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Ethical Behaviour in Practice: Decision Outcomes and Strategic Implications
Author(s) -
Barraquier Anne
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00726.x
Subject(s) - salient , business ethics , ethical decision , profit (economics) , ethical issues , business , narrative , compliance (psychology) , arbitration , ethical leadership , process (computing) , competition (biology) , psychology , marketing , public relations , social psychology , engineering ethics , political science , economics , law , microeconomics , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , computer science , biology , engineering , operating system
In this paper I analyse the ethical behaviour of managers confronted with legal compliance and ethical demands of salient stakeholders. Drawing on narratives extracted from a qualitative study in the flavours and fragrances industry, I reveal how managers, in highly regulated and knowledge‐intensive industries, make decisions involving ethical content. The findings show that ethical behaviour is determined by a three‐stage intuitive process leading to arbitration between ethics and profit. This process generates four decision outcomes: fraud, crisis, competition and innovation. The strategic implications of these outcomes are discussed.