Abstract
Managing ethical behavior is a one of the most pervasive and complex problems facing business organizations today. Employees’ decisions to behave ethically or unethically are influenced by a myriad of individual and situational factors. Background, personality, decision history, managerial philosophy, and reinforcement are but a few of the factors which have been identified by researchers as determinants of employees’ behavior when faced with ethical dilemmas. The literature related to ethical behavior is reviewed in this article, and a model for understanding ethical behavior in business organizations is proposed. It is concluded that managing ethics in business organizations requires that managers engage in a concentrated effort which involves espousing ethics, behaving ethically, developing screening mechanisms, providing ethical training, creating ethics units and reinforcing ethical behavior.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arlow, P., and T.A. Ulrich. 1980. Auditing your organization’s ethics. Internal Auditor 39(4): 26–31.
Baumhart, R. 1961. How ethical are businessmen? Harvard Business Review 39(4): 26–31.
Bayes, P., and McKee, T. ‘Do CPA firms have adequate internal control over hiring? Unpublished manuscript.
Boal, K.B., and N. Peery. 1985. The cognitive structure of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Management 11(3): 71–82.
Brenner, S., and E. Molander. 1977. Is the ethics of business changing? Harvard Business Review 55(1): 55–71.
Business Roundtable. 1988. Corporate ethics: A prime business asset. New York: Business Roundtable.
Carroll, A.B. 1978. Linking business ethics to behavior in organizations. Advanced Management Journal 43(3): 4–11.
Cavanagh, G., D. Moberg, and M. Valasquez. 1981. The ethics of organizational polities. Academy of Management Review 3: 363–374.
Crandall, R. 1973. The measurement of self-esteem and related constructs. In Measures of social psychological attitudes, ed. J.P. Robinson and P.R. Shaver, 45–167. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research.
Davis, R.R. 1984. Ethical behavior reexamined. CPA Journal 54(December): 33–36.
Forsyth, D.R. 1980. A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39(1): 175–184.
Forsyth, D.R. 1981. Moral judgment: The influence of ethical ideology. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 7(2): 218–223.
Forsyth, D.R. 1985. Individual differences information integration during moral judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 49(1): 264–272.
Forsyth, D.R., and W.R. Pope. 1984. Ethical ideology and judgments of social psychological research: Multidimensional analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46(6): 1365–1375.
Forsyth, D., J. Nye, and K. Kelley. 1988. Idealism, relativism, and the ethic of caring. Journal of Psychology 122(3): 243–248.
Freeman, E., and D. Gilbert. 1988. Corporate strategy and the search for ethics. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc.
Fritzche, D., and H. Becker. 1984. Linking management behavior to ethical philosophy: An empirical investigation. Academy of Management Journal 1: 166–175.
Goodpaster, K.E., and J.B. Matthews Jr. 1982. Can a corporation have a conscience? Harvard Business Review 60(1): 132–141.
Hegarty, W., and H. Sims Jr. 1978. Some determinants of unethical decision behavior: An experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology 63(4): 451–457.
Hegarty, W.H., and H.P. Sims Jr. 1979. Organizational philosophy, policies and objectives related to unethical decision behavior: A laboratory experiment. Journal of a Applied Psychology 64(3): 331–338.
Hogan, R. 1973. Moral conduct and moral character: A psychological perspective. Psychological Bulletin 79(4): 217–232.
Jones, E.E. 1985. Major developments in social psychology during the past five decades. In The handbook of social psychology, ed. G. Lindzey and E. Aronson, 47–107. New York: Random House.
Leary, M.R., P.D. Knight, and B.D. Barnes. 1986. Ethical ideologies of the Machiavellian. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 12(1): 75–80.
Levenson, H. 1974. Activism and powerful others: Distinctions within the concept of internal-external control. Journal of Personality Assessment 38: 377–383.
Luthans, F., and R. Kreitner. 1985. Organizational behavior modification and beyond: An operant and social learning approach. Glenview: Scott Forsman.
Matthews, J.B., K.E. Goodpaster, and L.L. Nash. 1985. Policies and persons: A casebook in business ethics. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Nielsen, R.P. 1988. Limitations of ethical reasoning as an action (praxis) strategy. Journal of Business Ethics 7: 725–733.
Nielsen, R.P. 1989. Changing unethical organizational behavior. The Academy of Management Executive 3(2): 123–130.
Otten, A.L. 1986. Ethics on the job: Companies alert employees to potential dilemmas. Wall Street Journal, July 14, p. 23.
Posner, B., and W. Schmidt. 1984. Values and the American manager: An update. California Management Review 24(3): 206–216.
Preble, J.F., and P. Miesing. 1984. Do adult MBA and undergraduate business students have different business philosophies? In Proceedings of the National Meeting of the American Institute for the Decision Sciences, November, 346–348.
Raelin, J.A. 1987. The professional as the executive’s ethical aide-de-camp. The Academy of Management Executive 1(3): 171–182.
Ranken, N.L. 1987. Corporations as persons: Objections to Goodpaster’s principle of moral projection. Journal of Business Ethics 6: 633–637.
Robinson, J. 1973. General attitudes toward people. In Measures of social psychological attitudes, ed. J.P. Robinson and P.R. Shaver, 587–627. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research.
Rosen, B., and J.S. Adams. 1974. Organizational coverups: Factors influencing the disciplining of information gatekeepers. Journal of Applied Psychology 4(4): 375–384.
Sackett, P.R., and M.M. Harris. 1984. Honesty testing for personnel selection: A review and critique. Personnel Psychology 37(2): 221–245.
Sammons, J.H. 1988. How economics threatens quality care: The challenge of medical ethics today. In Ethics in American business: A special report. New York: Touche Ross and Co.
Stead, W.E., D.L. Worrell, J.B. Spalding, and J.G. Stead. 1987. Unethical decisions: Socially learned behaviors. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 2(1): 105–115.
Terborg, J.R. 1981. Interaction psychology and research on human behavior in organizations. Academy of Management Review 6(4): 569–576.
Touche Ross. 1988. Ethics in American business: An opinion survey. New York: Touche Ross and Co.
Trevino, L.K. 1986. Ethical decision making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model. Academy of Management Review 11(3): 601–617.
Vitell, S., and T. Festervand. 1987. Business ethics: Conflicts, practices and beliefs of industrial executives. Journal of Business Ethics 6: 111–122.
Wartzman, R. 1987. Nature or nurture? Study blames ethical lapses on corporate goals. Wall Street Journal, October 9, p. 31.
Worrell, D.L., W.E. Stead, J.G. Stead, and J.B. Spalding. 1985. Unethical decisions: The impact of reinforcement contingencies and managerial philosophies. Psychological Reports 57: 355–365.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stead, W.E., Worrell, D.L., Stead, J.G. (2013). An Integrative Model for Understanding and Managing Ethical Behavior in Business Organizations. In: Michalos, A., Poff, D. (eds) Citation Classics from the Journal of Business Ethics. Advances in Business Ethics Research, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4126-3_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4126-3_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4125-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4126-3
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)