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Journal of Business Ethics

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19.10.2016 | Original Paper

Can Anticipating Time Pressure Reduce the Likelihood of Unethical Behaviour Occurring?

verfasst von: Hwee Ping Koh, Glennda Scully, David R. Woodliff

Erschienen in: Journal of Business Ethics | Ausgabe 1/2018

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Abstract

Time pressure has been shown to have a negative impact on ethical decision-making. This paper uses an experimental approach to examine the impact of an antecedent of time pressure, whether it is anticipated or not, on participants’ perceptions of unethical behaviour. Utilising 60 business school students at an Australian university, we examine the differential impact of anticipated and unanticipated time deadline pressure on participants’ perceptions of the likelihood of unethical behaviour (i.e. plagiarism) occurring. We find the perception of the likelihood of unethical behaviour occurring to be significantly reduced when time pressure is anticipated rather than unanticipated. The implications of this finding for both professional service organisations and tertiary institutions are considered.

Vorheriger Artikel Business Schools and the Development of Responsible Leaders: A Proposition of Edgar Morin’s Transdisciplinarity

Nächster Artikel Corporate Social Responsibility and Worker Rights: Institutionalizing Social Dialogue Through International Framework Agreements

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Prior plagiarism studies (e.g. Carroll 2002) made the distinction between intentional and unintentional plagiarism, where intentional plagiarism arises due to the “deliberate act of” plagiarising whereas unintentional plagiarism largely arises from a lack of knowledge of how to reference correctly (Park 2003, p. 476). This study focuses on the student’s perception of the propensity to engage in intentional plagiarism.

In the university where this experiment was carried out, the penalties imposed on minor plagiarism (classified as minor breaches of academic conduct), moderate plagiarism (classified as moderate breaches of academic conduct) and major plagiarism (classified as major breaches of academic conduct) are different and increases as the seriousness (or moral intensity) of the plagiarism act increases.

Earlier versions of the instrument were pilot tested using academic staff, PhD candidates and a separate group of 40 business postgraduate coursework students.

The student in the ‘Anticipated’ time deadline pressure condition is referred to as Student X and the student in the ‘unanticipated’ time deadline pressure condition is referred to as Student Y.

To control for any order effects, the order of the questions for the dependent variable was randomised, producing three unique orders for each experiment condition (Harsha and Knapp 1990). Analysis revealed the different orders of the questions had no impact on the test variables.

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Titel: Can Anticipating Time Pressure Reduce the Likelihood of Unethical Behaviour Occurring?
verfasst von: Hwee Ping Koh
Glennda Scully
David R. Woodliff
Publikationsdatum: 19.10.2016
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in: Journal of Business Ethics / Ausgabe 1/2018
Print ISSN: 0167-4544
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-0697
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3352-y

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