When appraising the ethicality of another person’s decision, individuals tend to
take the valence of the consequences as a basis for their judgment. Specifically, an
ethically dubious decision tends to be more acceptable when the consequences are
displayed as positive. This paper discusses the results of observation of the effect of
accountability to unknown third parties on this process. Results from an experimental
study (N=251) indicate that individuals under process accountability tend to be more
severe in their judgment of the acceptability of other’s ethically dubious decisions
than the non-accountable ones and those who are under outcome accountability,
but only when the decision’s consequences are displayed as positive or neutral. This
effect does not occur when the consequences of the decision are seen as negative.
In this case, people tend to consider the decision ethically unacceptable, regardless
of whether or not they’re held accountable to unknown constituents. These tendencies
are independent of the individual differences in the propensity to make
cognitive effort in problem analysis. Results are discussed from the perspective of
decision making in organizations, and their possible relevance to the establishment
of mechanisms to increase the scrutiny of the ethicality of decisions.
Authors
Silva, Vítor H.
Simões, Eduardo
Other Author(s)
Universidade de Coimbra. Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação (ed. lit.)
Keywords
decisão ética,
responsabilização,
necessidade de cognição,
ethical decision-making,
accountability,
need for cognition
