Behavioral Ethics

El rol del gerente implica tomar decisiones —desde las más estratégicas hasta las más rutinarias— en condiciones de incertidumbre. Esa incertidumbre atañe tanto a los posibles "estados de la naturaleza" como a las implicaciones éticas de tales decisiones. Cualquier decisión de un gerente tiene una dimensión ética, que puede advertirse en el modo de tomarla, la opción elegida o sus consecuencias. El "enfoque conductual" se refiere a la naturaleza psicológica (estudio de comportamientos) más que filosófica (discusión sobre principios) de este trabajo. Su propósito es contribuir a entender cuándo y por qué los gerentes se inclinan a actuar de modos que violan reglas éticas, y cuáles factores psicológicos u organizacionales pueden estar desviando su atención de las implicaciones éticas de sus decisiones. Este trabajo presenta los primeros resultados de una revisión bibliográfica, guiada por el objetivo de poner a disposición de estudiosos del ámbito hispanohablante ejemplos de hipótesis, hallazgos, teorías y métodos de investigación sobre ética conductual o psicología moral en las organizaciones, que se encuentran en la producción académica reportada, principalmente, en publicaciones estadounidenses. La esperanza es contribuir a que esta disciplina deje el estado incipiente en que se encuentra en esta parte del mundo.

Asimetrik enformasyon, rekabetçi denge modellerinin öngördüğü etkin piyasa sonuçlarına ulaşılmasını engelleyebilen hatta piyasaların çözülerek işlevini yitirmesine yol açabilen piyasa kusurlarındandır. Günlük piyasa pratiklerinde çeşitli bağlamlarda sıklıkla karşılaşılan bir olgu olarak asimetrik enformasyon, tüketim malları piyasalarında, ticarete konu ürünlerin özelliklerine ilişkin belirsizlikler üzerinden ortaya çıkabilmektedir. Ticaret öncesinde veya sonrasında tabi oldukları bu belirsizlik koşullarında dezavantajlı konumdaki nihai tüketiciler firmaların olumsuz piyasa davranışları sonucu kayıp ve zararlarla karşıya karşıyadır. Tüketici refahının azalmasına neden olan yüksek fiyatlama ve eksik muamele gibi aldatıcı piyasa davranışlarına yönelik geleneksel olarak rekabet ve tüketici politikaları öne çıkmakta ve literatürdeki çalışmalar da genellikle bu kapsamdaki kurumsal düzenlemelere odaklanmaktadır.
Bu çalışmanın hedefi şimdiye kadar yapılan politika tartışmalarına etik konusunu yeni bir boyut olarak ekleyerek piyasa katılımcılarının bu konudaki davranışsal özellikleri üzerinde durmaktır. Çalışmamızda olumsuz piyasa davranışlarının dürüstlükten uzaklaşma eğilimiyle ilişkisi ve davranışsal çalışmalardaki bulgulardan hareketle etik hatırlatıcıların olumsuz piyasa davranışlarını azaltıcı etkisinin incelenmesi amaçlanmaktadır.
Bu amaca yönelik olarak çalışmamızda katılımcıların seçkisiz olarak alıcı ve satıcı rollerine atandığı deneysel piyasalara başvurularak boyutlarından birini etik hatırlatıcıların diğerini ise piyasadaki enformasyon düzeyinin oluşturduğu gruplar arası faktöriyel desen kullanılmıştır.
Çalışmamızda piyasalarda şeffaflığın ve belirsizliğe yönelik iletişimin sağlanmasıyla etik hatırlatıcıların yüksek fiyatlama veya eksik muamele şeklindeki piyasa davranışını engellemede daha etkili olduğu sonucuna ulaştık. Ayrıca çalışmamızdaki temsil edilen deneyim malları ile ilgili yüksek fiyatlama veya eksik muamelenin uzun dönemli piyasa ilişkilerinin kurulduğu tekrarlı alışverişlerde sınırlı kaldığı kısa dönemli ilişkilerde ise belirginleştiği ve hatırlatıcıları hatırlama düzeyinin fiyatlama davranışı üzerinde etkisinin olmadığı diğer bulgularımız olarak sıralanabilir.
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Abstract
Asymmetric information is one of the market imperfections that can
hinder achieving efficient market outcomes predicted by the competitive
equilibrium model or might even lead to complete breakdown of markets. As a
prevalent phenomenon in various contexts in daily market practices,
asymmetric information can arise from uncertainties related to product features
in the markets for consumption goods. Under these ex ante or ex post uncertain
conditions of trade, final consumers, in their disadvantaged informational
positions, face losses and damages as a result of adverse firm behaviour.
Traditionally, competition and consumer policies stand out to tackle adverse
market behaviour such as overcharging or undertreatment that cause welfare
losses for consumers and the related literature mainly focuses on institutional
arrangements in this context.
The objective of this research is to incorporate market participants’
behavioural features into policy discussions by including ethics as a new
dimension. Drawing on the evidence from behavioural research and the relation
between adverse market behaviour and dishonesty, this research aims to
investigate the efficacy of ethical reminders to mitigate this welfare reducing
behaviour in the market.
In line with this objective, this research, as a method, uses experimental
market environment with subjects randomly assigned to buyer and seller roles
and adopts between-subjects factorial design in which one of the dimensions
include levels of ethical reminders whereas the other dimension determines the
level of information available in the market.
The results of our study show that ethical reminders work better to
mitigate overcharging or undertreatment when there is transparency and
communication related to the uncertainty in the market. Considering the
experience good characteristic of the experimental good in our research, we
observe that overcharging or undertreatment is less severe in the repeated
interactions that represent the long term market relations and on the other
hand it is much higher when there is limited amount of interaction. Finally, our
analyses show that the recall levels of reminders have no significant effect on
pricing behaviour.

We explore the relationship between norm-uncertainty and lying. Lies are ubiquitous, and people often lie for their own benet or for the benet of others. Research in environments in which social norms are clearly dened and communicated finds that social norms influence personal decisions, even when they are not in our own self-interest. We deviate from this approach and study lying under norm uncertainty with scope for opportunistic interpretation of the norm. We introduce variation along three dimensions: salience of different types of norm-uncertainty (normative/empirical), the beneficiary of the lie (self/other), and ex-ante knowledge about the opportunity to tell a lie in order to tease out potential belief-distortion mechanisms. We find compelling evidence that individuals engage in self-serving belief distortion to increase lying overall. However, we observe this only when uncertainty about what others do (empirical uncertainty), but not when uncertainty about what others approve of (normative uncertainty) is made salient. We also observe conditional liars, but only when the lie is self-serving rather than to the benet of a third party. We discuss policy implications to improve the effectiveness of norm-based interventions.

Experimental evidence on pre-play communication supports a “focusing function of communication” hypothesis. Relevant communication facilitates cooperative, pro-social behavior because it causes a shift in individuals’ focus towards strategies dictated by some salient social norm. After reviewing the formal foundations for a general theory of conformity to social norms, we provide an original application illustrating how a framework that allows for different conjectures about norms is able to capture the focusing function of communication and to explain experimental results.

El rol del gerente implica tomar decisiones —desde las más estratégicas hasta las más rutinarias— en condiciones de incertidumbre. Esa incertidumbre atañe tanto a los posibles "estados de la naturaleza" como a las implicaciones éticas de tales decisiones. Cualquier decisión de un gerente tiene una dimensión ética, que puede advertirse en el modo de tomarla, la opción elegida o sus consecuencias. El "enfoque conductual" se refiere a la naturaleza psicológica (estudio de comportamientos) más que filosófica (discusión sobre principios) de este trabajo. Su propósito es contribuir a entender cuándo y por qué los gerentes se inclinan a actuar de modos que violan reglas éticas, y cuáles factores psicológicos u organizacionales pueden estar desviando su atención de las implicaciones éticas de sus decisiones. Este trabajo presenta los primeros resultados de una revisión bibliográfica, guiada por el objetivo de poner a disposición de estudiosos del ámbito hispanohablante ejemplos de hipótesis, hallazgos, teorías y métodos de investigación sobre ética conductual o psicología moral en las organizaciones, que se encuentran en la producción académica reportada, principalmente, en publicaciones estadounidenses. La esperanza es contribuir a que esta disciplina deje el estado incipiente en que se encuentra en esta parte del mundo.

Behavioral ethics has expanded dramatically in the last half century, but as a purely descriptive field it suffers from the lack of an actual definition of ethics.  Little interaction exists between it and the normative fields of theology and philosophy. Such interaction could help generate research ideas that might lead to improvements in ethical adherence.  This study attempts to make such a contribution by using the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) to examine if members of faith communities exhibit an emotion driven implicit response to stimuli associated with substances that are proscribed by their communities, specifically alcohol and tobacco.  Leveraging existing research in sociology and behavioral ethics, it uses Scott Reynolds’s neurocognitive model of ethical decision making to posit an extension to Paul Rozin’s moralization theory by which normative communities instill ethical behavior prototypes in the automatic processing centers of the minds of their members and associates these prototypes with moral emotion thus creating durable and consistent responses to ethically loaded stimuli.  No significant correlation was found and theories are offered to propose methodological corrections which might yield the expected results as well as to suggest how the hypothesis may still be true even if it cannot be demonstrated using the AMP.

The focus of this book is on how governments may effectively use recent advances in the understanding of human behavior to guide their efforts to modify people’s behavior. To date, the insights of behavioral ethics that have completely revolutionized the business and management fields have yet to be applied in legal as well as governance research, especially in the context of legal enforcement. The growing recognition that misconduct can be facilitated by structural issues and is not just the product of a few “bad apples” has important implications for the design and fine-tuning of enforcement mechanisms.  States need to modify their regulatory roles and functions based on the understanding that discrimination does not just stem from certain employers who hate minorities, that corruption is not just about greedy individuals, or that trade secrets are not just divulged for mercenary motives.
This book argues that the good-people rationale—the idea that ordinary people could engage in all types of wrongdoing without being aware of the full meaning of their behavior—greatly complicates the regulatory challenge of states. Because of various psychological and social mechanisms that prevent people from recognizing their wrongdoing and encourage them to feel as if they are far more moral, unbiased, and law abiding than they actually are, individuals today are less likely to react to legal signals, which they view as directed to other, “bad” people. Similar self-serving mechanisms affecting their perception of social norms and fairness cause people to have very inaccurate views of the normative status of their behavior. Moreover, a great deal of uncertainty surrounds the good-people rationale. We do not yet know how “good” the good people are in terms of their awareness and ability to control their conduct. Nor can we quantify the ratio of good to bad people in society. Although we appreciate the need to address the misconduct of good and bad people differently, we do not know the costs of using the “wrong” intervention techniques to deal with various types of bad behavior. Bringing about the needed shifts in regulatory design first requires a shift in the behavioral analysis of law.

How should ethics educators respond to the picture of moral functioning that has emerged from the cognitive sciences of morality? A critical case study of an instance of knowledge transfer from social and cognitive psychology to the practice of teaching ethics, this paper assesses the answer that behavioral ethics gives to this question. The paper first summarizes the opposition that the notion of " teaching reasoning skills " meets in behavioral ethics and provides some examples of the research findings on which this opposition is based. It is then argued that, contrary to the prevailing view in behavioral ethics, maintaining a central place in ethics for teaching about explicit reasoning strategies is consistent with the dominant view in social and cognitive psychology that everyday ethical perception and judgment are significantly influenced by a wide range of non-conscious, affectively-laden and non-rational processes.

This article is about the relationship between business and ethics in academic research. The purpose of this investigation is to examine the status of the separation and the integration theses. In the course of this article, I defend the claim that neither separation nor integration is entirely accurate; indeed they are both potentially confusing to our audience. A strategy of reconciliation of normative and descriptive approaches is proposed. The reconciliation project does not entail synthesizing or dividing prescriptive and empirical approaches, but rather respecting the identity of both inquiries, while recognizing the limitations they place on each other. The research agenda of the reconciliation project is discussed.

Abstract This study explored a way of assessing the impact of business education on students' ethical orientations, by comparing MBA students' entry-exit responses to two different instruments. Results showed significant reductions in the propensity for unethical decision scores, but not in the propensity for moral disengagement score. This study had also a practical purpose: to illustrate a way business schools could evaluate their efforts at ethical education and present their achievements in compliance with accreditation requirements (particularly, assurance of learning procedures). By highlighting the study's limitations (particularly, measurement and research design), the authors propose a research program for business schools.

Hypocrisy is the act of claiming moral standards to which one’s own behavior does not conform. Instances of hypocrisy, such as the supposedly green furnishing group IKEA’s selling of furniture made from illegally felled wood, are frequently reported in the media. In a controlled and incentivized experiment, we investigate how observers rate different types of hypocritical behavior and if this judgment also translates into punishment. Results show that observers do, indeed, condemn hypocritical behavior strongly. The aversion to deceptive behavior is, in fact, so strong that even purely self-deceptive behavior is regarded as blameworthy. Observers who score high in the moral identity test have particularly strong reactions to acts of hypocrisy. The moral condemnation of hypocritical behavior, however, fails to produce a proportional amount of punishment. Punishment seems to be driven more by the violation of the norm of fair distribution than by moral pretense. From the viewpoint of ...

In an increasingly globalized world, business ethics continues to gain importance as a field of study. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the essential concepts of business ethics related to the economy as a whole, as well as more closely understood corporate ethics related to the individual company. In contrast to more casuistic works on the topic, special emphasis is placed on a coherent theoretical foundation that puts economic analysis tools at the centre of the consideration. Both classical and experimental economic approaches and results are called upon. The importance of often-neglected dilemma structures and the resulting implications for an ethics of the modern age are given wide scope, while special attention is also paid to the value of empirical research for business ethics. A substantial portion of the book is devoted to corporate ethics and explores issues that encompass corporate responsibility in the context of compliance, corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and creating shared value. This is intended to provide students and academics with an aid in the theoretical classification of the variety of concepts that often coexist incoherently in contemporary debate. As the topic has evolved, it has extended far beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries. This book is intended for students in the social sciences, particularly economics, business, and psychology, as well as the computer sciences, engineering, and the natural sciences.

Hoy los venezolanos viven aterrados por la acción de bandas criminales, en casi cualquier ámbito de la sociedad, y presencian el cuadro dantesco que ofrecen las cárceles del país. ¿Qué lleva a tantas personas a cometer actos propios de seres malvados? ¿Cómo se explica que una persona buena haga maldades?

A study was conducted concerning Chinese engineering students’ knowledge of and opinions about contents and concepts related to engineering ethics. The study was motivated by concerns regarding 1. the ethical standards of Chinese industries/engineers and their increasingly global presence 2. the nature of engineering ethics research/education in China and feasibility of introducing Western curricula for engineering ethics, and 3. general effectiveness of education in ethical training, based on findings in behavioral ethics and moral psychology. To address these concerns, a survey was adapted from a study previously conducted by Robert McGinn, at Stanford University, and then administered to different types of Chinese engineering students, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, so as to compare the response data of students from these universities. As with McGinn’s study, it was discovered that substantial confusion exists regarding the nature of ethical issues and conflicts. Based on findings from this data and experience educating Chinese and non-Chinese engineering students on engineering ethics in international and cross-cultural contexts, these responses are explained and tentative recommendations are made regarding how to improve such education in these contexts.

Diversas perspectivas y experiencias pedagógicas permiten apreciar
la pertinencia de aplicar el conocimiento de la ética conductual a la enseñanza de la ética en la gerencia; sobre todo, en vista de la insuficiencia
reconocida del enfoque puramente prescriptivo o normativo.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, and under what conditions, an individual’s
punitive intent in response to ethical misconduct is shaped by their perceived forgiveness climate, which is
their perception of how forgiving their organization is.

Design/methodology/approach – This study used the survey method embedded within a vignette-based
experiment involving working adults.

Findings – Results show that higher perceived forgiveness climate is associated with lower punitive intent when an experience of being forgiven is salient to the disciplinary decision maker and when there are
mitigating circumstances surrounding the ethical misconduct. When an experience of being unforgiven is
salient to the disciplinary decision maker, higher perceived forgiveness climate is associated with higher
punitive intent.

Research limitations/implications – This study presents a more nuanced perspective on the conditions
that shape punishment decision making in response to workplace ethical misconduct. As the findings may be
specific to the measures and vignette used, future research should explore the replicability of these results
using other measures and types of ethical misconduct.

Practical implications – The paper alerts disciplinary decision makers to the potential influence of their
perceptions of the organizational context and of their personal experiences on their punishment decision
making, helping avoid inappropriately punishing subordinates, which can generate employee resentment and inflated turnover.

Originality/value – This is the first study that examined the relationship between forgiveness and
punishment in response to ethical misconduct in a workplace setting.

La ética comportamental es un nuevo campo de investigación científico-social. Nueva entrega de la alianza de EL NUEVO SIGLO y la Procuraduría General de la Nación

Behavioral ethics is a new field of scientific-social research. New delivery of the alliance of THE NEW CENTURY and the Office of the Attorney General

Der Verhaltensökonomik wird das Potenzial zugeschrieben, Erkenntnisse über moralisches Verhalten und Gerechtigkeitsvorstellungen durch Berücksichtigung von psychologischen und verhaltenswissenschaftlichen Faktoren in wirtschaftlichen, aber auch gesellschaftlichen Kontexten zu generieren. Dieses Potenzial der Verhaltensökonomik für den gesellschaftlichen Kontext wird im vorliegenden Text kritisch hinterfragt. Es wird argumentiert, dass die Verhaltensökonomik nur wenig zur Ausgestaltung sozialpolitischer Arrangements und somit zur Weiterentwicklung einer Sozialstaatsethik beitragen kann, da sie aufgrund ihrer Fokussierung auf individuelles Verhalten die strukturellen Probleme hinsichtlich der Gestaltung gesellschaftlicher Institutionen nicht in den Blick nimmt.