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The corporate atmosphere in recent times speaks volumes about the crises of confidence and credibility brewing among professionals due to the rising incidences of unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). The study developed a model to demonstrate the underlying mechanisms through which unethical organizational culture (UOC) influences UPB through the mediating roles of idealism and relativism.

Using a cross-sectional approach, data were collected through questionnaires that were distributed to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the Plateau state in Nigeria. A total of 269 responses were obtained and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique via Smart-PLS software.

The results revealed that the relationship between UOC and UPB was significant. The indirect predictive role of UOC on UPB was established via relativism but not through idealism. The results indicate that the preponderance of UPB among SMEs is a product of UOC which breeds a relativist ideology that ultimately promotes UPB. Finally, implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

This study contributes to UPB in two unique ways. First, the authors bring to the fore the critical role of UOC in the debate on UPB which has been under-explored. Second, the study also established the mediating role of relativism in the relationship between UOC and UPB.

This chapter considers how observers can effectively and safely engage with unethical organizational behaviors. Engagement methods need to be aligned with the situational contexts of specific cases. Micro-level individual, meso-level organizational, and macro-level environmental contextual obstacles to effective and safe engagement are considered. Five types of observer ethics engagement methods are considered in the context of specific cases and contextual obstacles. Engagement methods considered are as follows: (1) evocation and framing of dialogic engagement as consistent with the identity, vision, and values of the organization; (2) win–win incentive and ethics networking methods; (3) internal and external whistle-blowing methods; (4) if the observer is in a position of organizational power, top-down forcing methods; and (5) linking of observed unethical behaviors with strong external social movements.

Business ethics provide a potent source of competitive advantage, placing increasing pressure on organizations to create and maintain an ethical workforce. Nonetheless, ethical breaches continue to permeate corporate life, suggesting that there is something missing from how we conceptualize and institutionalize organizational ethics. The current effort seeks to fill this void in two ways. First, we introduce an extended ethical framework premised on sensemaking in organizations. Within this framework, we suggest that multiple individual, organizational, and societal factors may differentially influence the ethical sensemaking process. Second, we contend that human resource management plays a central role in sustaining workplace ethics and explore the strategies through which human resource personnel can work to foster an ethical culture and spearhead ethics initiatives. Future research directions applicable to scholars in both the ethics and human resources domains are provided.

This paper aims to examine the effect of managerial ability (MA) on real earnings management and the effect of real earnings management by higher ability managers on future profitability, at a different level of the crime rate.

The research sample includes 864 manufacturing firms-years listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange. MA uses an efficiency score by data envelopment analysis. Real earnings management is measured by abnormal activities. The crime rate is measured by logarithm natural of the number of crimes per 100.000 citizens in the region where the firm is headquartered. Data analysis uses fixed-effect regression.

MA increases real earnings management in the region where the firm is headquartered with a higher crime rate while MA will reduce real earnings management in the region where the firm is headquartered with a lower crime rate. Also, real earnings management by higher-ability managers gives a signal of better future profitability in the region where the firm is headquartered with a lower crime rate.

This research contributes to filling the previous gap of managerial characteristics ability-related on real earnings management by providing regional crime rate as a determinant factor of managers’ ethical behavior. This research is the first one to considers the regional crime rate treatment to the relationship between MA and real earnings management especially in Indonesia. This research also provides new evidence of efficient real earnings management for a lower crime rate group of samples to give a signal of better future profitability.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the criminogenic nature of isomorphism and groupthink in business organisations with a view to developing a conceptual model of the criminalisation process leading to criminal behaviour within businesses.

This paper draws on institutional theory and social psychology theory to discuss how isomorphic and groupthink processes may lead to criminal behaviour in the corporate world. The paper is based on a rigorous review of the relevant literature and theoretical frameworks regarding isomorphic dynamics, processes, factors, forces and mechanisms in the business context. The review was guided by a question of how isomorphic and groupthink processes can transform business organisations and its members into offenders. The approach applied was to transfer the existing theories of isomorphism and groupthink into the field of criminology, in order to devise a new model of the process of criminalisation.

The effects of isomorphic and groupthink processes can have a criminogenic effect on businesses and individuals in organisational settings which may coerce agents to engage in criminal behaviour. In crime-facilitative circumstances, isomorphism and groupthink foster criminal activity by cultivating homogeneous behaviour, conformity, resemblance, shared values and identical ways of thinking across and within firms. This herd behaviour can be regarded as one of the explanations for the pervasiveness of criminal and unethical behaviour in the corporate world, the consequences of which could be devastating.

This is a theoretical analysis, not one based on empirical findings, though it does suggest a model for future testing.

This study explains the criminogenic nature of isomorphic and groupthink processes and contributes to the debate on the casualisation of corporate crime. This has important implications for the deterrence of illegal and unethical activities at both the organisational and institutional levels.

This study provides a conceptual model of the criminalisation process in businesses fostered by criminogenic isomorphism and groupthink.

The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of ethical culture on audit quality under conditions of time budget pressure. The study also tests the relationship between ethical culture and time budget pressure.

The study is based on a field survey of financial auditors employed by audit firms operating in Sweden.

The study finds relationships between three ethical culture factors and reduced audit quality acts. The ethical environment and the use of penalties to enforce ethical norms are negatively related to reduced audit quality acts, whereas the demand for obedience to authorities is positively related to reduced audit quality acts. Underreporting of time is not related to ethical culture, but is positively related to time budget pressure. Finally, the study finds a relationship between two ethical culture factors and time budget pressure, indicating a possible causal relationship, but ethical culture does not mediate an indirect effect of time budget pressure on reduced audit quality acts.

This is the first study to report the effect of ethical culture on dysfunctional auditor behavior using actual self‐reported frequencies of reduced audit quality acts and underreporting of time as data.

This study aims to understand how abusive supervision influences employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). In particular, the mediating effect of moral disengagement and moderating role of traditionality on this relationship were examined.

This study conducted a two-wave questionnaire survey using data collected from 629 employees from different companies in China. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.

The results show that moral disengagement mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and employees’ UPB. Employee traditionality enhances the relationship between abusive supervision and moral disengagement as well as the indirect effect of abusive supervision on employees’ UPB via moral disengagement.

First, by exploring the positive impact of abusive supervision on UPB, the authors enhance the current understanding of the role of negative leadership in the development of UPB and enrich the research on the antecedents of UPB and outcomes of abusive supervision. Second, based on social cognitive theory, this study enriches the literature on abusive supervision and employee UPB by identifying moral disengagement as a mediator. Third, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors are among the first to incorporate traditionality to tell a Chinese story about how traditional employees respond to the effects of abusive supervision on UPB, providing a new lens for the cultural boundary condition in the occurrence mechanism of UPB.

This study aims to examine the determinants of ethical decision-making (EDM) of professional accountants in Sri Lanka, drawing on Rest’s (1986) four-component EDM model. The level of corporate collapses and fraud, coupled with the high level of corruption in Sri Lanka, has highlighted the importance and the timely nature of this research in the EDM processes of Sri Lankan accountants.

Data was collected from a sample of 315 accountants through a questionnaire survey that included four written ethical vignettes and was analysed using partial least square-structural equation modelling techniques.

The findings revealed a significant relationship between ethical awareness and ethical judgement, providing support for Rest’s model. However, the study does not support Rest’s model on the direct relationship between ethical judgement and ethical intention. Intrinsic religiosity and moral intensity significantly influenced the ethical awareness of accountants. Several determinants including accountants’ age, education, intrinsic religiosity, organisational ethical culture, familiarity with the professional ethical code and moral intensity influenced ethical judgement. However, the findings did not report any significant relationships between the study’s variables and ethical intention.

The study adds to the existing literature by providing a bigger picture of how various determinants work together in one EDM model and demonstrating that the EDM of accountants is multifaceted. The new finding on an insignificant relationship between ethical judgement and ethical intention implies that the Rest’s EDM process may be mediated and moderated by other constraints blocking accountants’ intention to act due to various pressures in a corrupt society, Sri Lanka, where accountants operate.

This study aims to outline the role of causal attributions in consumer responses to irresponsible corporate behaviour. Specifically, this paper presents a moderated mediation model that explains how four types of perceived motives behind an irresponsible action shape corporate blame and word-of-mouth recommendations.

To test the hypotheses, the study uses data from a large survey assessing consumer reactions to a real case of corporate socially irresponsible behaviour in the banking industry.

The findings show that market-, unethicality- and rogue employee-driven attributions increase corporate blame and subsequently make people more likely to spread negative comments regarding the culprit. The difficult situation of a bank, as a perceived reason for wrongdoing, does not reduce the blame attributed to the irresponsible organisation.

The literature offers little information on the attributions people make following egregious corporate behaviour; however, such cognitions can play an important role in stakeholders’ reactions to wrongdoing. This study therefore extends the understanding of how irresponsibility attributions affect consumers’ responses to misbehaviour. Given the empirical context, the findings might be particularly important for communication and bank managers.