Bounded Ethicality

In contrast to the search for the few “bad apples”, my colleagues and I argue that the majority of unethical events occur as the result of ordinary and predictable psychological processes.  As a result, even good people engage in unethical behavior, without their own awareness, on a regular basis.  This argument is developed and documented in much of my recent work.  The following is a partial list of recent work that develops this idea:

Bazerman, M.H., & Tenbrunsel, A.E. Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What's Right and What to Do about It. Princeton University Press, 2011.

Bazerman, M. H. Bounded Ethicality in Negotiations. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 2011, 4, 8-11.

Shu, L., Gino, F., & Bazerman, M. H. Dishonest deed, clear conscience: When cheating leads to moral disengagement and motivated forgetting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2011, 37(3), 330-349.

Bazerman, M. H., Gino, F., Shu, L. L., & Tsay, C. Joint evaluation as a real world tool for managing emotional assessment of morality. Emotion Review, 2011, 3, 1-3.

Tenbrunsel, A. E., Diekmann, K. A., Wade-Benzoni, K. A., & Bazerman, M. A. The ethical mirage: A temporal explanation as to why we are not as ethical as we think we are. Research in Organizational Behavior, 2010, 30,153–173.

Moore, D. A., Tanlu, L, & Bazerman, M. H. Conflict of interest and the intrusion of bias. Judgment and Decision Making, 2010, 5(1), 37–53.

Gino, F., Shu, L. L., & Bazerman, M. H. Nameless + Harmless = Blameless: When seemingly irrelevant factors influence judgment of (un)ethical behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2010, 111(2), 102-115.

Garcia, S., Bazerman, M.H., Kopelman, S., Tor, A.& Miller, D. The Price of Equality: Suboptimal Resource Allocations across Social Categories. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2010, 20(1), 75-88.

Kramer, R.M., Tenbrunsel, A.E., & Bazerman M.H. (Eds.), Social Decision Making: Social Dilemmas, Social Values, and Ethical Judgments, Psychology Press, 2009.

Bazerman, M.H. (Ed.) Quanto Sei (a)Morale?: Leadership Etica E Psicologia Della Decisione. (A Behavioral Decision Perspective to Ethics). Il Sole 24 Ore (Italian), 2009. (Edited collection of papers on ethics by Max H. Bazerman and colleagues.)

Bazerman, M.H. & Greene, J.D.  In Favor of Clear Thinking: Incorporating Moral Rules into a Wise Cost-benefit Analysis.   Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2010, 5(2), 209-212.

Gino, F., & Bazerman, M.H. When misconduct goes unnoticed: The acceptability of gradual erosion in others’ unethical behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2009, 45(4), 708-719.

Tenbrunsel, A.E., Wade-Benzoni, K.A., Medvec, V.H., Thompson, L., & Bazerman, M.H. The reality and myth of sacred issues in negotiations. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 2009, 2(3), 263-284.

Paharia, N., Kassam, K.S., Greene, J.D. & Bazerman, M.H.  Dirty Work, Clean Hands: The Moral Psychology of Indirect Agency. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2009, 109(2), 134-141.

Bazerman, M.H., Tenbrunsel, A.E., & Wade-Benzoni, K.A. When “Sacred” Issues Are at Stake. Negotiation Journal, 2008, 24(1), 113-117.
Wade-Benzoni, K.A., Li, M., Thompson, L.L., & Bazerman, M.H.  The Malleability of Environmentalism. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 2007, 7, 163-189.

Kramer, R.M., Tenbrunsel, A.E., & Bazerman, M.H. Social Dilemmas, Social Values, and Ethical Judgments: Touchpoints and Touchdowns in a Distinguished Scholarly Career. In R.M. Kramer, A.E. Tenbrunsel, & M.H. Bazerman (Eds.), Social Decision Making: Social Dilemmas, Social Values, and Ethical Judgments, Psychology Press, 2009.

Gino, F., Moore, D.A., &. Bazerman, M.H. See No Evil: Why We Fail to Notice Unethical Behavior. In R.M. Kramer, A.E. Tenbrunsel, & M.H. Bazerman (Eds.), Social Decision Making: Social Dilemmas, Social Values, and Ethical Judgments, Psychology Press, 2009

Tenbrunsel, A.E., Diekmann, K.A., Wade-Benzoni, K.A., &. Bazerman, M.H. Why We Aren’t as Ethical as We Think We Are: A Temporal Explanation. In B.M. Staw and A. Brief (Eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior, in press.

Moore, D.A., Tetlock, P.E., Tanlu, L., & Bazerman, M.H. Conflicts of Interest and the Case of Auditor Independence: Moral Seduction and Strategic Issue Cycling.  Academy of Management Review, 2006 31(1), 1-20.

Caruso, E., Epley, N., & Bazerman, M.H.  The Costs and Benefits of Undoing Egocentrism Responsibility Assessments in Groups.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2006, 91(5), 857-871.

Epley, N., Caruso, E., & Bazerman, M.H.  When Perspective Taking Increases Taking: Reactive Egoism in Social Interaction.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2006, 91(5), 872-889.

Bazerman, M.H., Moore, D.A., Tetlock, P.E., & Tanlu, L.  Reports of solving the conflicts of interest in auditing are highly exaggerated.  Academy of Management Review, 2006, 31(1), 1-7.

Caruso, E.M., Epley, N., & Bazerman, M.H. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Perspective Taking in Groups. In Mannix, E., Neale, M.A., & Tenbrunsel, A.E. Research on Managing Groups and Teams. Elsevier, 2006.

Chugh, D, Bazerman, M.H., & Banaji, M.R.  Bounded Ethicality as a Psychological Barrier to Recognizing Conflicts of Interest.   To appear in Moore, D., Cain, D., Loewenstein, G., & Bazerman, M.H (Eds.).  Conflicts of Interest: Problems and Solutions from Law, Medicine and Organizational Settings.  London: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Bazerman, M.H (Eds.). Conflicts of Interest: Problems and Solutions from Law, Medicine and Organizational Settings. London: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Moore, D., Cain, D., Loewenstein, G., & Bazerman, M.H (Eds.). Conflicts of Interest: Problems and Solutions from Law, Medicine and Organizational Settings. London: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Bazerman, M.H., & Banaji, M.R.  The Social Psychology of Ordinary Unethical Behavior.  Social Justice Research, 2004, 17, 111-115.  (intro to special issue on the topic of bounded ethicality).

Banaji, M.R., Bazerman, M.H., & Chugh, D. How (Un)ethical are you? Harvard Business Review, December, 2003.

Bazerman, M.H., Loewenstein, G, & Moore, D.A.  Why Good Accountants Do Bad Audits.  Harvard Business Review, November, 2002.

Bazerman, M.H., & Loewenstein, G. Taking the Bias out of Bean Counting. Harvard Business Review, January, 2001, page 28.

 

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