Psychological Perspectives on Ethical Behavior and Decision Making (PB)

The book is divided into three relatively coherent sections that focus on understanding theemergence of (un)ethical decisions and behaviors in our work and social lives by adopting apsychological framework. The first section focuses on reviewing our knowledge withrespect to the specific notions of ethical behavior and corruption. These chapters aim toprovide definitions, boundary conditions and suggestions for future research on thesenotions.The second section focuses on the intra-individual processes (affect, cognition and motivation)that determine why and how people display unethical behavior and are able to justifythis kind of behavior to a certain extent. In these chapters the common theme is that givenspecific circumstances psychological processes are activated that bias perceptions of ethical behavior and decision making.The third section explores how organizational features frame the organizational setting and climate. These chapters focuson how employment of sanctions, procedurally fair leadership and a general code of conduct shapes perceptions of theorganizational climate in ways that it becomes clear to organizational members how just, moral and retributive the organizationwill be in case of unethical behavior.