Exploring some biases in the ethical judgement of Managers: An empirical Study

Abstract

One of the main and most challenging tasks of managers is to judge their own actions and, even more, the actions of others. There are different biases that might affect the accuracy of their ethical judgment. Two of the most common biases studied are the group affiliation bias and the want/should conflict. In the present study, by empirical means, we analyzed these biases in the ethical judgment of managers. Examining answers of 153 effective respondents, we found significant differences in some of the four categories of ethical decision making studied, especially in the use of working time, money management and the use of corporate assets. We also explored some demographic characteristics of the managers, finding gender and level of study as the most relevant ones which play an important role on how they assess their own past and future behavior and the behavior of others. Although, we obtained somehow mixed results, they show that there seems to be a tendency within managers, to judge harder moral behavior of others compared to the judgment of their own ethical behavior. Furthermore, managers judge others, contrary to expected, harder if they know them than if they do not.