Guest Editors’ Introduction: On Understanding Ethical Behavior and Decision Making: A Behavioral Ethics Approach

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
David De Cremer ◽  
David M. Mayer ◽  
Marshall Schminke
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Unethical Behavior ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Moral Awareness ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Behavioral Ethics ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Social Scientific

AbstractBehavioral ethics is an emerging field that takes an empirical, social scientific approach to the study of business ethics. In this special issue, we include six articles that fall within the domain of behavioral ethics and that focus on three themes—moral awareness, ethical decision making, and reactions to unethical behavior. Each of the articles sheds additional light on the specific issues addressed. However, we hope this special issue will have an impact beyond that of the new insights offered in these articles, by stimulating even more research in this burgeoning field.

Teaching Behavioral Ethics: Overcoming the Key Impediments to Ethical Behavior

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark S. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Moral Awareness ◽  
Behavioral Ethics

To better understand the ethical decision-making process and why individuals fail to act ethically, the aim of this article is to explore what are seen as the key impediments to ethical behavior and their pedagogical implications. Using the ethical decision-making process proposed by Rest as an overarching framework, the article examines the following barriers to ethical decision making: improper framing, which can preclude moral awareness; cognitive biases and psychological tendencies, which can hinder reaching proper moral judgments; and moral rationalizations, which can obstruct moral judgments from being translated into moral intentions or ethical behavior. Next, pedagogical exercises and tools for teaching behavioral ethics and ethical decision making are provided. The article concludes with its implications.

The Evolution of Business Ethics to Business Law

2015 ◽  
pp. 145-162
Author(s):  
Ben Tran
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Moral Awareness ◽  
Business Law

Ethics in business ethics and law in business law are not as ambiguous, rhetorical, and esoteric as practitioners portray. Excuses as such have subconsciously become a habitus platinum safeguard against all wrongdoing. The usage of the habitus platinum safeguard is to defuse the unethical and malpractice of practitioners due to the ambiguous, rhetorical, and esoteric factors of and related to ethics in business ethics and law in business law. The ethical decision-making process, from ethics to law, involves five basic steps: moral awareness, moral judgment, ethical behavior, ethical behavior theorizing, and (business) law.

Examining Ethical Decision Making Behavior in E-Learning Systems

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Richelle L. Oakley ◽  
Rahul Singh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Unethical Behavior ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Learning Systems ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
The Social ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Decision Making Behavior

E-Learning has proliferated throughout the education sector in recent years. Unfortunately, an unintended and undesirable aspect of e-Learning is centered on unethical behavior exhibited by students engaged in technology-facilitated cheating. Interestingly, cheating in e-Learning systems occurs in the social context of the class. Using results from a qualitative field study, the authors investigate the socio-technical dimensions of ethical decision-making in e-Learning systems focusing on individual and situational factors. They developed propositions and provide an in-depth discussion of identified factors. Their findings provide the basis for researchers to develop testable propositions for further empirical investigations and provide insight for educators dealing with the unique challenges of the socio-technical dimensions of ethical behavior in e-Learning systems.

Does Disgust Increase Unethical Behavior? A Replication of Winterich, Mittal, and Morales (2014)

2020 ◽  
pp. 194855062094408
Author(s):  
Tamar Kugler ◽  
Charles N. Noussair ◽  
Denton Hatch
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Unethical Behavior ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
The Relationship

We consider the relationship between disgust and ethical behavior. Winterich, Mittal, and Morales report several experiments finding that disgust increases unethical behavior. We replicated three of their studies, using high-powered designs with a total of 1,239 participants, three different procedures to induce disgust, and three different measures of unethical behavior. We observe no effect of disgust on unethical behavior in any of the studies, supporting the contention that disgust has no effect on ethical decision making.

The Evolution of Business Ethics to Business Law

2014 ◽  
pp. 109-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Tran
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Moral Awareness ◽  
Business Law

Ethics in business ethics and law in business law are not as ambiguous, rhetorical, and esoteric as practitioners portray. Excuses as such have subconsciously become a habitus platinum safeguard against all wrongdoing. The usage of the habitus platinum safeguard is to defuse the unethical and malpractice of practitioners due to the ambiguous, rhetorical, and esoteric factors of and related to ethics in business ethics and law in business law. The ethical decision-making process, from ethics to law, involves five basic steps: moral awareness, moral judgment, ethical behavior, ethical behavior theorizing, and (business) law.

Altruism as a pathway to unethical action

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-247
Author(s):  
Michael Babula ◽  
Max Tookey ◽  
Glenn Muschert ◽  
Mark Neal
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
Unethical Behavior ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Poor

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer the question, “Can particular types of altruism influence people to make unethical decisions?” The purpose of seeking to answer this question is to better understand those cases in personal, public and commercial life whereby a decision-maker is influenced by what is widely perceived to be a positive thing – altruism – to make unethical choices. Design/methodology/approach An experiment was designed to test the influence of different categories of altruism on decision-making about whether to find another guilty for a regulatory transgression. This involved the establishment and running of a student panel at a UK university, which was given the task of determining the guilt or otherwise of two students accused of plagiarism – one from a poor background; one from a rich background. Through a survey of both the decision-makers and their judgments, and by analyzing the data using t-tests and Mann–Whitney tests, the associations between different categories of altruism and the decisions made could be ascertained. Findings A total of 70.7% of the participants voted “not-guilty” for the poor student, whereas 68.3% voted “guilty” for the wealthy student. This indicated that self-interested, namely, egoistic altruism complemented by social and self-esteem needs gratification was significantly associated with violating foundational ethical principles. Originality/value This is the first study to be done that attempts to evaluate the relationships between different categories of altruism and ethical decision-making. The findings here challenge aggregating all forms of empathy together when exploring the antecedents of unethical behavior.

Ethics for Students Means Knowing and Experiencing

2015 ◽  
pp. 153-178
Author(s):  
Cynthia Roberts ◽  
Carolyn D. Roper
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Business Programs ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Potential Impact

There is growing interest in ethics education and the literature is replete with methods for approaching this complex and challenging subject. This chapter reviews the state of ethics education in business programs from infusion across the curriculum to standalone courses, the potential impact it may have on ethical behavior, and outlines several approaches to addressing ethics in the classroom. An instructional module in ethical decision making, grounded in scholarly literature, is presented. The authors discuss implications for practice and suggest utilizing several approaches from multiple perspectives to facilitate the development of ethical thought and action.

Ethics for Students Means Knowing and Experiencing

2015 ◽  
pp. 598-623
Author(s):  
Cynthia Roberts ◽  
Carolyn D. Roper
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Business Programs ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Potential Impact

There is growing interest in ethics education and the literature is replete with methods for approaching this complex and challenging subject. This chapter reviews the state of ethics education in business programs from infusion across the curriculum to standalone courses, the potential impact it may have on ethical behavior, and outlines several approaches to addressing ethics in the classroom. An instructional module in ethical decision making, grounded in scholarly literature, is presented. The authors discuss implications for practice and suggest utilizing several approaches from multiple perspectives to facilitate the development of ethical thought and action.

Toward Understanding Ethical Decision Making

2012 ◽  
pp. 1262-1279
Author(s):  
Jennie Johnson ◽  
Tom Coyle
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Social Desirability ◽  
Ethical Behavior ◽  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Behavioral Intent ◽  
Current Economic Crisis ◽  
Different Populations

This paper proposes a step-wise methodology for the development of a scale measuring intent-to-act ethically, which is a step forward in the ethical decision-making process. To test the robustness of the methodology, data from two different populations gathered from 75 students and 181 professionals were examined to ensure reliability in ethical workplace scenarios. This research is relevant to recent issues like the current economic crisis lead by the sub-prime banking failures. The failures of Enron and Tyco are extreme examples of failure of societal members to act ethically. The construction of scale-measuring items was based on a theory of intent, and issues identified from the human resource management literature related to reasons employees do not report perceived unethical behavior in the workplace. Tested for social desirability bias, the results show that the proposed scale offers an improved reliability for assessing behavioral intent related to ethical decision-making. With these findings, this paper provides a tool for research that relies on a measure of ethical intent as a proxy for ethical behavior.

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