What are unethical behaviours?
Ethical business behaviour refers to business practices guided by moral norms, rules, standards, principles or codes (Lewis, 1985). Therefore, behaviours that stray from stipulated norms and violate morality are considered unethical. Notably, unethical behaviours are not always illegal, as not all violation of organizational policies are violation of formal laws (Kish-Gephart et al., 2010), they are simply immoral and shameful.
There are differences in how unethical behaviours are perceived and evaluated. Klein & Shtudiner (2021) found gender differences favouring men and aesthetic differences favouring women in how people viewed unethical behaviour. They noted:
In comparing employee gender, the same unethical behaviour was perceived as more acceptable when performed by men… The same unethical action was interpreted as more acceptable if carried out by attractive women and found to be most offensive if performed by a plain-looking female (p.26)
Another interesting finding from the study is that the gender of the evaluator e.g. manager or supervisor was an important factor in making judgments against unethical behaviour. Compared to men, women were found to be stricter and less lenient of unethical behaviours. In short, one could expect female leaders to be less tolerant of unethical behaviours.
Types of unethical behaviours
There are several types of unethical behaviours, however, I will highlight two: pro-self and pro-organizational behaviours.
Pro-self unethical behaviours- These are behaviours geared towards an employee’s self-interest and may even come at the cost of others in the office. These employees could be described as immoral and self-serving, whose only aim is to achieve their goal, without giving much thought to who is harmed in the process. Jha& Singh (2023) found that employees motivated by self-interest sabotaged colleagues and organisations to further their own agenda. The authors highlighted several behaviours associated with pro-self unethical behaviours:
Sabotaging the performance of high performers
Badmouthing or finding faults in the decisions and work of others
Personal use of organisational resources (e.g. use of company vehicle for personal activities)
Manipulation of personal expenses (e.g. travel claims)
Pro-organization unethical behaviours- These behaviours are geared towards benefiting the organization. These employees typically have a good relationship with their managers and supervisors and may receive favourable treatment. As such, they feel obligated to the organization and place the interests of their organization above the interests of others (i.e. outsiders) harmed by their unethical behaviour. Jha& Singh (2023) found that these employees engaged in behaviours such as:
Lobbying and bribing
Lying to customers
Concealing critical information to sell a product
Tampering with business documents and manipulate business figures
Who is to blame?
According to Kish-Gephart et al (2010) there are three main determinants of unethical behaviours: individual characteristics, characteristics of the ethical issue and the organizational environment. Aspects of the individual encompass several factors such as ones ability to manipulate others, the extent to which one takes responsibility for their actions, level of relativism and cognitive development. In short, employees who blindly follow directives from their superiors, display a sense of indifference to morality or willingness to orchestrate events in their favour at others’ expense and exhibit an inability to link actions with consequences (or blame others) are more likely to engage in unethical behaviour.
There are several aspects of an ethical issue to be considered: magnitude of consequences, social consensus, probability effect, temporal immediacy, proximity, and concentration effect (Thomas,1991). Kish-Gephart et al (2010) found that high intensity ethical issues lead persons to engage in higher-level reasoning. An ethical dilemma may be considered high intensity if there is relatively high level of harm if one chooses to be unethical (i.e. magnitude of consequences), the extent to which one’s peers believe the action is wrong (i.e. social consensus), the likelihood that one’s action will cause harm (i.e. probability of effect), the length of time until the negative consequences come to effect (i.e. temporal immediacy), the social, psychological or physical closeness of the person affected by one’s harmful behaviour (i.e. proximity) and the number of people affected by one’s harmful behaviour (i.e. concentration effect).
Finally, the organizational environment is considered a major contributor to unethical behaviour. Kish-Gephart et al (2010) found that organizational climates that are overly competitive promote a culture where employees’ main concern is themselves, which is likely to foster unethical behaviour. On the other hand, organizational environments that are inclusive, value the well-being of employees and stakeholders, establish code of ethics and clearly communicate these rules foster ethical behaviour. Furthermore, it is especially important to enforce the code of ethics to reinforce the organizational values. Leadership plays an important role in the communication and enforcement of ethical standards. Fehr et al (2015) noted that an employee’s loyalty to his/her leader may contribute to unethical pro-organizational behaviour e.g. covering up illegal activities and preventing whistle blowing.
Strategies to combat unethical behaviour in the workplace
Kaptein (2011) found that an ethical culture influences unethical behaviour within an organization and identified several aspects of an organization’s ethical culture that predict and prevent unethical behaviour.
Ethical role modeling of supervisors and management- The theory of social learning (Bandura & Walters, 1977) explains how people learn vicariously through others. i.e. people learn from the experiences of others or by observing others. Hence, the importance of supervisors and managers who model ethical behaviours. Simply put, leadership that demonstrate behaviours aligned with the organization’s ethical code of conduct reinforces the importance of ethical behaviours. On the other hand, leadership that acts in ways unaligned with the organization’s ethical code of conduct undermine its importance.
Commitment to behave ethically- The social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979) notes the importance of belongingness to a group. Persons who strongly identify with a group, are committed to the group’s values and comply with group rules or norms. Therefore, organizations should invest in organizational climates that encourage strong feelings of identification among employees (e.g. communication climate, ethical climate, safety climate). Teresi et al (2019) found that compared to organizations with a self-interest climate, organizations with a friendly climate increased employees’ organizational identification and their willingness to engage in ethical behaviours.
Capability to behave ethically- Strain theory (Merton, 1938) highlights the importance of resources to achieve goals. Inadequate resources cause strain as persons do not have the means to achieve their goals legitimately, as such, they resort to illegitimate or unethical behaviours. Organizational resources (e.g. time, budget, equipment etc) play an important role in facilitating ethical behaviours. Employees on a time crunch, with an insufficient budget may feel pressured to complete a project, resulting in subpar outcomes as persons “cut corners”. Therefore, it is important to provide employees with adequate resources to perform effectively.
Openness to discuss ethical issues- Kaptein (2011) emphasizes the importance of sharing and discussing ethical issues. Open discussions foster knowledge sharing and allow for the “airing” of issues; where people voice different opinions that lead to a better understanding of the issue at hand. On the other hand, a closed communication style inhibits knowledge sharing as criticisms or varying viewpoints are not exchanged and behaviours are not challenged. In short, the absence of discussions about ethical issues encourages an unethical culture.
Reinforcement of ethical behaviour- Reinforcement learning theory (Skinner, 1958) stresses the importance of cues from the environment in shaping behaviour. We learn acceptable and unacceptable behaviour based on the feedback we receive from our environment. If we engage in a behaviour and receive reward or punishment, we learn whether this behaviour is acceptable or not. This influences our decision making and the likelihood of engaging in this behaviour in the future. In short, rewards encourage repetition of behaviour and punishment encourages deterrence. Therefore, reinforcement of ethical behaviour refers to the practice of managers and employees being punished for unethical behaviours and rewarded for ethical behaviours. Research has shown that employees and managers are less likely to engage in unethical behaviours if they are likely to be punished (Yan et al., 2021) and if the punishment is potent enough to underscore the importance of ethical behaviour (Sivakumar & Rao, 2009).
References
Bandura, A., & Walters, R. H. (1977). Social learning theory (Vol. 1). Englewood cliffs Prentice Hall.
Fehr, R., Yam, K. C., & Dang, C. (2015). Moralized leadership: The construction and consequences of ethical leader perceptions. Academy of Management Review, 40(2), 182-209. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2013.0358
Jha, J. K., & Singh, M. (2023). Who cares about ethical practices at workplace? A taxonomy of employees’ unethical conduct from top management perspective. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 31(2), 317-339. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-07-2020-2321
Kaptein, M. (2011). Understanding unethical behavior by unraveling ethical culture. Human Relations, 64(6), 843-869. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726710390536
Kish-Gephart, J. J., Harrison, D. A., & Treviño, L. K. (2010). Bad apples, bad cases, and bad barrels: Meta-analytic evidence about sources of unethical decisions at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(1), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017103
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