RT Article
T1 Decreasing Unethical Decisions: The Role of Morality-Based Individual Differences
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 142
IS 1
SP 37
OP 57
A1 Sturm, Rachel E.
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2017
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1785660667
AB Given the potential dangers of unethical decisions in the workplace, it has become increasingly important for managers to hire, and promote into leadership positions, those who are morally inclined. Behavioral ethics research has contributed to this effort by examining an array of individual difference variables (e.g., locus of control) that play a role in morality. However, past research has focused mostly on direct causal effects and not so much on the processes (including mediation) through which different factors, especially those that are morality based, decrease unethical choices. The purpose of the current research is to examine the process, which includes both subconscious and conscious decision pathways, through which moral attentiveness curbs unethical decision making at the individual level. The findings of a study employing about 200 participants and a cheating task reveal that both accurate ethical prototypes and moral awareness of the situation decreased unethical decisions, and moral attentiveness was found to be positively related to both of these constructs. In addition, having accurate ethical prototypes was found to be a partial mediator between perceptual moral attentiveness and less cheating, while moral awareness was found to be a partial mediator between reflective moral attentiveness and less cheating. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
K1 Individual-level unit of analysis
K1 Subconscious decisions
K1 Moral awareness
K1 Ethical prototypes
K1 Moral attentiveness
K1 Ethical decision making
DO 10.1007/s10551-015-2787-x