On the Psychology of Preventing and Dealing With Ethical Failures: A Behavioral Ethics Approach

The last two decades have witnessed an onslaught of media reports on issues of fraud, corporate scandals, and other types of unethical behavior. Indeed, the numerous scandals in organizations such as Enron and WorldCom made all of us concerned about the emergence of unethical and immoral behavior in organizations. More recently, this concern has become even stronger due to the worldwide financial crisis in which it became explicitly clear that the irresponsible (and unethical) behavior of managers and organizations inflicts pain on society and its members.