Journal of Business Ethics 158 (4):951-967 (2019)
Abstract |
Management plays an important role in reinforcing ethics in organizations. To support this aim, managers must use incentive and goal programs in ethical ways. This study examines experimentally the potential ethical costs associated with incentive-driven and goal-induced employee behavior from a managerial perspective. In a quasi-experimental setting, 243 MBA students with significant professional work experience evaluated a hypothetical employee’s ethical behavior under incentive pay systems modeled on a business case. In the role of the employee’s manager, participants evaluated the ethicality of the employee’s incentive-driven and goal-induced ethical/unethical behavior and the outcomes of behavior, with consequences that were either favorable or unfavorable to the organization. The results indicated that participants discounted the ethical considerations of incentive-driven and goal-induced behavior when consequences were favorable to the organization. Participants’ morals and outcome orientations were also significantly related to their ethical judgments and intentions to intervene. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.
|
Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
ISBN(s) | |
DOI | 10.1007/s10551-017-3695-z |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to Do It Right.Linda Klebe Treviño - 2010 - Wiley.
Toward the Development of a Multidimensional Scale for Improving Evaluations of Business Ethics.R. E. Reidenbach & D. P. Robin - 1990 - Journal of Business Ethics 9 (8):639 - 653.
Research Note and Review of the Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: Boundary Conditions and Extensions.Nitish Singh, Yung-Hwal Park & Kevin Lehnert - 2015 - Journal of Business Ethics 129 (1):195-219.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Commitment.Jane Collier & Rafael Esteban - 2007 - Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility 16 (1):19–33.
View all 28 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Does Ethical Judgment Determine the Decision to Become a Cyborg?: Influence of Ethical Judgment on the Cyborg Market.Jorge Pelegrín-Borondo, Mario Arias-Oliva, Kiyoshi Murata & Mar Souto-Romero - 2020 - Journal of Business Ethics 161 (1):5-17.
How Do Companies Respond to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Ratings? Evidence From Italy.Ester Clementino & Richard Perkins - 2020 - Journal of Business Ethics 171 (2):379-397.
Does Ethical Judgment Determine the Decision to Become a Cyborg?: Influence of Ethical Judgment on the Cyborg Market.Jorge Pelegrín-Borondo, Mario Arias-Oliva, Kiyoshi Murata & Mar Souto-Romero - 2018 - Journal of Business Ethics 161 (1):5-17.
Doing Good by Doing Bad: How Tone at the Top and Tone at the Bottom Impact Performance-Improving Noncompliant Behavior.Corinna Ewelt-Knauer, Anja Schwering & Sandra Winkelmann - 2020 - Journal of Business Ethics 175 (3):609-624.
Similar books and articles
Positive Job Response and Ethical Job Performance.Sean Valentine, Philip Varca, Lynn Godkin & Tim Barnett - 2010 - Journal of Business Ethics 91 (2):195-206.
Interorganizational Ethics: Standards of Behavior. [REVIEW]Jerold B. Muskin - 2000 - Journal of Business Ethics 24 (4):283 - 297.
The Impact of Budget Goal Difficulty and Promotion Availability on Employee Fraud.Shana M. Clor-Proell, Steven E. Kaplan & Chad A. Proell - 2015 - Journal of Business Ethics 131 (4):773-790.
The Influence of Ethical Leadership and Regulatory Focus on Employee Outcomes.Mitchell J. Neubert, Cindy Wu & James A. Roberts - 2013 - Business Ethics Quarterly 23 (2):269-296.
The Reputation Effects of Earnings Management in the Internal Labor Market.Steven E. Kaplan & Susan P. Ravenscroft - 2004 - Business Ethics Quarterly 14 (3):453-478.
The Reputation Effects of Earnings Management in the Internal Labor Market.Steven E. Kaplan & Susan P. Ravenscroft - 2004 - Business Ethics Quarterly 14 (3):453-478.
Ethical Culture and Employee Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Person-Organization Fit. [REVIEW]Pablo Ruiz-Palomino, Ricardo Martínez-Cañas & Joan Fontrodona - 2013 - Journal of Business Ethics 116 (1):173-188.
Professional Ethics: A Managerial Opportunity in Emerging Organizations.Heidi von Weltzien Hoivik - 2002 - Journal of Business Ethics 39 (1/2):3 - 11.
Understanding the Ethical Cost of Organizational Goal-Setting: A Review and Theory Development.Adam Barsky - 2008 - Journal of Business Ethics 81 (1):63-81.
The Aftermath of Organizational Corruption: Employee Attributions and Emotional Reactions.Kathie L. Pelletier & Michelle C. Bligh - 2008 - Journal of Business Ethics 80 (4):823-844.
Religious Orientation, Incentive, Self-Esteem, and Gender as Predictors of Academic Dishonesty: An Experimental Approach.W. Paul Williamson & Aresh Assadi - 2005 - Archive for the Psychology of Religion 27 (1):137-158.
Ethical Codes of Conduct and Organizational Context: A Study of the Relationship Between Codes of Conduct, Employee Behavior and Organizational Values. [REVIEW]Mark John Somers - 2001 - Journal of Business Ethics 30 (2):185-195.
Ethical Leadership: Examining the Relationships with Full Range Leadership Model, Employee Outcomes, and Organizational Culture.Shamas-ur-Rehman Toor & George Ofori - 2009 - Journal of Business Ethics 90 (4):533-547.
The Limbic Basal-Ganglia-Thalamocortical Circuit and Goal-Directed Behavior.Daphna Joel - 1999 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22 (3):525-526.
Ethical Leadership Influence at Organizations: Evidence From the Field. [REVIEW]Ozgur Demirtas - 2015 - Journal of Business Ethics 126 (2):1-12.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2017-10-18
Total views
20 ( #558,178 of 2,508,120 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #416,711 of 2,508,120 )
2017-10-18
Total views
20 ( #558,178 of 2,508,120 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #416,711 of 2,508,120 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads