ABSTRACT
News of unethical activity conducted within organizations seems to permeate the business landscape. Such reports of unethical acts create the loss of public trust and economic devastation. Because of the possible negative consequences of unethical acts, it is important to understand the potential types and causes of unethical behavior. Work on unethical behavior typically focuses on those unethical acts that have the potential to harm others (e.g., Folger & Baron, 1996; Neuman & Baron, 1997; O’Leary-Kelly, Griffin, & Glew, 1996) or to help the individual actor (e.g., Duffy, Ganster, & Pagon, 2002; Greenberg, 2002; O’Leary-Kelly & Bowes-Sperry, 2001) engaging in the unethical act. In contrast, in this chapter we focus on unethical conduct that is conducted to benefit others.
