For too long, organizational scientists have not adequately attended to the problems of unethical behavior in organizations. This collection of essays provides the stimulus needed to help move the study of unethical behavior to center stage in the organizational sciences. It does so by posing provocative questions that not only entail a concern for understanding unethical behavior but that also strike at the very core of how and why organizations function as they do. The book addresses:
* the asymmetries in power and influence created by hierarchies that give rise to ethical problems;
* the tactics that might reduce the effectiveness of improper influence attempts; and
* how the inappropriate use of influence diffuses, for example, through a market.
This collection of essays provides the stimulus needed to help move the study of ethics in organizations to center stage and stimulate social scientists to seek ways of enhancing the human condition.
"...the purpose of this book is theory development....There are...a number of tantalizing ideas available for the academic, which provide interesting linkages among literatures on social influence, ethics, and other areas, such as marketing and even Marxism....The reader...gains an appreciation of how extensive the concept of social influence is and how many perspectives can underlie an understanding of organizational ethics."
—Issues in Writing
"This is an excellent book for faculty and doctoral students who are interested in a behavioral science approach to ethical conduct and the social and organizational forces that shape and affect that conduct. The chapters are written by the leading theoreticians and scholars in the field, and the overall quality of the contributions is very strong. The book can serve as an excellent review of much research that has already been done but is even more valuable for stimulating new conceptual and empirical work in this field."
—Administrative Science Quarterly
"...offers a fascinating array of articles that highlight a new direction in the study of ethics in organizations. At a time when corrupted audits may have played a major role in the fall of Enron and airline political influence may have opened up the skies for the September 11 terrorist strike, we clearly need new ethical guidance....we recommend this edited volume for psychologists, sociologists, ethicists, and other scholars interested in decision making, ethics, cooperation, competition, groups, and leadership. The book is provocative on both professional and personal levels, offering keen insights into the scholarly lines of inquiry pursued and also triggering self-examination of our own daily strivings to be ethical human beings."
—Contemporary Psychology
