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Cheating in Business: A Metaethical Perspective

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Abstract

Although the managerial practice of cheating spans complex and heterogeneous situations (from deception and trickery to fraud and swindling), most business ethics scholars consider that the very idea of cheating is indefensible on moral grounds, and quickly dismiss it as wrongdoing. This paper proposes to fine-tune this conventional moral assessment by arguing that some forms of cheating can be justified—or at least excused. To do so, it starts with a value-free definition of cheating that covers a wide diversity of situations: “breaking the rules while deliberately leading or allowing others to think they have been respected.” While using this definition at the metaethical level, the paper contends that the moral assessment of cheating depends on the obligation to comply with the rules. There are rules which do not entail moral obligations, and there are special circumstances where other more important obligations override the obligation to comply with the rules. Furthermore, the paper argues that respecting the penalty rules also influences the moral assessment of cheating on the rules. The key interest of this endeavor lies in contributing to building a more solid theoretical framework for the study of cheating in management, which may replace our common prejudices and basic intuitions on this matter.

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Acknowledgements

I need to thank Gabriel Gimenez-Roche for his suggestions on a previous draft that greatly contributed to improving the final version of the paper. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their numerous constructive comments during the review process.

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Correspondence to Marian Eabrasu.

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Eabrasu, M. Cheating in Business: A Metaethical Perspective. J Bus Ethics 162, 519–532 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4003-2

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