Publications

19 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Rupert Murdoch and the Seeds of Moral Hazard

The News Corporation/News of the World scandal has been described as a case study in bad management. What was there about the company's organizational culture that led to "Murdoch's Mess"? Professor Michel Anteby, who studies... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Journalism & News; Publishing

19 Nov 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching The Moral Leader

this subject? A: Companies have a lot to gain. We all know that leaders need to make decisions that have moral and ethical stakes. The current debate about sustainability is a... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Education

18 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

Where Morals and Profits Meet: The Corporate Value Shift

ethics at its core is about excellence and high attainment rather than misdeeds and malfeasance. But we do pay attention to misconduct, and I... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

2012
Article

Signing at the Beginning Makes Ethics Salient and Decreases Dishonest Self-reports in Comparison to Signing at the End

By: L. Shu, N. Mazar, F. Gino, D. Ariely and M. Bazerman

Many written forms required by businesses and governments rely on honest reporting. Proof of honest intent is typically provided through signature at the end of the document, e.g., tax returns or insurance policy forms. Still, people sometimes cheat to advance their... View Details

Keywords: Nudge; Morality; Honesty; Self-report; Policy-making; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Reports; Policy

25 Jun 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Does ‘Could’ Lead to Good? Toward a Theory of Moral Insight

Keywords: by Ting Zhang, Francesca Gino & Joshua D. Margolis

2014
Article

Morality Rebooted: Exploring Simple Fixes to Our Moral Bugs

By: Ting Zhang, Francesca Gino and Max Bazerman

Ethics research developed partly in response to calls from organizations to understand and solve unethical behavior. Departing from prior work that focused mainly on examining the antecedents and consequences of dishonesty, we examine two approaches to mitigating... View Details

Keywords: Corruption; Dishonesty; Unethical Behavior; Interventions; Structure; Values; Behavior; Ethics; Moral Sensibility

Article

Your Visual System Provides All the Information You Need to Make Moral Judgments about Generic Visual Events

By: Julian De Freitas and George A. Alvarez

To what extent are people's moral judgments susceptible to subtle factors of which they are unaware? Here we show that we can change people’s moral judgments outside of their awareness by subtly biasing perceived causality. Specifically, we used subtle visual... View Details

Keywords: Moral Judgment; Perceived Causality; Visual Illusions; Moral Sensibility; Judgments

February 2020
Article

Being 'Good' or 'Good Enough': Prosocial Risk and the Structure of Moral Self-regard

By: Julian Zlatev, Daniella M. Kupor, Kristin Laurin and Dale T. Miller

The motivation to feel moral powerfully guides people’s prosocial behavior. We propose that people’s efforts to preserve their moral self-regard conform to a moral threshold model. This model predicts that people are primarily concerned with whether their... View Details

Keywords: Prosocial Behavior; Moral Sensibility; Decision Making; Risk and Uncertainty; Behavior; Perception

August 2024
Background Note

Your True Moral Compass

By: Joseph L. Badaracco

This note explores the concept of a "moral compass" for making difficult decisions in leadership roles. It argues that the standard view of a moral compass as a simple, internal guide is inadequate for complex situations. Instead, it proposes that our true moral... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Decision Choices and Conditions

October 2003 (Revised April 2006)
Background Note

Moral Reasoning: A Practical Guide for Leaders

By: Sandra J. Sucher

We encounter moral or ethical challenges in our professional lives, in our close relationships, and as members of the broader communities that we are part of. This methodology demonstrates how moral reasoning works and how it can be integrated into a problem-solving... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Moral Sensibility; Management Systems; Problems and Challenges; Civil Society or Community

Article

Automatic Ethics: Implicit Assumptions and Ethical Managerial Conduct

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

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... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Decision Choices and Conditions

19 Feb 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience: Self-Preservation through Moral Disengagement and Motivated Forgetting

Keywords: by Lisa L. Shu, Francesca Gino & Max H. Bazerman

August 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Automating Morality: Ethics for Intelligent Machines

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Tom Quinn

As autonomy became a more significant part of modern life – most notably in autonomous vehicles (AVs), such as Teslas – ethical debates about whether and how to impart ethics to machines heated up. Utilitarians pointed out that autonomous vehicles crashed much less... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Judgments; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Adoption; Risk and Uncertainty; Cognition and Thinking; Technological Innovation; Auto Industry; Technology Industry; Africa; Asia; Europe; North and Central America; Oceania; South America

September 2015 (Revised January 2023)
Background Note

Ethical Analysis: Situation versus Character

By: Nitin Nohria, Sandra J. Sucher, Joseph Badaracco and Bridget Gurtler

When we think of human behavior, especially from a moral perspective, we often rely on explanations based on character. We think that good decisions and responsible behavior require people with integrity and strong character and that immoral behavior originates within... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Ethics; Behavior; Personal Characteristics; Power and Influence; Situation or Environment; Values and Beliefs; Social Psychology

September 2004 (Revised November 2012)
Module Note

Module I: Moral Challenge Class Summaries

By: Sandra J. Sucher

What is a moral challenge? Explores four main types of moral challenge: the challenge of survival, the conflict between "two rights," a moral dilemma—or situation in which it is impossible to satisfy conflicting moral obligations and commitments—and the challenge of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Conflict of Interests

2006
Chapter

Three Practical Challenges of Moral Leadership

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Andrew Molinsky

Keywords: Ethics; Trust; Leadership Style; Problems and Challenges

28 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

The Importance of ‘Don’t’ in Inducing Ethical Employee Behavior

"So there is evidence for the fact that people like to feel that they're in balance when it comes to ethics," Gino says. "People are guided by their moral compass when facing ethical dilemmas.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

2009
Working Paper

Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience: Self-Preservation through Moral Disengagement and Motivated Forgetting

By: Lisa L. Shu, Francesca Gino and Max H. Bazerman

People routinely engage in dishonest acts without feeling guilty about their behavior. When and why does this occur? Across four studies, people justified their dishonest deeds through moral disengagement and exhibited motivated forgetting of information that might... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Behavior