Lack of sleep and unethical conduct

We draw from the Ego Depletion model and research on sleep physiology to predict a relationship between lack of sleep and individuals’ unethical behavior. Laboratory studies showed that sleep quantity is positively related to self-control resources and negative associated with unethical behavior. In a cross-sectional field study examining unethical behavior in a variety of work settings, low levels of sleep, and low perceived quality of sleep, were both positively related to unethical behavior as rated by the supervisor, and cognitive fatigue mediated the influence of sleep quantity. In an experience sampling field study, we found similar effects within-individuals. We discuss the role of lost sleep in better understanding unethical behavior in organizations.     

Managing employee unethical behavior without invading individual privacy

Unethical employee behavior is becoming an increasingly serious problem for organizations. It can take many forms, ranging from theft to disclosure of confidential information to the misrepresentation of products and services. The adverse impact of such behavior includes inventory shrinkage, lawsuits and fines. A common managerial response to unethical employee behavior is to increase random monitoring and searches in an effort to coerce desired behavior. Unfortunately, this strategy comes at the expense of individual privacy. This paper explores the ethical and legal issues associated with the tradeoff between individual privacy and the common good. Furthermore this paper examines the effects that this Big Brother strategy has on worker attitudes and performance. An alternative strategy for managing unethical behavior is proposed which relies on employee commitment (instead of coercion) through a comprehensive ethics program.     

The effect of construal level on unethical behavior

Construal level theory predicts that people will judge immoral events more harshly when these are presented in a way that elicits a higher construal level, relative to a lower construal level. Previous research supported this prediction using an Israeli sample but not a U.S. sample. This article compared Israeli and U.S. samples with respect to the interactive effect of utility and construal level on unethical behavioral intentions. We found that construal level did not affect unethical behavioral intentions in either the U.S. samples for low-utility level or the Israeli samples for low- and high-utility levels. In contrast, construal level affected unethical behavioral intentions in the U.S. sample for high-utility level: unethical behavioral intentions were higher in the low-construal level compared to the high-construal level. We discuss these findings and suggest additional factors that challenge arguments concerning the direct effect of construal level on unethical behavior.     

The ethical confrontation of the unethical forensic colleague

In the course of clinical and forensic work, psychologists sometimes discover serious weaknesses in knowledge, performance, or ethics in other psychologists' work. The ethical code of the American Psychological Association mandates confronting such a psychologist prior to making a professional complaint. This mandatory confrontation typically is omitted because of a sense of awkwardness or a fear of insulting the other psychologist. Education and training in psychology does not cover this sensitive and important area. In this article, sample templates of letters are provided to meet that ethical requirement and to begin to resolve problem behaviors by colleagues.     

亲组织不道德行为的解释机制与理论模型

亲组织不道德行为(Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior, UPB)界定的是组织员工出于维护组织的利益而做出的不道德行为。UPB在组织中难以被识别, 却可能给组织带来严重的负面影响。因兼具亲组织性和不道德性, UPB的研究引起了各界的广泛关注。因此, 有必要明确UPB的来源与界定; 亦有必要借鉴“不道德行为”的解释路径, 从理性决策和直觉判断两个解释机制对UPB前因研究取得的进展进行理论归纳梳理, 形成理论模型。在此基础上提出未来的研究方向:亲领导不道德行为和亲团队不道德行为的细分研究, 中国本土背景下企业所有制形式对UPB理论模型可能产生的调节作用, 以及角色压力对UPB的影响。     

亲组织不道德行为的负面效应及其作用机制

近年来, 员工为了企业利益而做出的违背社会价值、道德习俗、行为规范和法律等的亲组织不道德行为(Unethical pro-organizational behavior, UPB)导致的各种悲剧不断上演。然而, 现有研究主要聚焦于UPB的影响因素和积极作用方面, 对其潜在的危害性重视不足。鉴于此, 从多层次视角研究UPB的负面效应及其作用机制。首先, 考察UPB对情绪耗竭的影响及道德认同的调节作用和内疚的中介作用。其次, 创造性地提出组织UPB的概念, 并考察其对组织长期绩效的负面效应以及企业声誉的中介效应。最后, 进一步从利益相关者的视角考察企业UPB和员工UPB对顾客主动绩效的影响以及顾客企业认同的中介效应和顾客知觉到的员工组织化身的调节效应。研究成果不仅有助于丰富UPB的相关理论, 而且对遏制这种行为的进一步漫延具有重要启示。     

Explicit risk of getting caught does not affect unethical behavior

Research showed that given the opportunity, people behave dishonestly only to the degree that will allow them to maintain a positive self‐concept. These experiments did not include the probability of getting caught cheating, although in everyday life, this risk always exists. If it is shown that people behave more honestly when faced with an explicit risk of getting caught, the ecological validity of these experiments may be at risk. This study showed that explicit risk, framed as the probability of getting caught or as the complementary probability of not getting caught, did not reduce participants’ dishonest behavior relative to no risk. These findings support the ecological validity of previous research on unethical behavior.     

观察者对亲组织不道德行为的反应及其反馈效应

亲组织不道德行为(unethical pro-organizational behavior, UPB)是近10年来组织行为研究领域的热点主题。相较于已得到广泛探讨的UPB形成机理研究, 当前关于UPB的影响效应研究还相对有限, 且主要聚焦于领导UPB对员工的影响, 以及自我反馈下UPB对行为者的影响。借鉴并受到对应推论理论(correspondent inference theory)和社会认知理论(social cognitive theory)中有关观点的启发, 构建了一个同事间围绕UPB的社会互动模型。模型指出, 观察者在看到同为员工身份的行为者实施UPB后会对此进行结果预期和动机归因, 继而在观察者正直性的调节下引发相应的心理与行为反应; 进一步地, 行为者在接收到观察者对其UPB的行为反应后会对这些反馈背后的意图进行解读, 进而影响其后续行为变化。最后, 从观察者对UPB的道德判断、与UPB“不道德”属性有关的认知评价、UPB行为者行为变化的过程机理等方面提出理论模型的拓展方向。     

高绩效要求与亲组织不道德行为:基于社会认知理论的视角

通过确立较高的绩效目标以提升组织绩效被普遍认为是一项有效的管理措施。然而,学术界对它的负面影响却缺乏研究。本文提出了高绩效要求将启动员工道德推脱机制为其随后进行的亲组织不道德行为开脱,即道德推脱在高绩效要求与亲组织不道德行为之间起到了中介作用。为了检验这一观点,本研究提出两种不同效应的调节变量:感知的市场竞争正向调节变量之间的间接关系,而道德认同则负向调节这一间接关系。通过对某零售企业225名员工的两阶段调查,本研究提出的调节-中介模型获得了观察数据的支持。本研究的发现有利于进一步了解亲组织不道德行为发生的中介心理机制和边界条件,指导管理者采取恰当的管理措施,以期有效地管控亲组织不道德行为的出现。     

Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behavior

Across four experimental studies, individuals who were depleted of their self-regulatory resources by an initial act of self-control were more likely to “impulsively cheat” than individuals whose self-regulatory resources were intact. Our results demonstrate that individuals depleted of self-control resources were more likely to behave dishonestly (Study 1). Depletion reduced people’s moral awareness when they faced the opportunity to cheat, which, in turn, was responsible for heightened cheating (Study 2). Individuals high in moral identity, however, did not show elevated levels of cheating when they were depleted (Study 3), supporting our hypothesis that self-control depletion increases cheating when it robs people of the executive resources necessary to identify an act as immoral or unethical. Our results also show that resisting unethical behavior both requires and depletes self-control resources (Study 4). Taken together, our findings help to explain how otherwise ethical individuals predictably engage in unethical behavior.     

Moral disengagement,the dark triad,and unethical consumer attitudes

PurposeBandura’s theory of moral disengagement explains how otherwise ethical persons can behave immorally. We examined whether a trait model of general personality and the “dark triad” underlay moral disengagement, the relationship these constructs have to unethical consumer attitudes, and whether moral disengagement provided incremental validity in the prediction of antisocial behaviour.MethodsSelf-report data were obtained from a community sample of 380 adults via an online survey that administered all measures.ResultsCorrelations between unethical consumer attitudes, lower Agreeableness, lower Conscientiousness, higher moral disengagement, higher psychopathy, and higher Machiavellianism were captured by a single factor. When this broad factor was examined using regression, demographic, personality and the dark triad traits all predicted moral disengagement, specific influences being age, education, Intellect, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. A similar model examining predictors of unethical consumer attitudes again found all blocks contributed to the outcome, with specific influence provided by age, Intellect, and moral disengagement, the latter showing incremental validity as a predictor of unethical consumer attitudes.ConclusionsMoral disengagement is based on low Agreeableness, Machiavellianism and psychopathic-type traits, but provides incremental validity in predicting antisocial attitudes to a trait model alone. Narcissism is neither related to moral disengagement, nor unethical consumer attitudes.     

Encouraging employees to report unethical conduct internally: It takes a village

Via three studies of varying methodologies designed to complement and build upon each other, we examine how supervisory ethical leadership is associated with employees’ reporting unethical conduct within the organization (i.e., internal whistle-blowing). We also examine whether the positive effect of supervisory ethical leadership is enhanced by another important social influence: coworkers’ ethical behavior. As predicted, we found that employees’ internal whistle-blowing depends on an ethical tone being set by complementary social influence sources at multiple organizational levels (both supervisory and coworker levels), leading us to conclude that “it takes a village” to support internal whistle-blowing. Also, this interactive effect was found to be mediated by a fear of retaliation in two studies but not by perceptions of futility. We conclude by identifying theoretical and practical implications of our research.     

Moving beyond ethical decision-making: a practice-based view to study unethical sales behavior

Changes in the business environment are rapidly transforming sales practice and pressuring the integrity of key actors in sales. Given that unethical sales behavior is a social activity produced and reproduced by various actors in a complex sales task environment, we introduce a novel research perspective to the study of unethical sales behavior, namely a practice-based view. With knowledge from a systematic literature review and a practice-based view from organization research, we suggest that unethical behavior should be studied as a practice formed through socialization and interaction with relevant others. This view provides an important alternative as well as a complementary perspective to the ethical decision-making paradigm that has dominated the field for several decades. The study answers scholars’ recent calls to strengthen the theoretical foundation of sales ethics research and further extend its perspective toward the social context of sales. With a focus on dynamics, social relations, and the enactment of practices, the practice-based view produces new types of knowledge on unethical behavior and potential new means for addressing it. The article makes suggestions for future practice-based research and proposes several theories for use in studying unethical behavior in currently important sales contexts.     

Reflections on unethical experiments and the beginnings of bioethics in the United States

The author offers personal reflections on the development of research ethics in the United States, primarily during the 1960s. He explores the efforts of the pioneers in the field of human experimentation ethics to raise and discuss issues such as the value conflict between the acquisition of knowledge and respect for the autonomy of research subjects and the crucial importance of disclosure in the informed consent process.     

目标设置对非伦理行为的影响:边界条件与理论基础

作为一种有效的激励方式,目标设置被广泛地运用于各类组织中。然而,近年来一系列的研究发现,目标设置也会引发员工的非伦理行为。全面梳理了国外对于目标设置影响非伦理行为的相关研究,系统地介绍了两者的直接关系、边界条件及理论基础,在总结这些研究的基础上,提出未来研究应从拓展研究方法(基于真实组织情景下的调查)和研究内容(强化调节、中介及社会性视角下的研究)两方面展开。     

Goal-related unethical behaviors and meaning in life: The moderating role of goal state

The process of goal pursuit provides a unique opportunity to investigate real-life psychological implications of unethical behaviors. In two studies, we had participants recall the frequency of engaging in unethical behaviors during goal pursuit and report current experience of negative affect and meaning in life, during different goal states (i.e., ongoing vs. completed). Both studies revealed that meaning in life was negatively associated with unethical behaviors implemented in the process of pursuing a goal only after but not prior to goal completion. Negative affect, however, was positively associated with unethical behavior frequencies in both goal states. The current research helps integrate studies on personal goals and unethical behaviors, and sheds light on the dynamic consequences of engaging in unethical behaviors.