Ann E. Tenbrunsel

Sanctioning systems, decision frames, and cooperation

Three studies are used to examine how surveillance and sanctioning systems affect cooperative behavior in dilemma situations. The first two studies demonstrate that a weak sanctioning system results in less cooperation than no sanctioning system; furthermore, results from the second study suggest that sanctions affect the type of decision people perceive they are making, prompting them to see it as a business rather than an ethical decision. The results from these studies are used to develop a theoretical model that postulates that the relationship between sanctions and cooperation is due to both a signaling effect, in which sanctions influence the type of decision that is perceived to be made, and a processing effect, in which the decision processing, including whether or not the strength of the sanction is considered, depends on the decision frame evoked. A third study provides support for the processing-effect hypothesis.

13 Ethical Decision Making: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

Abstract Research on ethical decision making, or behavioral ethics, in organizations has developed from a small niche area to a burgeoning stand‐alone field, one that has gained not only in number of articles written but in the legitimacy of the topic and the field. Our review motivated us to first try and summarize the field, not by comparing it to existing theoretical paradigms, but rather by observing what the data were telling us. We present our summary in the form of a model of ethical decision making and a typology that distinguishes intentionality of actions from ethicality of actions. After presenting this summary of the data, we critically review the research in this area, noting those areas which offer substantial insight and those that do not. In looking to the future and how the field can enhance the former and mitigate the latter, we identify several areas in which meaningful progress can be made, including defining what is “ethical”, revisiting unsubstantiated assumptions, focusing on the pr...

Building Houses on Rocks: The Role of the Ethical Infrastructure in Organizations

We present and discuss a theoretical model of an organizations ethical infrastructure, defined as the organizational elements that contribute to an organizations ethical effectiveness. We propose that the infrastructure is composed of both formal and informal elements—including communication, surveillance, and sanctioning systems—as well as organizational climates for ethics, respect, and justice. We discuss the nature of the relationship between these elements and ethical behavior, the relative strength of each of these elements, and their impact on each other. Theoretical and practical implications of this model are presented.

Understanding the Influence of Environmental Standards on Judgments and Choices

This article offers a cognitive account of the means versus ends focus of environmental regulation. The first of two studies suggests that standards (the means) exert an influence on judgments of p...

From self-prediction to self-defeat: behavioral forecasting, self-fulfilling prophecies, and the effect of competitive expectations.

Four studies explored behavioral forecasting and the effect of competitive expectations in the context of negotiations. Study 1 examined negotiators forecasts of how they would behave when faced with a very competitive versus a less competitive opponent and found that negotiators believed they would become more competitive. Studies 2 and 3 examined actual behaviors during a negotiation and found that negotiators who expected a very competitive opponent actually became less competitive, as evidenced by setting lower, less aggressive reservation prices, making less demanding counteroffers, and ultimately agreeing to lower negotiated outcomes. Finally, Study 4 provided a direct test of the disconnection between negotiators forecasts for their behavior and their actual behaviors within the same sample and found systematic errors in behavioral forecasting as well as evidence for the self-fulfilling effects of possessing a competitive expectation.

Flattery may get you somewhere: The strategic implications of providing positive vs. negative feedback about ability vs. ethicality in negotiation

Two studies were conducted to examine the strategic implications of providing positive vs. negative feedback about ability vs. ethicality to ones negotiating partner. Results indicate that negotiators were least competitive and achieved the worst individual performance when they received negative-ability feedback, were most honest when they received negative-ethicality feedback, and were most cooperative when they received positive-ethicality feedback. Causal modeling revealed that the effects of feedback on recipients cooperativeness and individual performance were mediated by recipients self-perceptions.

Understanding Ethical Behavior and Decision Making in Management: A Behavioural Business Ethics Approach

Management and businesses in general are constantly facing important ethical challenges. In the current special issue, we identify the widespread emergence of unethical decision-making and behaviour in management as an important topic for a future research agenda. Specifically, we promote the use of a behavioural business ethics approach to better understand when management, leaders and businesses are inclined to act unethically and why this is the case. A behavioural business ethics approach which relies on important insights from psychology should be a necessary addition and complementary to the traditional normative approaches used in business ethics.

Trust as an Obstacle in Environmental-Economic Disputes:

At the core of environmental-economic disputes is an inherent distrust of “the other side.” This article draws on past research to identify factors that contribute to and exacerbate these negative expectations. Contextual features of these negotiations—including uncertainty, power asymmetries, and standard and surveillance systems—are argued to produce construal discrepancies and thus to act as generators of distrust and expectations of unethical behavior. In turn, these negative expectations and actions decrease the likelihood that optimal agreements will be formed. Recommendations directed toward improving the resulting hostile atmosphere are provided.

Benefits and burdens: Does it really matterWhat we allocate?

There is growing, evidence that allocation decisions concerning burdens and benefits are not processed equivalently. This paper suggests three dimensions on which information processing for resource allocations differs: status quo effects (individuals react more strongly to losses in status quo than to gains), resource valence effects (individuals react more strongly to resource allocations involving burdens than those involving benefits), and blame effects (individuals react more strongly to resource allocation decisions in which they exercise choice). Results of an empirical study confirm significant differences in the information processing of burdens and benefits, and also confirm the importance of psychological distance in the reactions of individuals to burdens and benefits allocations.

Job-decision inconsistencies involving social comparison information: the role of dominating alternatives.

Previous research on joint versus separate preference reversals has demonstrated that individuals focus on social comparison information when they are evaluating a single option but focus on absolute salary when they are considering more than 1 option. Study 1 demonstrates that social comparison information is important in multiple option scenarios when an option favorable on social comparison dominates an inferior, 3rd alternative. Study 2 examines why dominating alternatives are so attractive by investigating the role that the value-shift, weight-change, and emergent-value models play in explaining the pattern of results obtained in Study 1. Results provide support for the value-shift and emergent-value models and further suggest that these 2 models may be interrelated, with justification (emergent-value model) mediating the relationship between the attractiveness of the attributes (value-shift model) and the attractiveness of the dominating alternative.