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Susceptibility to the ‘Dark Side’ of Goal-Setting: Does Moral Justification Influence the Effect of Goals on Unethical Behavior?

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Abstract

Setting goals in the workplace can motivate improved performance but it might also compromise ethical behavior. In this paper, we propose that individual differences in the dispositional tendency to morally justify behavior moderate the effects of specific performance goals on unethical behavior. We conducted an experimental study in which working participants, who were randomly assigned to a specific goal condition or to a condition with a vague goal that lacked a specific target (i.e., ‘do your best’), completed two tasks in which they had the opportunity to act unethically. In an ethical dilemma task, participants in the specific goal condition were more likely to advocate using unethical methods. However, in an anagram task, only those with high moral justification overstated their performance to a greater degree in the specific goal condition. As such, individuals may not be equally susceptible to the ‘dark side’ of goal-setting.

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Notes

  1. In this paper, we view moral justification as a form of moral disengagement, i.e., as a form of motivated reasoning that enables individuals to justify or excuse unethical conduct (see, e.g., Bandura 1991, 1999). Others within the sensemaking and moral intuition literature (e.g., Haidt 2001) use the term in a slightly different way, to refer to post hoc rationalizations of one’s behavior.

  2. Sensemaking models argue that cognitive processes of moral reasoning are not necessarily causal factors in ethical decision-making and may be engaged at a later phase after unethical behavior has been enacted, as a means of explaining or justifying actions (e.g., Sonenshein 2007). However, they allow that it is possible for moral justifications to be engaged earlier and to override the instinctive judgments that drive unethical behavior.

  3. The exact response rates for the study cannot be stated with certainty. Around 20 employees from the car rental firm were invited to participate in the study (one business unit), while the number invited from the electricity provider was in the region of 100–150.

  4. A repeated measures ANOVA comparing the total number of words overstated across the three rounds of the anagram task (M = 1.32, SD = 3.32) to the total number of words understated (M = 0.06, SD = 0.27), was significant, F(1,105) = 18.35, p < 0.01, \(\eta_{\text{p}}^{2}\) = 0.15, indicating that overstatements of performance were likely to reflect intentional cheating as opposed to carelessness in responding.

  5. A possible explanation for the lack of main effect of goal condition on performance overstatements within the anagram task is that participants in the specific goal condition may not have been that committed to achieving the target they were set of creating nine words. However, in Schweitzer et al.’s (2004) study, there were no significant differences in goal commitment between participants who did and did not overstate their performance at least once in their goal conditions, suggesting that our lack of main effect is not simply an indicator of poor commitment.

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  1. Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, M15 6PB, UK

    Karen Niven & Colm Healy

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  1. Karen Niven
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  2. Colm Healy
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Correspondence to Karen Niven.

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Niven, K., Healy, C. Susceptibility to the ‘Dark Side’ of Goal-Setting: Does Moral Justification Influence the Effect of Goals on Unethical Behavior?. J Bus Ethics 137, 115–127 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2545-0

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