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The Association Between Ethical Conflict and Adverse Outcomes

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An Erratum to this article was published on 24 November 2009

An Erratum to this article was published on 24 November 2009

Abstract

In this study, we consider the association between ethical conflict and adverse outcomes, including employee stress, (lack of) organizational commitment, absenteeism, and turnover intention. Our findings show that ethical conflict is associated with adverse outcomes. Our results identify the importance of ethical conflict for organizations and the benefit for organizations to address and mitigate ethical conflict. In addition, our research contributes to the person–organization and turnover literature by extending the person-fit framework to the ethical domain and by suggesting that ethical conflict can be useful in predicting turnover. The findings of our study reinforce the need to minimize ethical conflict in the workplace due to the organizational costs associated with ethical conflict.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. A special thank to Joanne Smith-Young for her research assistance, and to the nurses who participated in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Linda Thorne

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  1. Linda Thorne
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Correspondence to Linda Thorne.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0262-2

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Thorne, L. The Association Between Ethical Conflict and Adverse Outcomes. J Bus Ethics 92, 269–276 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0153-6

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