Different Shades of Moral: Emotions and (Un)Ethical Behavior

Abstract

Although scholarly interest in investigating potential touchpoints between ethics and emotion is increasing, the nature of the relationship between them remains under-specified. Given the relevance of emotion to a host of organizational processes, such as creativity, team interactions, leadership, and culture, that have an ethical dimension, there is a clear need to better understand the intersection of ethics and emotions. Further, while prior work has considered the possibility that socially defined ‘good’ or ‘bad’ emotions lead to commensurately good or bad outcomes, research demonstrates that the ethical consequences of specific emotions are more nuanced than implied by broad good-vs.-bad categorizations. More generally, expressing emotion itself may have important and underexplored ethical implications for expressers, targets, and organizations. In order to address these compelling issues, in this symposium a set of four exciting theoretical and empirical papers takes a fresh perspective, exploring the intersection between emotions and ethics in a variety of contexts, including both broadly relevant interpersonal work scenarios (e.g., between employees and customers) as well as situations involving specific contexts like cheating and deception. Belabored Emotions: The Ethics of Emotional Labor Presenter: Bruce Barry; Vanderbilt U. Presenter: Mara Olekalns; The U. of Melbourne Presenter: Laura Rees; Vanderbilt U. In Praise of (Moral) Anger: A Delineation and Definition of an Under-Appreciated Construct Presenter: Dirk Lindebaum; U. of Liverpool Presenter: Deanna Geddes; Temple U. Mad and Misleading: Incidental Anger Promotes Deception Presenter: Jeremy Yip; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Negative Mood and Helping a Cheater: The Moderating Role of Self-View Presenter: Elizabeth Eve Umphress; U. of Washington Presenter: Richard Grover Gardner; U. of Nevada, Las Vegas Presenter: Keith Leavitt; Oregon State U. Presenter: Adam C. Stoverink; Northern Illinois U.