The study of behavioral ethics within organizations: A special issue introduction

Abstract

Ethics has emerged as one of the most critical issues facing organizations. Given its importance, an extensive literature has evolved to understand the causes and consequences of (un)ethical decision making and behaviors in organizations. To date, much of this research has relied on research methods (e.g., experiments) that emphasize internal validity and control over external validity and generalizability. Although very informative, such studies frequently utilize samples that are not representative of working adults and their designs often fail to capture the contextual complexity that defines the dayto-day realities of organizational life. In this light, this special issue of Personnel Psychology encouraged scholars to investigate ethics within organizations and to offer rich theoretical explanations for why ethical failures and successes occur. The articles in this special issue address this important research agenda and make significant contributions to our understanding of ethics in organizations. Our introduction synthesizes these works, provides an overview of issues facing the broader behavioral ethics literature, and discusses areas for future research.

How Moral Goodness Drives Unethical Behavior: Empirical Evidence for the NGO Halo Effect

“…Examining the validity of the NGO halo effect contributes to the growing literature on NGO unethical behavior (e.g., Chapman et al, 2022;Dolšak & Prakash, 2022;Lamothe et al, 2023) and shows whether NGO unethical behavior can be seen as congruent with the positioning of NGOs as moral organizations (Greitemeyer & Sagioglou, 2018). Our research also responds to calls for empirical research to understand how (un)ethical behavior within organizations is promoted (Mitchell et al, 2020;Treviño et al, 2006Treviño et al, , 2014.…”

“…Our research addresses these gaps in the literature on ethics in NGOs by proposing a unified conceptual framework to explain the link between NGO characteristics and (un)ethical behaviors and providing empirical evidence to support the presence of an NGO halo effect that acts as a mechanism for such behaviors. In doing so, it addresses the call for more empirical research that investigates ethical and unethical behavior in organizations (e.g., Mitchell et al, 2020;Treviño et al, 2006Treviño et al, , 2014 and introduces several possible pathways for future studies to further test the NGO halo effect across contexts and using a variety of methodologies, which we describe in greater detail in the next section.…”

Redemption fromSRHRMunderCOVID‐19: How business threat due toCOVID‐19 affects employee insomnia via hope and workplace anxiety

“…Thus, our study advances the theoretical development of SRHRM literature by extending appraisal theories of emotion into the field of SRHRM and clarifies the social impact of SRHRM practices in the non-work domain. We also echo scholars' call by adopting a multilevel approach to bridge the gaps between macro-level and micro-level SRHRM literature and transferring the goal of SRHRM from an instrumental focus into social impacts, especially after the COVID-19 outbreak (Barnett et al, 2020;Mitchell et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020).…”

Unethical leadership: A review, analysis, and research agenda

“…Most research has been conducted at the micro level, with less attention at the macro level, and even less attention to "meso" or a mix of macro and micro levels-examining firm level considerations and CEO traits (e.g., Ormiston & Wong, 2013). Within the micro literature and following the recommendations of Mitchell et al (2020), scholars are beginning to unpack the within-person experience of employees and leaders, allowing us to understand temporal considerations as well as a within-person focus of unethical leadership and its consequences (e.g., Mitchell et al, 2019;Rosen et al, 2021;Watkins & Umphress, 2020). Some studies also examine higher-order levels within organizations, such as examining the influence of unethical leadership on work units (e.g., Babalola et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2012;Mawritz et al, 2012).…”