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Self‐Evaluation Bias of Social Comparisons in Ethical Decision Making: The Impact of Accountability
Author(s) -
Novicevic Milorad M.,
Buckley M. Ronald,
Harvey Michael G.,
Fung Helen
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00339.x
Subject(s) - accountability , psychology , compliance (psychology) , ethical decision , social psychology , phenomenon , ethical issues , ethical leadership , engineering ethics , political science , epistemology , law , philosophy , engineering
The purpose of this paper is to examine how accountability and judgment biases that occur in social comparisons may be related to ethical decision making. Using Jones' (1991) model as the theoretical framework to investigate this phenomenon, we found that self‐enhancing individuals (i.e., those who thought they were more ethical in comparison to their peers) demonstrated higher responsiveness to increases in accountability than did self‐effacing individuals (i.e., those who thought they were less ethical in comparison to their peers). We discuss these findings and outline the implications for future ethics research. Further, we provide practical guidance to those who administer ethics compliance programs on effective ways of facilitating ethical behavior in organizations.