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  • Journal of Applied Psychology

Automatic Ethics: Implicit Assumptions and Ethical Managerial Conduct

By: Scott J. Reynolds, Keith Leavitt and K. A. DeCelles
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Abstract

We empirically examine the reflexive or automatic aspects of moral decision making. To begin, we develop and validate a measure of an individual’s implicit assumption regarding the inherent morality of business. Then, using an in-basket exercise, we demonstrate that an implicit assumption that business is inherently moral impacts day-to-day business decisions and interacts with contextual cues to shape moral behavior. Ultimately, we offer evidence supporting a characterization of employees as reflexive interactionists: moral agents whose automatic decision-making processes interact with the environment to shape their moral behavior.

Keywords

Moral Sensibility; Decision Choices and Conditions

Citation

Reynolds, Scott J., Keith Leavitt, and K. A. DeCelles. "Automatic Ethics: Implicit Assumptions and Ethical Managerial Conduct." Journal of Applied Psychology 95, no. 4 (July 2010): 752–760.
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More from the Authors
  • Through the Mud or in the Boardroom: Examining Activist Types and Their Strategies in Targeting Firms for Social Change By: Charles Eesley, K. A. DeCelles and Michael Lenox
  • Whitened Résumés: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market By: Sonia K. Kang, K. A. DeCelles, András Tilcsik and Sora Jun
  • Physical and Situational Inequality on Airplanes Predict Air Rage By: K. A. DeCelles and Michael I. Norton
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