Early Determinants of Ethical Decision-Making

1
Early Determinants of Ethical Decision-Making

• Stephen Murphy
• Center for Applied Social Research
• University of Oklahoma
• ORI Conference
• Tampa Bay, FL
• 12/02/06

2
Collaborative Effort

• Professors
• Dr. Michael Mumford
• Dr. Lynn Devenport
• Graduate Students
• Ethan Waples
• Alison Antes

• Dr. Shane Connelly
• Dr. Ryan Brown
• Jason Hill

Also like to acknowledge the National Institutes
of Health and Office of Research Integrity for
funding this research
3
Decision-Making in Ethical Dilemmas

• Decision-making in ethical dilemmas is a complex
  process
• Competing values, causes, and goals
• Emotions are at play
• Situational cues often conflict
• Outcomes are uncertain
• Choices in ethical decision-making
• An illustrative example
• Final action follows a sequence of choices
• May have a number of different influences

4
Causes of MisconductOrganizational Climate
versus Career Experiences

• Individual factors
• Organizational Climate
• Shared perceptions of the organization
• Expectations of social interactions
• Career Experiences
• Direct specific experiences or incidents
• Experiences provide information

5
Method

• Participants
• 102 first-year doctoral students
• Sampled from 3 graduate sciences
• Social
• Biological
• Health
• Measures
• Organizational Climate inventory
• Career Experiences measure
• Ethical decision-making

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Organizational Climate Survey

• Example items
• A wide variety of viewpoints are expressed here
• Distribution of rewards and credits is fair here
• Factor Analysis
• Equity
• Interpersonal Conflict
• Occupational Engagement
• Work Commitment

7
Career Experiences Measure

• Example Items
• How often has a professor asked you a question
  about class readings that you were unable to
  answer?
• How often has your group challenged itself to
  develop unique research ideas or products?
• Factor Analysis
• Professional Leadership
• Poor Coping
• Lack of Rewards
• Limited Competitive Pressure
• Poor Career Direction

8
Ethical Decision-Making Measure

• Low-fidelity work simulation
• Taxonomy of four broad domains of misconduct
• Data management
• Study conduct
• Professional practices
• Business practices
• Scored on ethicality
• High (3) Moderate (2) Low (1)

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Ethical Decision-Making Measure

• During graduate school, Langston developed a new
  methodological approach for analyzing data, with
  guidance from his advisor. He trained several
  graduate students on the use of this approach
  before he graduated. At a recent professional
  conference, Langston heard a student present
  preliminary results from her Masters thesis in
  which she used the data analytic approach. He
  noticed a potentially serious error in the
  interpretation of the data, attributable to
  improper use of the approach. He mentions this
  possibility after the presentation.

10
Ethical Decision-Making Measure

• A month after the conference, one of Langstons
  colleagues shows him a manuscript written by the
  student and Langstons former advisor. It has
  been submitted for publication and contains the
  same information and errors he observed at the
  conference. He tells his former advisor that hes
  sure the analytic approach was applied improperly
  and can demonstrate this. What should Langstons
  former advisor do? Choose two from the following
• (H) Retract the submitted manuscript
• (M) Submit new analyses and interpretations
  indicating that the wrong version of the
  manuscript was submitted
• (L) Wait for reviews and do additional analyses
  if indicated

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Results
Note sig. plt.05
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Results
Note sig. plt.05
13
Results
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Summary

• Compelling evidence for the influence of
  Organizational Climate and Career Experience on
  the choices people make
• Early influences on Ethical Decision-making
• Organizational Climate
• Influence of interpersonal conflict
• Career experience
• Impact of poor coping and lack of rewards

15
Discussion

• Organizational Climate remains critical, but
• More attention focusing on experiences in the
  work environment
• Study the relationship between direct experiences
  and perceptions of organizational climate