A growing body of research has emerged in order to better understand unethical behavior at work. However, most theory and research has focused on identifying personal and situational characteristics that predict unethical behavior. However, in order to develop a more complete picture of the phenomenon, research also needs to examine the outcomes of unethical behavior at work. In this research, I adopt research and theory from criminal justice in order to better understand how employees react to unethical behavior at work. In particular, I differentiate between two types of unethical behavior, namely premeditated and impulsive unethical behavior. Based on the criminal justice literature, I define impulsive unethical behaviors as unethical actions where the thought to act did not arise prior to the immediate situation, whereas premeditated unethical behaviors represent unethical actions where the thought to act occurred prior to the immediate situation. I argue that premeditated acts will result in more severe reactions than acts that are impulsive in nature. Specifically, I sought to examine observers' perceived unethicality and recommended punishment towards the two types of unethical behavior. Integrating attribution theory, I also explored three dimensions of attributions (i.e., controllability, stability, and intentionality) as mediating mechanisms. Then, utilizing ethical dissonance theory as an explanatory framework, I examined both wrongdoers' and observers' history of engaging unethical acts as potential moderators of the mediated effects. Finally, methods were presented for two studies. The first study utilized a field sample of adult workers, and the second study utilized a sample of university students. Based on the results from the two studies, I found evidence that the type of unethical behavior that a wrongdoer engages in matters in terms of how they will be evaluated. I also found that observers see premeditated behavior as more intentional, which drives their evaluations. Finally, both observers' and wrongdoers' past history impact my hypothesized model at different points along the causal chain. I hope my results help instigate a shift in the behavioral ethics literature; one that begins to integrate research from the criminal justice literature and one that shifts focus away from examining every possible predictor of unethical behavior at work to what happens following the act itself.

The purpose of this paper is to explore individuals’ experiences of unethical leadership by examining it from an employee perspective. The concept of ethical leadership, organizational ethical culture, and unethical behavior guide this study together with the components of vicarious learning, and role ethically. The research question is based on three main areas, unethical leadership, unethical behavior, and ethical culture, and it follows: What are employees’experiences of unethical leadership and what does those experiences reveal about the leaders’behaviors and the organizational ethical culture? The method was through a qualitative questionnaire conducted online and through a multiple case study six informants’ experiences were explored. The findings show that all the informants perceived their leaders as not being ethical and fair, being bad roles models, and not being an example of good ethical behavior. Conclusions are that the influence of unethical leadership creates negative experiences in the informants and those experiences were presented in a range of different emotions and behaviors.

The ability to correctly judge moral character—an individual’s disposition to think, feel, and behave ethically—is critical considering the negative consequences of misjudgment (e.g., being betrayed or swindled). However, it is currently unknown whether people can reliably detect strangers’ moral character, nor is it known how to best elicit relevant information from strangers to determine their moral character. This research is designed to remedy this dearth in our understanding of moral character judgments, particularly in settings where we need to make prompt evaluations of strangers based on limited information that we obtained from them. The biggest challenge in assessing another person’s moral character is that it is extremely socially desirable, and therefore highly susceptible to distorted self-perceptions and impression management. To address this problem, I propose and test a new person-perception theory: the hidden information distribution and evaluation (HIDE) model. In chapter 1, I develop the HIDE model, which posits that there are aspects of information that individuals do not correctly know about themselves (which I call the hiddenself), as well as aspects of information individuals misrepresent to others (which I call the hiding-self). This model articulates when and why judges (i.e., evaluators) not personally acquainted with targets of evaluation (e.g., job applicants) can reliably detect these targets’ moral character and predict their future unethical behavior. In particular, I propose that the impromptu thinking and language usage that arises when a person answers specially designed interview questions reveal information about his/her hidden-self and hiding-self, enabling a group of judges to make valid judgments about his/her moral character. Additionally, the HIDE model predicts that judges’ evaluations using this written interview method will be more valid than evaluations provided by targets’ acquaintances. This is because social relationships can lead people to form biased impressions of targets they are acquainted with, so that they are unable to see the targets’ hidden selves as clearly as judges who do not know the targets. In chapter 2, I test the HIDE model’s prediction that groups of judges can reliably predict targets’ unethical behavior by evaluating their moral character using the written interview method. In studies 1 and 2, large groups of judges were crowd-sourced online. I show that their average moral character evaluations successfully predicts targets’ frequency of unethical behaviors in the laboratory (study 1) and the workplace (study 2). Study 3 extends these findings by determining the minimum number of judges (six) required to make moral character evaluations that predict unethical behavior. In chapter 3, I test the HIDE model’s prediction that judges’ evaluations based on the written interview method can capture unique information about targets’ hidden-self. Three empirical studies (studies 4, 5, and 6) show that these evaluations indeed capture unique variance in targets’ moral character that is missed by both self-reports and ratings provided by targets’ acquaintances. Consequently, these evaluations are more predictive of targets’ unethical behavior than the ratings provided by either the targets themselves or their acquaintances. In chapter 4, I investigate the HIDE model’s prediction that judges’ evaluations using the written interview method can capture unique information about targets’ hiding-self. This occurs because responses to the interview questions reveal implicit aspects of moral character that targets cannot control or fake, even when they want to. In study 7, I manipulated whether targets had an incentive to answer the interview questions in a positively biased manner. I show that judges’ evaluations of targets (based on the interview questions) are actually more predictive of their unethical behavior when targets were motivated to respond in a positively biased manner. Finally, in chapter 5, I carried out text analyses to explore how human judges utilize linguistic cues in written responses to form impressions of moral character, and how these cues predict targets’ unethical behavior. The goal of this chapter is to identify linguistic cues that human judges fail to correctly detect or utilize, and thus to identify shared biases in human perceptions of ethicality. Building on these exploratory text analyses, I discuss the future directions of this research program, especially the potential value of combining human judgments and machine algorithms to boost the accuracy of unethical behavior forecasts.

Section 195(1)(a) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 provides that, in public administration, a high standard of professional ethics must be promoted and maintained. The South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Code of Conduct (1997) provides that “the police service should work actively towards preventing any form of corruption and bringing those guilty of unethical conduct to justice”. The Service Integrity Framework of the SAPS Strategic Plan Document (2002/5) provides that “police officers should be encouraged to resist and expose any form of unethical conduct and to improve management and supervision thereof”. This means that the individual police officer should display a high level of professional ethics in the provision of safety and security to members of the public. However, according to the Independent Complaints Directorate’s (ICD) Annual Report (2003/4:8) “there is a rising level of unethical conduct amongst individual police officers nationally”. This dissertation aims to analyse the implementation of an ethical framework in the SAPS with specific reference to the Crime Prevention Unit (CPU) of the Johannesburg Central Police Station (JCPS). In this dissertation, both ethics and ethos are conceptualised as cornerstones of effective service delivery. The dissertation analyses the environmental conditions that affect the conduct and behaviour of individual police officers. It focuses on the impact of both internal and external environmental conditions on police officers during their provision of safety and security. The dissertation analyses the causes of negative work ethics and ethos among individual police officers. The dissertation analyses the manifestations of these negative work ethics and ethos in order to suggest effective comprehensive remedial strategies. This dissertation identifies instruments for the effective implementation of an ethical framework on the CPU of the JCPS and further assesses the efficacy of the existing constitutional institutions towards the effective implementation of an ethical framework in the CPU. Furthermore, this dissertation presents recommendations for the CPU of the JCPS to effectively implement its ethical framework. The enhancement of positive work ethics and ethos is critical for an effective service delivery. / Dissertation (MAdmin (Public Administration))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / MAdmin / unrestricted

Ethics in South African business has become a key factor in the success or failure of the economy. The purpose of this study is therefore to gain a deeper understanding of the effect that level of education and type of education has on cognitive moral reasoning, and the moderating effect that age has on these relationships. Of particular interest in this study is the role of business orientated education.The sample included individuals who have attained various types and levels of education from all religious, racial and socio-economic backgrounds. The instrument used to evaluate the level of cognitive moral reasoning of each individual in the sample was the second version of the Defining Issues Test (DIT) originally by Rest (1979), i.e. DIT-2 adapted by Narvaez, Thoma and Bebeau (1999).The most significant finding of the research is the apparent surge in postconventional moral thinking of younger people with business oriented education. This finding was significant given previous findings of similar studies regarding age and business students. No significant evidence was found to differentiate males versus females, as well as the influence of level of education.The results raise the question of the longevity of the effects of ethical training, and whether perhaps the effects are most evident during the time of the training. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

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In organizations, it is inevitable that some business activities might seem unfair to subordinates. Social accounts—the explanations managers give their subordinates for those decisions—are known to be a useful tool for managing subordinates’ fairness concerns. Over three decades of research, we learn that social accounts are effectiveness in improving subordinates’ fairness perceptions and reducing their negative reactions. Yet, we have only limited understanding about how social accounts affect the perceptions and behaviors of managers—those who construct and give them. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the extent to which constructing accounts affects account-givers’ perceptions and behaviors. Drawing on research in social account and behavioral ethics, a model was developed to test the positive effect of constructing accounts on unethical behavior (direct effect) through moral disengagement and guilt (indirect effect). In respect to account types, it was hypothesized that constructing justifications would lead to higher moral disengagement, less guilt, and more unethical behavior, compared with constructing excuses. Account feedback was hypothesized to moderate the indirect effects of justifications and excuses on unethical behaviors such that account acceptance would strengthen moral disengagement and weaken guilt, and in turn, increase unethical behavior. Two experimental designed studies were conducted to test these hypotheses. In Study 1, utilizing a sample of 128 management students, constructing accounts was found to have a positive effect on unethical behavior (i.e., nepotism) with guilt but not moral disengagement explaining some of the variances in this relation. In contrast to my hypotheses, constructing excuses was found to increase guilt more than constructing justifications. Using a sample of 136 management students, Study 2 generally replicated the results found in Study 1: constructing accounts was found to increase unethical behavior (i.e., dishonesty) through guilt, with excuses having a greater effect. This dissertation concludes with a discussion on contributions, practical implications, limitations, and the direction for future research on social accounts and behavioral ethics. / Ph. D.

In the last decade Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important and multiple corporations that have been exposed for unethical behavior have been harshly penalized by the market. This study aims at evaluating wealth effects of unethical corporate behavior by doing a case study, in which an in-depth analysis is conducted on four infamous corporate scandals; Wells Fargo, HSBC, Danske Bank, and Volkswagen. Share prices are compared to an approximation of what the prices could have been, had the scandals not been revealed, to give an indication on abnormal returns around the announcement of the corporate scandals. The approximation is based on the share’s previous correlation with market returns. Results of the study are then contrasted to and analyzed with regard to findings of previously conducted event studies on the wealth loss suffered due to exposed unethical behavior. It is found that the corporate scandals resulted in substantial direct wealth losses in terms of market cap value and shareholder wealth for two of our cases, Wells Fargo and Volkswagen. The value decrease that Danske Bank suffered was also substantial, but had a lag in discernible market reactions in comparison to Wells Fargo and Volkswagen. HSBC has in recent years been lagging behind our price approximation, but any direct negative effect from the scandal announcement cannot be observed.

<p>In this thesis I present and discuss the phenomenon of ethical fading, and its association with biased assessment of a fair action. Ethical fading is an intuitive, self-deceptive, unconscious mechanism by which even morally competent agents are lead to disregard the ethical consequences of a particular choice. In engaging in this psychological mechanism, I argue, agents are also presupposing a biased assessment of entitlement. This biased assessment of fairness is intentionally dubious, and to be found in decision frames and reinforced by contexts. In the final part of the work I present an applied ethics case to show how ethical fading may be a quite prevalent pattern of behavior.</p>

In this thesis I present and discuss the phenomenon of ethical fading, and its association with biased assessment of a fair action. Ethical fading is an intuitive, self-deceptive, unconscious mechanism by which even morally competent agents are lead to disregard the ethical consequences of a particular choice. In engaging in this psychological mechanism, I argue, agents are also presupposing a biased assessment of entitlement. This biased assessment of fairness is intentionally dubious, and to be found in decision frames and reinforced by contexts. In the final part of the work I present an applied ethics case to show how ethical fading may be a quite prevalent pattern of behavior.