Search results

“Jessica’s dilemma: honesty or loyalty” is the true story of a Staff Accountant, Jessica, who discovered embezzlement by the controller, Michael. Jessica worked at a US subsidiary of a multinational organization. One of the company’s vendors contacted Jessica regarding unpaid invoices. Following up on the inquiry, Jessica found suspicious manual journal entries in the general ledger. When she questioned her boss, Michael, about her findings, he first denied the situation, then blamed another employee, and ultimately tried to intimidate Jessica so that she would not press the issue. Jessica’s investigation led to the discovery that Michael had been embezzling money from the company. To complicate matters, Jessica and her husband had a close relationship with Michael and his wife outside the office. Jessica had to make a choice between being loyal to a family friend and being honest and loyal toward her employer.

The authors obtained the information for this case from the staff accountant and her husband via a series of interviews. The information was verified via publicly available news articles on the presented case. Additionally, legal documents, which were publicly available, were also used for information. The name of the company and the names of the individuals in the case were changed to protect the identities and privacy of the involved parties.

An instructor can use this case in business ethics, introductory management, human resource law or accounting courses targeting undergraduate or introductory MBA students. This case is best used in the beginning of the suggested courses, as the instructor introduces ethical dilemmas, ethical frameworks, and stakeholder theory. The case is designed so that students do not need a background in business or business ethics to be able to successfully complete the case analysis. Additionally, the case provides a platform to discuss the differences in an ethical vs an unethical manager and how to respond to such a situation.

Many employees are afraid to report ethical wrongdoing to upper management, or to engage in ethical dissent. When upper management is receptive to reports of wrongdoing, ethical dissent within the organization to upper-level management has more organizational benefits than when the issue is shared with coworkers or external agencies. This is because upper management has the power to make a difference in the situation and may be able to keep the situation within the organization to eliminate possible reputation problems for the organization. The presented case can be utilized to discuss the importance of feeling safe in an organization as it pertains to reporting wrongdoing within the organization and how organizational culture and leadership can enhance or diminish that feeling.

This viewpoint aims to highlight the necessarily technical nature of ethics in software development, propose a label (ethical bypassing) for ethical analysis that does not lead to ethical action and introduce a philosophical foundation for technical analysis that leads to ethical software development.

The methodological approach is one of technical analysis that is aware of social science and philosophical knowledge bases.

The findings establish a clear technical foundation that is crucial to ethical analysis that will actually inform software development.

The idea that beginning with technical expertise is the best way to begin ethical reflection on a technical implementation has been often suggested, but not really empircally tested. Research using cases or other qualitative approaches would need to be done to add credibility to the claim.

This approach suggests that collaboration between technically informed ethicists and ethically informed technical experts should begin with the exploration of the technical questions rather than with ethical speculation.

A common approach to ethical education is to concentrate on ethical theory and its application in technical contexts. This approach suggests that this may lead to ethical bypassing by the student, the avoidance of the making technical decisions by extensive ethical reflection.

This paper introduces a new term, ethical bypassing, to the literature on the ethics of software development.

This case offers the students to see the impact business ethics concepts, including corporate social responsibility, ethical obligation, ethical strategy, alienation, corporate activism, sociopolitical activism, symbolism, transparency, integrity, decoupled organization, opportunism, moral muteness or moral exclusion, etc. Through the student’s own ethical sensitivity, they can then make an informed decision grounded in fundamental ethical theories such as Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Ethics of Care, Virtue Theory, Confucianism, etc.

Data for this case has been gathered entirely from publicly available secondary sources, including online resources, mainstream media reports, biased (opinion-based) media outlets, social media statements from all stakeholder groups (students, business, university) and meeting minutes from campus organizations. None of the named individuals nor entities, in this case, have ever been contacted by the authors.

In Fall 2020, Boise State University contracted a locally owned and operated coffee shop to open a location on-campus. The shop owner was engaged to a police officer who had been permanently injured in an altercation with a dangerous fugitive. For his sacrifice, this police officer was awarded the Medal of Honor from the City of Boise. To support her fiancé, the coffee shop owner displayed a Thin Blue Line flag on the front door of her off-campus location. Students heard of this display and began to voice their objections through administrative and social media channels. The business countered back at claims that they supported racism and ultimately asked to be released from their contract with the university. They closed their on-campus business, having operated the location for less than two months. Media representation of this case created a vocal response both from those who support the business’ use of this imagery and those who support the student’s decision to boycott this business on ethical grounds.

Business ethics: 300–400 level; Business strategy: 300–400 level.

This study aims to examine the extent to which organizational dissent predicts perception of workplace bullying. As previous studies have reported inconsistent and sometimes contradictory results regarding the interaction between the reporting of bullying and demographic variables, these variables are examined in the New Zealand context. Organizational communication research provides considerable insight into the ways individuals make sense of and resist workplace bullying through juxtaposition with the concepts of dissent and intragroup conflict.

A nationally representative sample of managers in New Zealand (n = 239) was conducted. Surveys included demographic questions and the following measures: Organizational Dissent Scale and Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised Scale.

Key results and indications for further research are highlighted by the third model in this study. First, workers who reported they engaged in either articulated dissent or latent dissent were more likely to perceive workplace bullying. Second, workers who are more likely to express contrary opinions in the workplace are more likely to recognize, acknowledge and tolerate less positive interactions in the workplace such as bullying.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze dissent and bullying in the New Zealand context. Second, this research raises the question of whether there is a conflation of work-related bullying behaviors and bad leadership styles that may not be targeted (e.g. authoritative leadership and micromanaging). Finally, communication research provides a distinctive contribution by exploring the narrative form of worker responses to perceived bullying. In this manuscript, the authors examine potential predictors on the perception of workplace bullying in the context of New Zealand, particularly focus on the relationship between dissent and the perception of workplace bullying.

We examine the emotional lives of the loyal opposition: those who remain steadfast in their duty-oriented, deontological ethical commitment to their workplace organization, but are in conflict with the dominant, utilitarian ethical view emphasizing practicality and revenue. When one is an “outsider” or even an “outcast” due to their deontological ethics, this conflict between personal and organizational ethics can result in a wide variety of emotions ranging from fear and sadness to alienation, and even rarely, to joy. Using qualitative methods, we analyze interview and observational data sets from two distinct populations within different workplace organizations: non-profit human service workers and faculty members who teach ethics in business schools. In both data sets, negative and positive emotions were experienced by participants immersed in a workplace environment characterized by ethical conflict. Though tension between the deontological and utilitarian ethical positions generated powerful emotions among the employee populations, it was not necessarily detrimental to the organization and in fact seemed to have a constructive, steadying influence. Ethical conflict can be constructive, function to make an organization stronger, and contribute positively to organizational success. The likelihood of positive outcomes increases if the emotional work entailed is sufficiently recognized and addressed.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aims to explore how working remotely might impact the superior–subordinate relationship. Specifically, this study examines how immediacy explains articulated dissent, considers how an individual’s attitudes toward online communication predicts immediacy and articulated dissent and compares these relationships in England, Australia and the USA.

Three nations were examined: Australia, England and the USA (n = 1,776). Surveys included demographic questions and the following measures: organizational dissent scale, perceived immediacy measure, computer-mediated immediate behaviors measure and measure of online communication attitude.

The results reveal supervisors’ computer-mediated immediate behaviors and perceived immediacy both positively predict dissent. Some aspects of online communication attitudes positively predict computer-mediated immediate behaviors and perceived immediacy. In addition, attitudes toward online communication positively predict dissent. National culture influences some of these relationships; in each case the effects were substantively larger for the USA when compared to the other nations.

This study is the first to cross-culturally analyze dissent and immediacy. In addition, this study considers the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic influences the superior–subordinate relationship.

Employees are increasingly speaking out against their employer on relevant social issues, which raises the human factor to a next level in organisational affairs. The aim of this chapter is to shed light on the concept of employee activism and locate it in the academic and professional discussion about employees' active role as organisational communicators. After scrutinising some of the most popular cases from recent years, the relevant literature in the fields of social activism and employee communication as well as strategic organisational communication and public relations is critically reviewed with the idea to (1) provide a terminological clarification regarding employee activism, (2) outline the unique characteristics of its current forms, (3) discuss several factors that may trigger externally directed employee activism and (4) elaborate on the communicative nature of this phenomenon as well as its implications for organisational development and reputation. As a result, five propositions are suggested to explain what constitutes employee activism as a specific form of employee communication behaviour. The chapter also calls particular attention to related risks and opportunities for organisations and opens up questions for further research.

This paper aims to understand an employee’s intention toward whistleblowing by analyzing Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) and Graham’s principled organizational dissent (POD). It also seeks to find the moderating effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on whistleblowing intention (BI).

A total of 220 usable responses, collected from government employees of India, were analyzed using structural equation modeling. For developing a questionnaire, items were adopted from the literature and were measured on a five-point Likert-type rating scale.

Results revealed that attitude, perceived behavioral control (PBC), subjective norm (SN) and perceived responsibility of reporting (PRR) positively influence BI whereas the perceived cost of reporting (PCR) negatively influenced BI. It was further found that POS negated the effect of attitude, PBC, PCR and PRR on BI and strengthens the effect of SN.

The present study adds to the list of academic literature on topics such as corporate governance and whistleblowing and provides new avenues to academicians and researchers for research. It provides a comprehensive understanding of whistleblowing concept, factors that influence BI and reasons to promote whistleblowing culture in organizations.

The findings may help government institutions to understand the factors that hinder whistleblowing practices and to devise strategies to foster a culture of whistleblowing. It may also offer insights to managers to mold human resource practices so that it includes policies of moral behavior.

This study is one of the initial studies in the Indian context to explore the moderating role of perceived organization support on employee’s intention to blow the whistle.

The literature is divided upon whether a gender difference occurs with respect to ethical decisions. Notable researchers Tannen and Gilligan demonstrated gender difference while subsequent researchers indicate that gender differences are becoming more neutralized. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper analyzes the gender demographic and intercultural influences on ethical decision-making by undergraduate students from New Zealand and the USA through four scenarios.

Overall for the USA and New Zealand, this research demonstrates this split as well, since two scenarios showed significance while two did not. The two that demonstrated a significance dealt with personnel issues and a past client relationship. These two scenarios suggested that a relationship orientation and relativistic nature among women may influence their decision making. The two scenarios without significance were less relationship oriented, involving dealing with a customer (a stranger) and a subordinate (implying a professional supervisory responsibility). In addition, the neutrality exhibited in the latter two scenarios may reflect Tannen's illustration that there is a cross-gender influence on decision making. With respect to the geographic location, the USA, when compared with New Zealand, and the gender demographics, only the USA reported significant differences for two scenarios.

Undergraduate students in the USA provided situations and discussions that resulted in the development of a number of scenarios. Additional research and evaluation of current events, led to a total of ten scenarios with four scenarios yielding business related situations.

The purpose of this paper is to present a four component model of ethical behavior that integrates literature in moral psychology, computing ethics, and virtue ethics as informed by research on moral exemplars in computing. This is part 2 of a two part contribution, part 1 having appeared in Vol. 6 No. 3.

This psychologically based and philosophically informed model argues that moral action is grounded in relatively stable personality characteristics, guided by integration of morality into the self‐system, shaped by the context of the surrounding moral ecology, and facilitated by morally relevant skills and knowledge.

The model seeks to explain the daily successful (and unsuccessful) performance of moral action by computing professionals and to provide groundwork for a pedagogy that emphasizes ethically effective performance.

The model has significant implications for how ethical action to computer professionals and other design professionals might be taught. It also makes recommendations about what need to be measured to construct a complete picture of sustained ethical action in a profession.

Most accepted models of ethical behavior are unidimensional, emphasizing either principled reasoning or a simplistic model of integrity/character. This model brings together a variety of disparate literatures in the light of its emphasis on sustained moral action in the profession. It thereby provides researchers and educators with a picture of what is needed to construct a complete understanding of moral action in the profession.