Evaluation of employee rule violations: The impact of impression management effects in historical context

The study sought to determine whether impression management tactics by an employee could effectively lessen the recommended punishment for an ethical rule infraction by this individual. Subjects read a vignette in which an employee violated the confidentiality of personnel records. The employee was...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Giacalone, Robert A. (Author) ; Payne, Stephen L. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 1995
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 1995, Volume: 14, Issue: 6, Pages: 477-487
Further subjects:B Impression Management
B Management Effect
B Historical Context
B Economic Growth
B Historical Information
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Description
Summary:The study sought to determine whether impression management tactics by an employee could effectively lessen the recommended punishment for an ethical rule infraction by this individual. Subjects read a vignette in which an employee violated the confidentiality of personnel records. The employee was presented as either having had a history of previous infractions or no such historical information was provided. Additionally, the employee was described as using either no impression management tactics, an apology, or a justification for his behavior. Result show that in the case of a history of multiple offenses, the employee's use of justifications effectively mitigated others' judgments of the wrongfulness of the employee's action, while apologies did not. Similarly, the justification appeared to lessen respondent recommendations for punishment, prevention of promotion, and demotion/firing, but only when there is a history of multiple offenses. In most cases, apologies tended to exacerbate the problem when previous offenses had been committed. The data are discussed in terms of their implications for the study of employee use of impression management tactics.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/BF00872088