

Corporate Insecthood

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