Ethical Intentions Research Articles

Inoculating Against Moral Disengagement Creates Ethical Adherence for Narcissism.

Increasing honesty is critical in modern society. Moral Disengagement Tactics (MDTs) enable individuals to engage in unethical behavior while avoiding self-criticism, making MDTs a form of self-persuasion. One way to prevent persuasion is inoculation. Across three experiments (N = 972), two preregistered, we randomly assigned individuals to a code of ethics versus inoculation to MDTs condition. Study 1 (n = 443) found that those high in narcissism reported increased ethical intentions in the inoculation condition. Study 2 (n = 224) replicated and extended this effect, finding that individuals high in narcissism were more likely to behave honestly in the inoculation condition. Study 3 (n = 305) was a longitudinal study finding that inoculating those high in narcissism led to fewer lies over the past week's inoculation. None of these interaction patterns emerged for Machiavellianism or psychopathy. Thus, inoculation to MDTs appears effective in reducing dishonesty among those high in narcissism.

Spirit at work: a panacea for ethical problems caused by marketing managers’ love of money

PurposeLimited research has investigated how spirit at work, functioning as a “good barrel,” fosters ethical decision-making (EDM) even in the presence of unethical managerial behavior (“bad apples”). Therefore, this study aims to investigate the spirit at work, a situational variable, as a moderating variable in the relationship between the love of money (LoM), an individual-level factor, and EDM.Design/methodology/approachA time-lagged survey of the members of the Marketing Association of Pakistan was conducted. The data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling.FindingsAdding to much of the existing research, which finds that LoM can influence ethical intention directly, this research finds that LoM influences ethical intention only through ethical judgment. Moreover, the spirit at work tempers the negative relationship between LoM and ethical judgment, thereby mitigating LoM’s detrimental effects not only on ethical judgment but also its downstream effects on ethical intention.Practical implicationsOrganizations, by planting the seeds of spirit at work, can institutionalize good barrels, which can alleviate the negative effects of the marketing managers’ LoM, the root cause of unethical behavior. This way, this study establishes a business case for spirit at work.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study is the development and investigation of a holistic conceptual framework for EDM of marketing professionals that incorporates LoM as an antecedent, ethical judgment as an underlying mechanism, ethical intention as an outcome variable and spirit at work as a boundary condition.

Tourists’ ethically responsible participation in animal-based tourism: A configurational impact assessment

Ethical concerns about animal-based tourism are raising ongoing attention from the international community, and investigation of tourists’ ethically responsible behaviors in animal eco-tourism is limited. This study investigated the formation of ethically responsible behaviors by integrating constituents from the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory, the norm-activation model (NAM), and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), including biospheric value, altruistic value, ethical beliefs, awareness of ethical issues, ascribed responsibility, personal norm, attitude, social norm, and behavioral intentions with regard to animal-based tourism. The cultural involvement of Confucian harmony and media coverage were found to positively influence awareness of ethical issues. The proposed research framework was further optimized by identifying a moderator, described as perceptions of animal protection. Methodologically, along with structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, this study also used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to evaluate asymmetric configurations (causal recipes) and necessary conditions for predicting different levels of behavioral intentions in animal-based tourism.

A Just Englishman in Russia: The Ethical Self in Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Beginning of Spring

ABSTRACT In her historical novel, The Beginning of Spring, Penelope Fitzgerald explores English identity in pre-revolutionary Russia by putting her expatriate hero Frank Reid to the test in ethical situations. Engaging with critical attention to the novel’s moral meaning, this article offers an ethical reading alongside Paul Ricoeur’s study on ethical intention and Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics of the face of the other. Frank’s ethical self can be imputed from his aim of becoming a just man in the Moscow business community. To achieve that aim, he must make ethical deliberations based on his practical wisdom and the moral injunction that regulates the intersubjective relationship between the self and the other. He ultimately fails his ethical aim because of the unjust institution – he is othered in/by Russia. I conclude with a gesture that the novel is Fitzgerald’s ethical intention of giving a voice to the other Russian culture.

Intertwined Dialogues of Peace and Forgiveness in Uncle Tom's Cabin

Crimes and peace are interdependent yet paradoxical to each other. The absence of crime can affect peace, accuracy and vice versa. This two-sided paradox can in fact be reconciled through forgiveness as a door to wider freedom. In Uncle Tom's Cabin novel, Tom forgives Legree, Sambo, and Quimbo who tortured him to death. Tom does not avenge violence with violence but with forgiveness. When Tom almost died, Legree did not care about his condition. In reverse, Sambo and Quimbo were impressed by Tom's heart and turned to take care of him. Tom's forgiveness shows ethical intention of others as in Levinas's thought, promise of peace and wider freedom in the sense of Ricoeur, and possibility of the heterogeneity of everyday life according to de Certeau. Tom's forgiveness at once shows everyone, no matter how small he is, can forgive others. This allows further reconciliation in a reciprocal way. Circle of violence can be cut off by forgiveness that heals others. Briefly, Tom is a reflection of peace in the form of forgiveness. Forgiveness means healing others, widening the circle of freedom of others, and as a promise of peace. Forgiveness can open itself up to reconciliation by promising freedom for a new life.

Etiska och moraliska perspektiv på kontextuella särskildheter i rektorers arbete och ledarskap i strukturellt missgynnade områden

Ethical and moral perspectives on contextual particularities in principals’ work in structurally disadvantaged areas. Metropolitan Swedish cities experience consequences of segregation and challenges in providing equality in education as part of an equitable national welfare. Drawing attention to elementary schools in structurally disadvantaged areas, this study focuses ethical and moral perspectives on principals’ work and leadership in relation to contextual particularities. Findings are based on an empirical set of 15 semi-structured group conversations with 20 principals. In their day-to-day work and leadership principals balance a generalized norm of judicial and institutional requirements with contextual particularities emanating from structurally disadvantaging structures. Wider ethical intentions, characterized as social justice ambitions to level out inequalities and achieve emancipatory goals for every student, are at core when principals consider multiple perspectives in processes of handling contextual particularities. Resultingly, an ethical school leadership come through with principals as moral agents and subjects. However, also ethically mindful and morally experienced principals need supportive institutional accountability in line with local needs and adjusted to local particularities.

So Much Depends Upon a Red Stripe

ABSTRACT The paper explores the impact of Palmer’s spontaneous gesture of a red stripe that completed his abstract painting—emotionally and aesthetically—in response to a difficult analytic relationship. The red stripe arises from his search for greater openness, emotional freedom, and creative responses to the flow of communication with his patient. The analyst’s ethical intentions are inward to be open and available to the influx of the patient’s emotional world, and outward, found in actions and gestures with the patient striving for honesty, transparency, a willingness to take risks and accept accidents in a search for emotion truth and authentically being present. The analyst inhabits, gathers, and concentrates feeling that provides a medium for feelings to live, take shape, and be recognized by an analytic function called “the aesthetic” that then fosters “aesthetic experiences”—intense passages of shared living that are transformative.

Ethical decision-making: an interactive model of organizations’ ethics systems and decision-makers’ financial situation

Purpose This study aims to investigate the influence of two perceived organizational ethics systems (perceived ethics training quality and integrity-based climate) on the ethical decision-making (EDM) of tax accountants in Ghana. The study also examines the moderating role of the decision-makers’ financial situation on the quality ethics training–EDM relationship. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from 356 tax accountants were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique. Findings The results show that the two ethics systems influence EDM, but their extent of influence varies across the stages of EDM. Specifically, quality ethics training is a better predictor of EDM at the ethical issue recognition stage, whereas integrity-based climate is a better predictor of EDM at the ethical intention stage. The study also found that decision-makers’ financial situation predicts the ethical recognition stage of EDM but does not moderate the quality ethics training–EDM relationship. Practical implications This study recommends the concurrent deployment of quality ethics training and an integrity-based work climate to improve ethical behavior. Policymakers should also emphasize a work climate that promotes honesty, conscientiousness and ethical principles (integrity-based climate) to improve ethical intentions. Originality/value This study applied the interactionist theory by capturing the relative effects of two organizational ethics systems and an individual-level situational factor in a single model. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that tests the moderation effect of decision-makers’ financial situation on the ethics training–EDM relationship in a developing country context.

Energizing Ethical Recycling Intention Through Information Publicity: Insights from an Emerging Market Economy

Energizing Ethical Recycling Intention Through Information Publicity: Insights from an Emerging Market Economy

Unethical leadership, moral compensation, and ethical followership: Evidence from a survey experiment with Chilean public servants

AbstractNumerous studies associate ethical leadership with ethical behavior in the public sector. By contrast, the effects of unethical leadership in the public sector have largely not been explored. Yet, unethical leadership need not beget unethical followership. Instead, we theorize that some bureaucrats may perceive unethical leadership as a moral threat and respond to it with moral compensation and greater ethical behavior. We provide evidence for our theorized effect through a vignette experiment with 19,852 bureaucrats in Chile. Bureaucrats exposed in the vignette to unethical role modeling by their superior or peers react with greater ethical awareness and ethical intent. This effect is concentrated among bureaucrats recruited through merit‐based, public service criteria rather than connections, and thus bureaucrats who more likely feel morally threatened by unethical leadership. This suggests that unethical leadership in the public sector may differ in its consequences from the mere absence of ethical leadership.

The Effect of Group Dynamics on Individual Ethical Decision Making

ABSTRACT Given that many significant decisions in accounting are made by groups of professionals, it is important to understand the impact of group interactions on ethical decision making. We examine how group dynamics can influence an individual’s ethical evaluations and intentions and whether the effect of these group interactions persists in the future. We also explore the ethical orientations used by participants to inform their ethical judgments. Our results indicate that individual initial assessments of ethical scenarios are consistently more ethical than group assessments of the same ethical scenarios. Groups consistently viewed questionable actions as more acceptable than individuals and were more likely to say that they or their peers would perform the action. This less ethical perspective persists in future individual ethical assessments, demonstrating a contagion effect on ethical judgments. Furthermore, our results show that justice and relativism are the moral constructs utilized by most participants to form ethical evaluations. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors.

Peers’ unethical behavior and employees' discretionary behavior: Role of employees’ duty orientation

As unethical behavior is of significant concern for organizations, this study examines the effect of peers’ unethical behavior (PUB) in the hospitality sector. Though earlier research suggests the impact of PUB on employees’ ethical intentions, the influence of PUB on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and interpersonal deviance (ID) is unexplored. To address this gap, this study uses social learning theory and social information process theory to examine the effect of PUB on OCB and ID through psychological safety as a mediating mechanism and duty orientation as a moderating variable. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling on a three-wave (time lag) survey of a sample of 316 frontline employees in the hotel industry, findings suggest PUB reduces employees’ perception of psychological safety and subsequently reduces OCB and enhances ID. However, high-duty orientation helps to mitigate the negative effect of PUB on employees’ OCB and IDs. The paper concludes with suggestions to reduce unethical behavior and create a positive work context.

A reasoned action approach to understanding anti-corruption intentions among MBA (accounting) students in Ghana

Drawing on the reasoned action approach theory, the study aimed to examine the logical pattern involved in the development and manifestation of anti-corruption (ethical) intentions among accounting students. Data were collected from 447 Master of Business Administration (MBA) (Accounting) students in Ghana, using an explanatory correlational design and a simple random sampling technique. The results indicated that the ethical attitude of MBA (Accounting) students is primarily influenced by mimetic, coercive beliefs, and religiosity, with normative belief showing no significant contribution to shaping ethical attitudes. The findings imply that ethical attitude in accounting serves as a pertinent precursor to the anti-corruption intentions of MBA (Accounting) students. The study recommends that institutions should allow accounting students to uphold their religious values, and that efforts to enhance ethical accounting attitudes should be promoted to foster anti-corruption behaviours among accounting students.

Exploring the determinants of (un)ethical decision-making among accountants using PLS-SEM: a developing country context

PurposeThis study aims to examine the determinants of ethical decision-making (EDM) of professional accountants in Sri Lanka, drawing on Rest’s (1986) four-component EDM model. The level of corporate collapses and fraud, coupled with the high level of corruption in Sri Lanka, has highlighted the importance and the timely nature of this research in the EDM processes of Sri Lankan accountants.Design/methodology/approachData was collected from a sample of 315 accountants through a questionnaire survey that included four written ethical vignettes and was analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling techniques.FindingsThe findings revealed a significant relationship between ethical awareness and ethical judgement, providing support for Rest’s model. However, the study does not support Rest’s model on the direct relationship between ethical judgement and ethical intention. Intrinsic religiosity and moral intensity significantly influenced the ethical awareness of accountants. Several determinants including accountants’ age, education, intrinsic religiosity, organisational ethical culture, familiarity with the professional ethical code and moral intensity influenced ethical judgement. However, the findings did not report any significant relationships between the study’s variables and ethical intention.Originality/valueThe study adds to the existing literature by providing a bigger picture of how various determinants work together in one EDM model and demonstrating that the EDM of accountants is multifaceted. The new finding on an insignificant relationship between ethical judgement and ethical intention implies that the Rest’s EDM process may be mediated and moderated by other constraints blocking accountants’ intention to act due to various pressures in a corrupt society, Sri Lanka, where accountants operate.

Systems Perspectives on Business and Peace: The Contingent Nature of Business-Related Action with Respect to Peace Positive Impacts

AbstractWe examine three business-related initiatives designed to achieve peace positive impacts in the Cape Town township of Langa. Each was seemingly straightforward in its purpose, logic, and implementation. However, their positive intent was frustrated and their impacts ultimately harmful to their articulated goals. Understanding why this is so can be difficult in violent, turbulent, and information-poor environments such as Langa, confounding progress even by actors with ethical intentions. To aid in sense making and to provide insight for more positive future action, we develop from 125 interviews conducted for this study causal loop models for these initiatives within their conflict subsystems. These explain the perverse impacts of these initiatives by illuminating their (lack of) salience to key conflict factors, their (in)sufficiency to effect positive change in light of competing systems dynamics, and their (in)attentiveness to interdependencies with the intentions and actions of others. We thus contribute to understanding of the factors required to achieve positive social outcomes in more extreme contexts. More generally, we demonstrate the value of systems analysis both for scholarship related to business and peace and for reducing blind spots that can inhibit sound planning for ethical business action amidst complexity.

Emotions, norms, and consequences as the forces of good and evil: An investigation on sales professionals

AbstractTraditionally, the consequences of employees' behavior (teleology) and the norms attributed to the behavior (deontology) have been two familiar determinants of ethical decision making (EDM). More recently, emotions have also gained considerable attention for their ability to affect EDM. Marketing ethics literature overlooks how emotions are related with norms and consequences. Hence, this study investigates how normative, consequentialist, and emotional factors interactively influence EDM in a sales ethics context. Using scenarios with a 2 × 2 between‐groups factorial design, we collected data online from 303 sales professionals. Then we used independent samples t tests and hierarchical regression models to analyze the hypothesized relationships. Results indicate that violation of and obedience to deontological norms stimulate negative and positive anticipated emotions, respectively, leading to stronger EDM. However, to a lesser extent, when violation of and obedience to deontological norms do not stimulate anticipated emotions, those emotions lead to weaker EDM. Moreover, consequences do not stimulate any anticipated emotions. Instead, consequences moderate the relationship between anticipated emotions and EDM. In addition, deontological and teleological evaluations mediate the relationship between anticipated emotions and EDM. These findings highlight the importance of considering the interplay between normative, consequentialist, and emotional factors in the formation of ethical judgments and intentions. The article discusses the implications of these results for sales professionals and organizations and suggests future research directions.

Buddhist No-Self Reductionism, Moral Address, and the Metaphysics of Moral Practice in advance

In this paper, I argue that, on a reductionist reading of Buddhist no-self ontology, Buddhists could not have sincere ethical intentions toward persons. And if Buddhists cannot have sincere intentions toward persons, they cannot have second-personal moral reasons for acting. From this I conclude that Buddhists fail to qualify as genuine members of the moral community if, as some contemporary Anglo-American moral philosophers argue, such membership depends on an individual agent’s having the capacity to be motivated by second-personal moral reasons.

Does public service motivation truly predict dishonesty? Behavioural evidence from the private and public sectors

The number of studies on the relationship between public service motivation and ethics is increasing. Although research consistently finds evidence for a positive public service motivation–ethical intentions relationship, research on public service motivation and unethical behaviour remains scarce and showcases mixed findings. Based on insights from person–environment fit theory, we argue that the sector in which an individual is employed may help explain these mixed findings. We test this assumption by employing an incentivized dice game among private and public sector workers ( n = 576). Using a well-powered research design we find neither support for the public service motivation–ethical behaviour relationship, nor for the sector as an intervening variable. We discuss the implications of these interesting null findings, which challenge the common assumption that public servants are morally superior to private sector workers. Points for practitioners (Human resource) managers of both private and public sector organizations need to be aware of the fact that employees engage in behavioural dishonesty (i.e. cheating). Contrary to the often-heard assumption, we find no evidence that public service motivation serves as a buffer for this specific type of unethical behaviour. This means that stimulating public service motivation or recruiting public-service motivated individuals does not help to reduce the risk of behavioural dishonesty. Rather, (human resource) managers can invest in other measures to limit this type of unethical behaviour such as ethical leadership and an ethical climate.

Public's ethical perception, moral outrage in activism: testing a perceptual-affective-behavioral model for public activism in ethical issues

PurposeThis study aims to propose a model of publics' ethical activism, testing the role of emotional outrage in an extended framework of the previously established STOPS model. Thus, this study aims to investigate (1) how ethical perception of a social issue affects situational motivation that leads to participation in public activism, and (2) how emotional outrage plays a role in mediating between situational motivation and activism behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThe study aims at investigating the mediating role of emotional outrage between situational motivation and activism behaviors, which have not been investigated thoroughly in public relations research. By conducting a national survey with 386 people (N = 386) living in Australia, the study's suggestive model was tested in the context of two ethical issues (e.g. climate change and anti-racism). This study found that people who perceive an ethical issue are likely to be motivated to participate in activism behaviors. Specifically, three situational perceptions (i.e. problem recognition, constraint recognition and involvement recognition) were found to be significant factors affecting situational motivation (SM) in problem solving. A high level of emotional outrage was found to play a mediating role between SM and consequential ethical activism behaviors. The more people feel outraged about an ethical issue, the more likely they will engage in punitive behavior. This study contributes to the theoretical development of public relations by illuminating how situational perceptions lead to emotional outrage that promotes behavioral intentions in an ethical context. This study also suggests that a practitioner should be sought to manage the levels of perceptual factors when setting up a communication plan in response to an ethical public crisis.FindingsThis study found that people who perceive an ethical issue are likely to be motivated to participate in activism behaviors. Specifically, three situational perceptions (i.e. problem recognition, constraint recognition and involvement recognition) were found to be significant factors affecting situational motivation (SM) in problem solving. A high level of emotional outrage was found to play a mediating role between SM and consequential ethical activism behaviors. The more people feel outraged about an ethical issue, the more likely they will engage in punitive behavior.Research limitations/implicationsThis study substantiates how three perceptual antecedents may conjointly affect situational motivation. Also, the findings in this study also contribute to theoretical development in predicting ethical activism intentions. Another contribution of this study is to demonstrate the mediating role of emotional outrage between situational motivation and ethical activism. The authors strived to explore individuals' perceptions and its impact on intention to boycott against ethical problematic social issues. It should be considered that this study used a hypothetical and manipulated situation where respondents are exposed to the visual stimuli that focus on the moral problems that those specific issues have raised.Practical implicationsFirst, as problem recognition plays a prime mover role in the overall problem-solving process in an ethical context, organizations should reduce individual's ethical problem recognition. When setting up a communication plan, an organization should showcase their positive role in addressing the ethical problems (e.g. to show Adani's commitment to indigenous people and efforts to protect the environment). The response strategy should be effective enough to create an “ethical dilemma,” which refers to a situation in which one has a difficult choice to make between two ethical options.Originality/valueThis study contributes to theoretical development of public relations by illuminating how situational perceptions lead to emotional outrage that promotes behavioral intentions in an ethical context. This study also suggests that a practitioner should be sought to manage the levels of perceptual factors when setting up a communication plan in response to an ethical public crisis.

Sustainable Preparation Behavior for Kitchen Staff in Order to Limit Food Waste.

The concepts of culinary sustainability and avoiding the waste of surplus food have become important sustainability trends today. How the handling of surplus food can be integrated into the catering industry is a topic of concern in the industry. Kitchen staff are the vital soul of any restaurant, and we intend to discuss how kitchen staff actually behave and explore factors that influence their behaviors in order to develop an implementation model for food waste prevention. Therefore, this study explored a model of ethical sustainability, professional competence, self-efficacy, sustainable food preparation objectives, and sustainable food promotion and behavior focused on limiting food waste, using structural equation modeling (SEM) to understand the relationship between various constructs. This study used a questionnaire and surveyed employees who had been employed for more than 6 months in Taiwan. From May to August 2022, 500 questionnaires were distributed; 415 valid questionnaires were retrieved, yielding a 90.2% recovery rate. According to the structural equation modeling analysis between the dimensions, ethical sustainability should have a positive influence on professional competence in food waste prevention and self-efficacy. Professional competence in food waste prevention affected self-efficacy and behavioral intentions during food preparation; self-efficacy also significantly affected behavioral intentions towards sustainable food preparation. Similarly, behavioral intention had a positive influence on promoting sustainable behaviors. There is a significant relationship between all constructs in this study. Professional competence in food waste prevention was found to be the mediating factor between ethical sustainability and behavioral intentions toward sustainable food preparation, and self-efficacy was the mediating factor between professional competence in food waste prevention and behavioral intentions toward sustainable food preparation.