Three Chapters on Ethicality in Organizations

Ethicality is a central theme in organizational behavior, encompassing choices that range from self-serving misconduct to prosocial contribution. Understanding why individuals behave ethically or unethically requires moving beyond trait-based or structural accounts toward a more nuanced view of the cognitive and perceptual processes underlying moral behavior. This dissertation examines ethicality as a micro-level phenomenon, integrating perspectives from behavioral ethics, moral psychology, and leadership research to explain how individuals make ethical decisions, interpret prosocial signals, and evaluate moral conduct in others. The first essay focuses on unethical decision-making, investigating how incentive and monitoring systems influence individuals’ propensity to cheat. Drawing on deterrence theory, it examines how structural controls interact with stable behavioral tendencies. The results indicate that compensation schemes alone do not necessarily increase cheating; instead, past unethical behavior is a stronger predictor, and monitoring primarily affects those high in risk-seeking tendencies. These findings refine deterrence theory by identifying boundary conditions and emphasizing the importance of dispositional consistency in explaining ethical decision-making. The second essay turns to ethical and prosocial behavior, exploring how the framing of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication affects individuals’ willingness to donate to the cause supported by the company. Using data from an annual marathon co-organized by a firm and a charity, the study finds that stereotype-incongruent (warmth-focused) messages lead to more favorable evaluations and higher donations than stereotype-congruent (competence-focused) ones. Although stereotype-incongruent messages significantly improved evaluations of the for-profit organization—reducing perceived gaps in warmth and credibility relative to the nonprofit—these perceptual gains did not reliably translate into higher donation likelihood or larger donation amounts in the main analysis. However, exploratory analyses suggested that when organizational identity was clearly recognized, stereotype-related cues may shape donation likelihood under certain conditions. The study highlights the cognitive mechanisms underlying CSR evaluation while also illuminating the boundary conditions under which positive evaluations may (or may not) lead to behavioral support. The third essay examines moral evaluation in leader–follower relationships, focusing on how perceived authenticity and ethicality shape followers’ endorsement of leaders. It conceptualizes ethicality as a normative evaluation of moral conduct and authenticity as a perception of sincerity in motivation. Although authenticity and ethicality were both associated with positive leader evaluations, their interaction did not consistently support the hypothesis that authenticity amplifies the effects of ethicality. This pattern suggests that authenticity and ethicality may function as distinct evaluative dimensions rather than synergistic predictors. The findings therefore advance leadership research by empirically disentangling two closely related constructs and identifying the conditions under which ethical behavior does or does not translate into leadership endorsement. Collectively, these three studies present a coherent micro-level account of ethicality as a psychological and social process. Conceptually, they integrate insights from deterrence theory, moral perception, and authenticity research to explain how individuals decide, perceive, and evaluate moral behavior in organizational contexts. Methodologically, they combine experimental and behavioral approaches to enhance both internal and external validity. Taken together, the findings underscore that ethicality in organizations is not merely a function of formal controls or moral ideals but depends on how individuals construe situations, interpret intentions, and attribute motives. Future research could build on these insights by exploring how repeated interactions, cultural context, and moral signaling dynamics shape ethical perceptions over time. Practically, the results highlight the importance of designing systems and communications that not only promote ethical conduct but also foster credible, sincere, and psychologically resonant expressions of moral intent. In sum, this dissertation advances a micro-level, process-oriented understanding of ethicality as emerging from individual cognition, motivation, and perception—revealing how people navigate, enact, and evaluate moral behavior within organizational life.