CORRELATES OF ETHICAL INTENTIONS: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF EMPIRICAL LITERATURE AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Research efforts have continually been focused on the triggers behind (un)/ethical conduct and the cognitive processes individuals use while evaluating dilemmas in order to ascertain why individuals behave unethically in workplaces. These efforts have mainly focused on examining individual characteristics ("bad apples"), moral issues ("bad cases"), and the organizational environment ("bad barrel") as antecedents of unethical choices (Kish-Gephart et al., 2010). In an attempt to comprehend the complexities of ethical decision-making, this paper reviews literature on a few key constructs used in explaining ethical decision-making, its various antecedents and consequents. Three categories of factors are looked at: individual antecedents, organizational context and the influence of the external environment on ethical intentions for the purpose of developing a coherent and integrated portrait of work done and identifying directions for further research. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]