Ethical and Unethical Workplace Behavior

Ethics and the Nature of Management Jobs
Unethical Managerial Behavior

• Authority and Power
• Handling Information
• Influencing the Behavior of Others
• Setting Goals.

Managers can encourage ethical behaviors by…

• using resources for company business only
• handling information confidentially
• not influencing others to engage in
• unethical behavior
• not creating policies that reward employees
• for unethical behavior
• setting reasonable goals

Workplace Deviance
Unethical behavior that violates organizational norms about right and wrong

Two dimensions

1. Degree of deviance
2. Target of deviant behavior.

Production Deviance

• Leaving early
• Taking excessive breaks
• Intentionally working slow
• Wasting resources

Property Deviance

• Sabotaging equipment
• Accepting kickbacks
• Lying about hours worked
• Stealing from company

Political Deviance

• Showing favoritism
• Gossiping about coworkers
• Blaming coworkers
• Competing nonbeneficially

Personal Aggression

• Sexual harassment
• Verbal abuse
• Stealing from coworkers
• Endangering coworkers

Ethical Intensity Depends on…

1. Magnitude of consequences
2. Social consensus
3. Probability of effect
4. Proximity of effect
5. Concentration of effect

Principles of Ethical Decision Making

• Long-term self-interest
• Personal virtue
• Religious injunctions
• Government requirements
• Utilitarian benefits
• Individual rights
• Distributive justice.

Practical Steps to Ethical Decision Making

• Select and hire ethical employees
• Establish a Code of Ethics
• Train employees to make ethical decisions
• Create an ethical climate.

Doing the Right Thing
If You Cheat in College,
Will You Cheat in the Workplace?

• College students who cheat are likely to cheat again.
• 70 percent of students don’t see cheating as a problem.
• People who cheat and cheat again see their behavior as normal.
• 60 percent of people who cheat their employers don’t feel guilty for doing so.

Ethics Question

• What are your personal ethics?
• What are your organization’s ethics?
• What are the ethics of your industry?
• What are society’s ethics?
• What are global ethics?

Practical Steps to Ethical Decision Making

• Communicate code of ethics to both insideand outside the company
• Develop ethical standards and procedure specific to business.

Ethics Training

• Develops employee awareness of ethics
• Achieves credibility with employees
• Teaches a practical model of ethical decision making.

A Basic Model of Ethical Decision Making
1. Identify the problem
2. Identify the constituents
3. Diagnose the situation
4. Analyze your options
5. Make your choice
6. Act.