Bad Apples, Bad Cases, and Bad Barrels: Meta-Analytic Evidence About Sources of Unethical Decisions at Work
01 Jan 2010-Journal of Applied Psychology (American Psychological Association)-Vol. 95, Iss: 1, pp 1-31
TL;DR: This meta-analysis draws from over 30 years of research and multiple literatures to examine individual, moral issue, and organizational environment antecedents of unethical choice, providing empirical support for several foundational theories and painting a clearer picture of relationships characterized by mixed results.
Abstract: As corporate scandals proliferate, practitioners and researchers alike need a cumulative, quantitative understanding of the antecedents associated with unethical decisions in organizations. In this meta-analysis, the authors draw from over 30 years of research and multiple literatures to examine individual ("bad apple"), moral issue ("bad case"), and organizational environment ("bad barrel") antecedents of unethical choice. Findings provide empirical support for several foundational theories and paint a clearer picture of relationships characterized by mixed results. Structural equation modeling revealed the complexity (multidetermined nature) of unethical choice, as well as a need for research that simultaneously examines different sets of antecedents. Moderator analyses unexpectedly uncovered better prediction of unethical behavior than of intention for several variables. This suggests a need to more strongly consider a new "ethical impulse" perspective in addition to the traditional "ethical calculus" perspective. Results serve as a data-based foundation and guide for future theoretical and empirical development in the domain of behavioral ethics.
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01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this article, the authors question the simplicity of the common prescription that more thinking leads to better 26 moral choices and discover that the relationship between how complexly one reasons 27 before making a decision with moral consequences is related to the outcome of that decision in a curvi
Abstract: In this paper, we question the simplicity of the common prescription that more thinking leads to better 26 moral choices In three studies, we discover that the relationship between how complexly one reasons 27 before making a decision with moral consequences is related to the outcome of that decision in a curvi
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TL;DR: Servant leadership is a new field of research for leadership scholars as discussed by the authors, and it is argued that leaders who combine their motivation to lead with a need to serve display servant leadership.
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TL;DR: It is found that reductions in the quality of job performance were consistently associated with increases in Machiavellianism and psychopathy and that CWB was associated with rises in all 3 components of the DT.
Abstract: We reviewed studies of the Dark Triad (DT) personality traits--Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy-and meta-analytically examined their implications for job performance and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Relations among the DT traits and behaviors were extracted from original reports published between 1951 and 2011 of 245 independent samples (N = 43,907). We found that reductions in the quality of job performance were consistently associated with increases in Machiavellianism and psychopathy and that CWB was associated with increases in all 3 components of the DT, but that these associations were moderated by such contextual factors as authority and culture. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that the DT explains moderate amounts of the variance in counterproductivity, but not job performance. The results showed that the 3 traits are positively related to one another but are sufficiently distinctive to warrant theoretical and empirical partitioning.
886 citations
TL;DR: A mediation analysis confirms theoretical models of emotional labor which suggest that surface acting partially mediates the relationship of emotion-rule dissonance with well-being and indicates implications for future research as well as pragmatic ramifications for organizational practices.
Abstract: This article provides a quantitative review of the link of emotional labor (emotion-rule dissonance, surface acting, and deep acting) with well-being and performance outcomes. The meta-analysis is based on 494 individual correlations drawn from a final sample of 95 independent studies. Results revealed substantial relationships of emotion-rule dissonance and surface acting with indicators of impaired well-being (ρs between .39 and .48) and job attitudes (ρs between -.24 and -.40) and a small negative relationship with performance outcomes (ρs between -.20 and -.05). Overall, deep acting displayed weak relationships with indicators of impaired well-being and job attitudes but positive relationships with emotional performance and customer satisfaction (ρs .18 and .37). A meta-analytic regression analysis provides information on the unique contribution of emotion-rule dissonance, surface acting, and deep acting in statistically predicting well-being and performance outcomes. Furthermore, a mediation analysis confirms theoretical models of emotional labor which suggest that surface acting partially mediates the relationship of emotion-rule dissonance with well-being. Implications for future research as well as pragmatic ramifications for organizational practices are discussed in conclusion.
876 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of individuals' propensity to morally disengage on a broad range of unethical organizational behaviors was examined, and the power of the propensity to moral disengage to predict multiple types of unethical organisational behavior was demonstrated.
Abstract: We examine the influence of individuals’ propensity to morally disengage on a broad range of unethical organizational behaviors. First, we develop a parsimonious, adult-oriented, valid and reliable measure of an individual’s propensity to morally disengage, and demonstrate the relationship between it and a number of theoretically relevant constructs in its nomological network. Then, in four additional studies spanning laboratory and field settings, we demonstrate the power of the propensity to moral disengage to predict multiple types of unethical organizational behavior. In these studies we demonstrate that the propensity to morally disengage predicts several outcomes (self-reported unethical behavior, a decision to commit fraud, a self-serving decision in the workplace, and co-worker- and supervisor-reported unethical work behaviors) beyond other established individual difference antecedents of unethical organizational behavior, as well as the most closely related extant measure of the construct. We conclude that scholars and practitioners seeking to understand a broad range of undesirable workplace behaviors can benefit from taking an individual’s propensity to morally disengage into account. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.
683 citations
Cites background from "Bad Apples, Bad Cases, and Bad Barr..."
...Despite its prominence in theory and research for decades, a recent meta-analysis reported that CMD is only moderately predictive of unethical choices (Kish-Gephart et al., 2010)....
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...However, effect sizes for their role in predicting unethical workplace behavior are generally small, leaving much variance unexplained (Kish-Gephart et al., 2010)....
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...Three in particular have been consistently identified as important predictors of ethical and unethical behavior (Hoffman, 2000; Kish-Gephart et al., 2010): Machiavellianism (Christie & Geis, 1970), moral identity (Aquino & Reed, 2002), and empathy (Davis, 1983)....
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...In the Kish-Gephart et al. (2010) meta-analysis, the largest average effect size for any of the traditionally studied individual difference predictors of unethical behavior was for Machiavellianism at ρ = .27 (across 11 studies and 2,290 individuals)....
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...Machiavellianism has been shown to be positively related to many transgressive behavioral tendencies, including antisocial behavior, lying, and willingness to exploit others (Christie & Geis, 1970; Sakalaki, Richardson, & Thépaut, 2007), as well as to a broad range of unethical decisions in a recent meta-analysis (Kish-Gephart et al., 2010)....
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References
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TL;DR: Ajzen, 1985, 1987, this article reviewed the theory of planned behavior and some unresolved issues and concluded that the theory is well supported by empirical evidence and that intention to perform behaviors of different kinds can be predicted with high accuracy from attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; and these intentions, together with perceptions of behavioral control, account for considerable variance in actual behavior.
65,095 citations
"Bad Apples, Bad Cases, and Bad Barr..." refers background in this paper
...A common assumption based on Rest’s (1986) ethical decision-making model is that intention precedes behavior and, thus, can be substituted for behavior when the latter is unavailable for study (Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975)....
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"Bad Apples, Bad Cases, and Bad Barr..." refers background in this paper
...A common assumption based on Rest’s (1986) ethical decision-making model is that intention precedes behavior and, thus, can be substituted for behavior when the latter is unavailable for study (Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of reward or reinforcement on preceding behavior depend in part on whether the person perceives the reward as contingent on his own behavior or independent of it, and individuals may also differ in generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement.
Abstract: The effects of reward or reinforcement on preceding behavior depend in part on whether the person perceives the reward as contingent on his own behavior or independent of it. Acquisition and performance differ in situations perceived as determined by skill versus chance. Persons may also differ in generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. This report summarizes several experiments which define group differences in behavior when Ss perceive reinforcement as contingent on their behavior versus chance or experimenter control. The report also describes the development of tests of individual differences in a generalized belief in internal-external control and provides reliability, discriminant validity and normative data for 1 test, along with a description of the results of several studies of construct validity.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a model for estimating the effect size from a series of experiments using a fixed effect model and a general linear model, and combine these two models to estimate the effect magnitude.
Abstract: Preface. Introduction. Data Sets. Tests of Statistical Significance of Combined Results. Vote-Counting Methods. Estimation of a Single Effect Size: Parametric and Nonparametric Methods. Parametric Estimation of Effect Size from a Series of Experiments. Fitting Parametric Fixed Effect Models to Effect Sizes: Categorical Methods. Fitting Parametric Fixed Effect Models to Effect Sizes: General Linear Models. Random Effects Models for Effect Sizes. Multivariate Models for Effect Sizes. Combining Estimates of Correlation Coefficients. Diagnostic Procedures for Research Synthesis Models. Clustering Estimates of Effect Magnitude. Estimation of Effect Size When Not All Study Outcomes Are Observed. Meta-Analysis in the Physical and Biological Sciences. Appendix. References. Index.
9,769 citations
"Bad Apples, Bad Cases, and Bad Barr..." refers methods in this paper
...To gauge the likelihood that there is more than one population of effects under examination, we calculated Q statistics for the heterogeneity of observed effect sizes (Hedges & Olkin, 1985)....
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TL;DR: The concept of relative deprivation and relative gratification as discussed by the authors are two major concepts relating to the perception of justice and injustice in social exchanges, and both of them can be used to describe the conditions that lead men to feel that their relations with others are just.
Abstract: Publisher Summary The process of exchange is almost continual in human interactions, and appears to have characteristics peculiar to itself, and to generate affect, motivation, and behavior that cannot be predicted unless exchange processes are understood. This chapter describes two major concepts relating to the perception of justice and injustice; the concept of relative deprivation and the complementary concept of relative gratification. All dissatisfaction and low morale are related to a person's suffering injustice in social exchanges. However, a significant portion of cases can be usefully explained by invoking injustice as an explanatory concept. In the theory of inequity, both the antecedents and consequences of perceived injustice have been stated in terms that permit quite specific predictions to be made about the behavior of persons entering social exchanges. Relative deprivation and distributive justice, as theoretical concepts, specify some of the conditions that arouse perceptions of injustice and complementarily, the conditions that lead men to feel that their relations with others are just. The need for much additional research notwithstanding, the theoretical analyses that have been made of injustice in social exchanges should result not only in a better general understanding of the phenomenon, but should lead to a degree of social control not previously possible. The experience of injustice need not be an accepted fact of life.
9,692 citations
"Bad Apples, Bad Cases, and Bad Barr..." refers background in this paper
...For example, Adams’s (1965) equity theory suggests that dissatisfied individuals seek to balance perceived imbalances of their outcome/input ratios relative to the ratios of others....
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...Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange....
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