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An Examination of the Contribution of Dispositional Affect on Ethical Lapses

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Abstract

The popular press and academic research has focused primarily on the characteristics of corporate leaders. Subordinates have been studied much less frequently than leaders and yet they play a pivotal role in destructive leadership processes. An area holding significant potential to bring clarity to subordinates’ ability to withstand (or succumb) to pressures from superiors is dispositional affect. In our exploratory study, we examine how specific affective states influence subordinates’ unethical behavior. We performed an experiment with 63 mid-level managers having significant work experience. Participants were given ethical scenarios and asked to assess their intentions to comply with their superiors’ requests to engage in unethical conduct. The participants also completed the positive affect negative affect schedule (PANAS) which provides measures of affective states. Our results provide support for theory-based predictions. The findings of our study make important contributions and have implications to both practice and theory. First, we identify certain affective states that encourage subordinates to adopt the behavior of a conformer or colluder and thus be susceptible to their superiors’ unethical directives. Second, our results suggest the need for training programs to assist employees in managing affect in the work place and consideration of organizational changes that provide a culture of empowerment of its employees. Third, unlike a large majority of prior research, we measured naturally occurring affective states rather than providing a contrived (and potentially exaggerated) triggering event to elicit affective states. Fourth, we examined specific affective states rather than examining only general positive and negative valence categories.

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Notes

  1. Although the terms positive and negative affect suggest that these states are opposites (i.e., negatively correlated), they have been found to be independent states (Cacioppo et al. 1999; Connelly et al. 2004; Watson and Tellegen 1985).

  2. Our participants’ affect would be considered an outgrowth of various general life experiences and nearly 9 years experience in the business world, primarily as a subordinate.

  3. WorldCom management often asked their employees to misstate accounts. Given that these individuals risked their current salaries and bonuses by not succumbing to these demands, they acquiesced and stayed with the firm (Reinstein et al. 2006).

  4. Similar results were obtained using an unweighted scale.

  5. The raw mean scores are 25.70 for the high level of frustration and 20.12 for the low level of frustration.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions from Anna Cianci and Amber Whisenhunt. We also appreciate comments from participants at the 2009 Accounting, Behavior, and Organizations Research Conference.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Accountancy, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-3606, USA

    D. Jordan Lowe & Philip M. J. Reckers

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  1. D. Jordan Lowe
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  2. Philip M. J. Reckers
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Correspondence to D. Jordan Lowe.

Appendices

Appendix A

Ethical Scenarios

  1. 1.

    You are a part-time university student and a fulltime employee for a small start-up company which has significant career opportunities for you. One of the owner/partners asks you to use university software to which you have access through your courses to store and process firm data. Licensing agreements between the university and the software company restrict use to educational purposes.

  2. 2.

    You are asked by your manager to “intentionally misfile” interoffice memos supporting claims of gender based harassment…claims called a “trivial and distracting nuisance” by your manager.

  3. 3.

    Your boss and close friend asked you to temporarily stall any employee complaints by demanding excessive documentation and legalistic procedures. Your friend is up for consideration for a major promotion with transfer. His advancement could also be in your career interests.

  4. 4.

    Your company is fighting a hostile takeover bid by another company. To secure stockholder support the firm needs to show more profits. As head accountant for the firm, you are asked to do your part…you are asked to temporarily revise to lower levels than you believe appropriate estimated expenses related to product defects, warrantee costs, and product obsolescence.

  5. 5.

    Your direct supervisor is close to an important profit benchmark for your branch that would provide him with a large bonus. To help achieve that profit level, he asks you to defer certain costs into next year, specifically, as head of marketing to delay routine advertising layout production and radio and newsprint advertising for the last 3 weeks of the year. The requested reduced marketing activity will cost the company some sales as it enters the new year.

  6. 6.

    Given a limited pool of money for raises this year, you have been asked by the head of personnel to withhold and redirect merit pay raises from employees who cannot leave the firm to less deserving but younger and more-mobile employees.

  7. 7.

    In response to a call from corporate headquarters asking for more profits, the head of production (your direct boss) asks you to schedule overtime in shipping to push out extra product and hold the records open for an extra 12 h after year end (that is, back date shipping logs showing shipments for the first 12 h of the new year as shipments of the current year).

  8. 8.

    The head of division accounting directs you and a colleague to defer recognition of material obsolescence experienced related to selected assets. Your best estimate is that the assets have lost 50% of their value. Your colleague stresses “We need to go along with this. Instead of recognizing this loss this year, let’s wait it out and take another look at it next year when we have more information.”

  9. 9.

    A current employee has been very difficult to work from day one. This employee has been argumentative with you on several occasions and wastes everyone’s time with lots of complaints. In response to a direct request from your department manager, would you agree to undertake an effort to get rid of this employee by making assignments to inferior clients with lots of travel and overtime.

  10. 10.

    In response to a direct request from your supervisor seeking enhanced revenues, and for purposes of keeping your job, would you assist in development of a marketing campaign known to be deceptive regarding product capabilities and durability (not safety)?

Participants responded to each scenario using a five-point scale: (1) “I absolutely would not agree to do this”, (2) “I probably would not agree to do this”, (3) “Uncertain”, (4) I probably would agree to do this”, and (5) “I absolutely would agree to do this.” Thus, higher scores reflect an intention to carry out arguably unethical behavior.

Appendix B

  Positive affect negative affect schedule (PANAS)
Full size table

Appendix C

Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale

  1. 1.

    An expert who doesn’t come up with a definite answer probably doesn’t know too much.

  2. 2.

    In the long run, it is possible to get more done by tackling small, simple problems than by tackling large and complicated ones.

  3. 3.

    Many of our most important decisions in life are based upon insufficient information.

  4. 4.

    People who fit their lives to a schedule probably miss most of the joy of living.

  5. 5.

    There is really no such thing as a problem that can’t be solved.

  6. 6.

    It is more fun to tackle a complicated problem than a simple one.

  7. 7.

    People who insist on a “yes” or “no” answer just don’t know how complicated things really are.

  8. 8.

    A good job is one where what is to be done and how it is to be done are always clear.

  9. 9.

    The sooner we all acquire similar values and ideas, the better.

  10. 10.

    A person who leads an even, regular life in which few surprises or unexpected happenings arise, really have a lot to be grateful for.

  11. 11.

    I would like to live in a foreign country for awhile.

  12. 12.

    Teachers or supervisors who hand out vague assignments give a chance for one to show initiative and originality.

  13. 13.

    What we are used to is always preferable to what is unfamiliar.

  14. 14.

    I like parties where I know most of the people more than ones where all or most of the people are complete strangers.

  15. 15.

    A good teacher is one who makes you wonder about your way of looking at things.

  16. 16.

    Often, the most interesting and stimulating people are those who don’t mind being different or original.

Participants indicated their agreement with these questions on a seven-point scale: (1) “Strongly Disagree”, (2) “Moderately Agreement”, (3) “Slightly Disagree”, (4) “Neutral”, (5) “Slightly Agree”, (6) “Moderately Agree”, and (7) “Strongly Agree”.

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Lowe, D.J., Reckers, P.M.J. An Examination of the Contribution of Dispositional Affect on Ethical Lapses. J Bus Ethics 111, 179–193 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1200-7

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