| Ethical Decision-Making in Times of Organizational Crisis: A Framework for Analysis |
| | Christensen, Sandra L. | Eastern Washington U. | sandra.christensen@mail.ewu.edu | (509)-358-2253 |
| | Kohls, John | Gonzaga U. | Kohls@jepson.gonzaga.edu | (509)-323-3422 |
| | The paper describes and applies a framework presented at an earlier conference that pinpoints threats to ethical decision-making in organizations facing discrete crises or in an ongoing crisis environment. The framework is elaborated through discussion of specific cases, and proposals are made to help organizations guard against any tendency toward unethical decision-making under conditions of crisis. Suggestions for research to confirm and refine the framework are proposed. |
| | Keywords: ethics; crisis; decision-making |
| The Effects of Escalating Commitment on Ethical Decision Making |
| | Street, Marc D. | U. of Tulsa | marc-street@utulsa.edu | 918-298-6230 |
| | THE EFFECTS OF ESCALATING COMMITMENT ON ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
ABSTRACT
Although scholars have invoked the escalation framework as a means of explaining the occurrence of numerous organizationally undesirable behaviors on the part of decision makers, to date no empirical research on the potential influences of escalating commitment on the likelihood of unethical behavior has been reported in either the escalation or the ethical decision making literatures. Thus, the main purpose of this dissertation was to address this issue by providing a theoretical foundation and empirical support for the contention that escalating commitment situations can induce unethical behavior in decision makers.
An experimental research design utilizing a computerized investment task was administered to 155 undergraduate business majors as a means of assessing the hypotheses presented here. Results from a hierarchial logistic regression analysis found moderately strong support for the contention that exposure to an escalation situation increases the likelihood of unethical behavior on the part of decision makers. Further, results also supported previous ethical decision making findings by confirming the effects of the individuals locus of control on ethical behavior. Specifically, the data show that individuals with an external locus of control orientation were significantly more likely to select the unethical option than were individuals with an internal locus of control orientation.
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| | Keywords: Ethics; Decision-making; Escalation |
| New Measures for Proposed Dimensions of the Moral Intensity of Ethical Issues |
| | Barnett, Tim | Louisiana Tech U. | barnett@cab.latech.edu | (318)-257-4012 |
| | Brown, Gene | Louisiana Tech U. | brown@cab.latech.edu | (318)257-4012 |
| | Bass, Kenneth E. | East Carolina U. | bassk@mail.ecu.edu | 252-328-6836 |
| | Hebert, Frederick J. | East Carolina U. | hebert@ecu.edu | (919)-328-6836 |
| | The adequate measurement of key constructs is essential to the study of ethical decision making. Research has highlighted
components of the moral intensity of ethical issues as important influences on individuals' ethical decision processes. To date,
however, empirical research concerning moral intensity has been hampered by the lack of reliable and valid measures.
This paper reports the results of our initial attempt to develop such measures for five proposed dimensions of moral intensity:
seriousness of consequences, social consensus, probability of effect, temporal immediacy, and proximity. We initially developed
75 items in a semantic differential format that we believed were indicative of these five constructs. Through a process of independent
judging of the content validity of the items, we reduced the initial set to 24 items. After submitting these 24 items to analyses based on
data collected from two independent samples, our final confirmatory factor analysis results yielded 3-item measures of seriousness of
consequences, social consensus, temporal immediacy, and proximity. The analyses provided evidence that the four measures were
unidimensional and internally consistent. Consistent with expectations, scores on the measures for seriousness of consequences,
social consensus, and temporal immediacy were associated with managers' ethical judgments and behavioral intentions, providing
evidence for the nomological validity of the measures.
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| | Keywords: ethical decision making; moral intensity; scale development |