Communication, Constraints, and Moral Intensity: A Study in Decision-Making Processes and Ethical Outcomes

Sanders, Chanda

Communication, Constraints, and Moral Intensity: A Study in Decision-Making Processes and Ethical Outcomes

dc.contributor.advisor	Connelly, Shane
dc.contributor.author	Sanders, Chanda
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Mumford, Michael
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Terry, Robert
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Song, Hairong
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Schmidt, Jeffrey
dc.date.accessioned	2020-08-18T17:00:03Z
dc.date.available	2020-08-18T17:00:03Z
dc.date.issued	2020
dc.date.manuscript	2020-07-30
dc.description.abstract	The study of ethics remains of critical importance to researchers and organizations alike and continues to receive attention as ethical infractions persist. This laboratory study (N = 194) compares the effects of ethical codes of conduct and ethical narratives, two ways that organizations may choose to communicate ethical standards to organizational followers along with two boundary conditions, industry/field constraints and moral intensity, and their joint impact on ethical decision-making, ethical sensemaking, metacognitive reasoning strategy, and perceptions of organizational communication effectiveness outcomes. Findings showed that neither type communication of ethical information on its own, result in higher levels of ethical, sensemaking, or metacognitive reasoning outcomes. Organizations may choose to present followers with a set of codes of conduct, or they may choose to share an ethical narrative, but whichever method is used should include relevant industry/field constraints. Additionally, significant results were found for constraints and moral intensity, as well as a number of two- and three-way interactions for overall ethicality, sensemaking, and use of metacognitive reasoning skills, suggesting the importance of informing employees about the types of industry pressures or restrictions that can lead to misconduct. Results showed that participants were better at problem recognition, recognizing their circumstances, and forecasting as well. This study offers fresh insight into codes of conduct theories and boundary conditions that increase their effectiveness. Implications and future directions on communication of ethical information are discussed.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/11244/325390
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International	*
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	*
dc.subject	Codes of Conduct	en_US
dc.subject	Ethical Information	en_US
dc.subject	Decision-Making Processes	en_US
dc.subject	Organizational Constraints	en_US
dc.thesis.degree	Ph.D.	en_US
dc.title	Communication, Constraints, and Moral Intensity: A Study in Decision-Making Processes and Ethical Outcomes	en_US
ou.group	College of Arts and Sciences::Department of Psychology	en_US
shareok.nativefileaccess	restricted	en_US
shareok.orcid	0000-0003-0433-3710	en_US