ABSTRACT
However, while recent research suggests that shame and guilt are emotions that occur often in the workplace, a general overview of the different influences of shame and guilt on unethical behavior and well-being is lacking. This chapter aims to give a clear picture of shame and guilt. Unethical behaviors in the workplace appear on a daily basis. These behaviors can include abusive supervision, theft, bullying, unsafe working conditions, discrimination, drug use and drug testing, and organizational injustice (ibid.), and these unethical and socially irresponsible activities can be carried out by different parties such as supervisors, employees, and direct or indirect colleagues. Accordingly, multiple parties might be involved and affected by the unethical behavior: the perpetrator (the cause) of the unethical behavior, the victim of the unethical behavior, witnesses of the unethical behavior, and people associated (e.g., by group membership) with the perpetrator or with the victim (Evans et aI., 2007; Giacalone and Promislo, 2010). In all of these different parties, shame and guilt feelings can occur and may influence people's well-being. Therefore, this chapter begins with an overview of the research on shame and guilt to reveal what we know about the influences of those emotions on behavior in general and to offer thoughts about how these two moral emotions can also stimulate unethical behaviors. Next, I concentrate on shame and guilt feelings that arise after unethical behavior in the workplace, showing how shame and guilt feelings can arise in the perpetrator, the victim, and possible witnesses or associated parties. Together, these two lines of thought can generate new research ideas concerning moral emotions such as shame and guilt in workplace behaviors and well-being, and assist managers and practitioners in dealing with the negative consequences of such emotions.
