Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:17:19.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Forms of ethical dilemmas in industrial-organizational psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2021

Joel Lefkowitz Open the ORCID record for Joel Lefkowitz [Opens in a new window]
Joel Lefkowitz*
Affiliation:
Professor Emeritus, Baruch College, and the Graduate Center, New York, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: Joel.Lefkowitz@Baruch.cuny.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Professional ethics has not been a major focus in industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology—in comparison with our study of unethical behavior in organizations. Consequently, we know very little about ethical situations actually faced by I-O psychologists. This article presents and tests a structural perspective on understanding the nature of ethical dilemmas that can facilitate such study. A taxonomy of five paradigmatic forms of ethical dilemmas is defined and placed in a theoretical context. Narrative descriptions of 292 ethical situations were obtained from a sample of 228 professional members of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) in the United States and were used to empirically test the taxonomy. The narratives were content analyzed for form of dilemma, work domain of occurrence, relevance to human resource administration concerns, and favorability of the situation’s resolution. The work domains that were most problematic were academic research/publication activities, individual assessment/assessment centers, consulting issues regarding the client, and academic supervising/mentoring. There were no significant differences as a function of respondents’ sex, seniority, or professional membership status (member/fellow). This relatively “content free” structural aspect of ethical dilemmas enables comparisons across different domains (of professions, organizations, demographic groups, age cohorts, etc.) in which the overt idiosyncratic ethical problems experienced are not commensurable. Similarly, it can yield interpretable longitudinal comparisons despite changes in the manifestations of ethical problems encountered over time.

Keywords

professional ethicsethical dilemmasmisbehaviorethical taxonomystructure of ethical dilemmasparadigmatic forms of ethical dilemmascomparative ethics
Type
Focal Article
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 297 - 319
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author is much indebted to Dick Jeannerett, Bill Macey, Mort McPhail, Rob Silzer, and Nancy Tippins for their contributions in vetting the survey questionnaire; to the 2009 members of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Executive Board and Institutional Research Committee, as well as to Larry Nader and David Nershi for sponsoring and overseeing the administration of the survey; and to Questar for its implementation. Many thanks to Rob Silzer for his partnership in conducting the coding reliability analysis; to Setha Low, Rodney Lowman, and Charles Scherbaum for their helpful suggestions on an early manuscript; to Manuel Gonzalez for statistical data analyses, and Paige Alenick for a literature survey. Responsibility for the accuracy of all analyses is entirely mine.

References

Abeler, J., Nosenzo, D., & Raymond, C. (2019). Preferences for truth-telling. Econometrica, 87(4), 1115–1153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2002, amended effective June 1, 2010, and January 1, 2017). https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx Google Scholar
Arrington, R. L. (1998). Western ethics: An historical introduction. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., Gioia, D. A., Robinson, L. L., & Treviño, L. K. (2008). Introduction to special topic forum: Re-viewing organizational corruption. Academy of Management Review, 33(3), 670–684.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (1994). Principles of biomedical ethics, 4th ed. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bernardin, H. J., & Buckley, M. R. (1981). Strategies in rater training. Academy of Management Review, 6, 205–212.Google Scholar
Bersoff, D. N. (2008). Ethical conflicts in psychology (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Blakeney, R., Broenen, R., Dyck, J., Frank, B., Glenn, D., Johnson, D., & Mayo, C. (2002). Implications of the results of a job analysis of I-O psychologists. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 39, 29–37.Google Scholar
Boyd, D. (1994). The character of moral development. In Puka, B. (Ed.), Moral development: A compendium (Vol. 6, 449–477). Garland.Google Scholar
Buckley, M. R., Beu, D. S., Frink, D. D., Howard, J. L., Berkson, H., Mobbs, T. A., & Ferris, G. R. (2001). Ethical issues in human resources systems. Human Resource Management Review, 11, 11–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, R. J., & Cooper, C. L. (Eds.). (2009). Research companion to corruption in organizations. Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canadian Psychological Association. (2017). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists (4th ed.).Google Scholar
Cantwell, A-M., Friedlander, E., & Tramm, M. L. (Eds.) (2000). Ethics and anthropology. The New York Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Carr, S. C., MacLachlan, M., & Furnham, A. (Eds.). (2012). Humanitarian work psychology. Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, S. C., Thompson, L. F., Reichman, W., McWha-Herman, I., Marai, L., MacLachlan, M., & Baguma, P. (2013). Humanitarian work psychology: Concepts to contributions (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology White Paper Series).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cascio, W. F., & Aguinis, H. (2008). Research in industrial and organizational psychology from 1963 to 2007: Changes, choices and trends. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(5), 1062–1081.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20(1), 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen-Almagor, R. (Ed.). (2000). Medical ethics at the turn of the 21st century. The New York Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Confer, J. C., Easton, J. A., Fleischman, D. S., Goetz, C. D., Lewis, D. M. G., Periloux, C., & Buss, D. M. (2010). Evolutionary psychology: Controversies, questions, prospects, and limitations. American Psychologist, 65(2), 110–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, T. L. (Ed.). (2001). Handbook of administrative ethics (2nd ed.). Marcel Dekker.Google Scholar
Cortina, L. M., Kabat-Farr, D., Magley, V. J., & Nelson, K. (2017). Researching rudeness: The past, present, and future of the science of incivility. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 299–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dion, M. (2010). What is corruption corrupting? A philosophical viewpoint. Journal of Money Laundering Control, 13(1), 45–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doris, J. M., & the Moral Psychology Research Group (Eds.). (2010). The moral psychology handbook. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunnette, M. D., & Hough, L. M. (Eds.). (1992). Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (2nd ed.). Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
Eyde, L. D., Robertson, G. J., Krug, S. E., Moreland, K. L., Robertson, A. G., Shewan, C. M., Harrison, P. L., Porch, B. E., Hammer, A. L., & Primoff, E. S. (1993). Responsible test use: Case studies for assessing human behavior. American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, D., & Ferrell, L. (2002). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases. Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Frankena, W. K. (1973). Ethics (2nd ed.). Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Gaumnitz, B. R., & Lere, J. C. (2002). Contents of codes of ethics of professional business organizations in the United States. Journal of Business Ethics, 35, 35–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, L. A., & Kruskal, W. H. (1954). Measures of association for cross classifications. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 49, 732–764,Google Scholar
Hoffman, M. L. (1988). Moral development. In Bornstein, M. H. & Lamb, M. E. (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (pp. 497–548). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. (2012, January). International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (4th ed.). www.iczn.org/iczn/index.jsp Google Scholar
International Task Force on Assessment Center Guidelines. (2015). Guidelines and ethical considerations for assessment center operations. Journal of Management, 41(4), 1244–1273.Google Scholar
Jones, T. M. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16, 366–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katzell, R. A., & Austin, J. T. (1992). From then to now: The development of industrial-organizational psychology in the United States. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 803–835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khanna, C., & Medsker, G. J. (2010). 2009 Income and Employment Survey Results for the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Retrieved August 13, 2018, from http://www.siop.org/2009SIOPIncomeSurvey.pdf Google Scholar
Kleinig, J. (1996). The ethics of policing. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knapp, S., VandeCreek, L., Gottlieb, M., & Handelsman, M. (Eds.). (2012). APA handbook of ethics in psychology. American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Koppes, L. L. (Ed.). (2007). Historical perspectives in industrial and organizational psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Kotabe, H. P., & Hofmann, W. (2015). On integrating the components of self-control. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(5), 618–638.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lefkowitz, J. (2003). Ethics and values in industrial-organizational psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lefkowitz, J. (2006). The constancy of ethics amidst the changing world of work. Human Resource Management Review, 16, 245–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lefkowitz, J. (2009). Individual and organizational antecedents of misconduct in organizations: What do we [believe that we] know, and on what bases do we [believe that we] know it? In Cooper, C. & Burke, R. (Eds.), Research companion to crime and corruption in organizations (pp. 60–91). Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, J. (2011). Ethics in industrial-organizational psychology. In Knapp, S., VandeCreek, L., Gottlieb, M., & Handelsman, M. (Eds.), APA Handbook of ethics in psychology (Vol. 2, Chap. 8). American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, J. (2017). Ethics and values in industrial-organizational psychology (2nd ed.) Routledge.Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, J., & Lowman, R. L. (2017). Ethics of employee selection. In Farr, J. L. & Tippins, N. T. (Eds.), Handbook of employee selection (2nd ed., pp. 575–598). Taylor & Francis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legros, S., & Cislaghi, B. (2020). Mapping the social-norms literature: An overview of reviews. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(1), 62–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, G. (2004). Violence at work: Causes and prevention. In Thomas, J. C. and Hersen, M. (Eds.), Psychopathology in the workplace (pp. 313–328).Google Scholar
Lim, S., & Cortina, L.M. (2005). Interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace: The interface and impact of general incivility and sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(3), 483–496,CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lowman, R. L. (1993). An ethics code for I/O psychology: For what purpose and at what cost? The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 31(1), 90–92.Google Scholar
Lowman, R. L. (Ed.), Lefkowitz, J., McIntyre, R., & Tippins, N. (Assoc. Eds.). (2006). The ethical practice of psychology in organizations (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association/Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowman, R. L., & Cooper, S. E. (2018). The ethical practice of consulting psychology. American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machery, E., & Mallon, R. (2010). Evolution of morality. In Doris, J. M. & the Moral Psychology Research Group (Eds.), The moral psychology handbook (pp. 3–46). Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, A. (2007). After virtue (3rd ed.). Duckworth.Google Scholar
Mazar, N., Amir, O., & Ariely, D. (2008). The dishonesty of honest people: A theory of self-concept maintenance. Journal of Marketing Research, 45, 633–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnell, T. (2018). Moral dilemmas. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2018 edition). Retrieved December 16, 2018, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-dilemmas/ Google Scholar
McWha-Herman, I., Maynard, D. C., & Berry, M. O. (Eds.). (2016). Humanitarian work psychology and the global development agenda: Case studies and interventions. Routledge Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved August 5, 2018, from www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dilemma Google Scholar
Mullen, E., & Monin, B. (2016). Consistency versus licensing effects of past moral behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 363–385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nisan, M. (1990). Moral balance: A model of how people arrive at moral decisions. In Wren, T. (Ed.), The moral domain (pp. 283–314). MIT Press.Google Scholar
Nisan, M. (1991). The moral balance model: Theory and research extending our understanding of moral choice and deviation. In Kurtines, W. M. & Gewirtz, J. L. (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Vol. 3. Application (pp. 213–249). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Olson-Buchanan, J., Bryan, L. K., & Thompson, L. F. (Eds.). (2013). Using industrial-organizational psychology for the greater good: Helping those who help others. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary. (n.d.-a). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved May 10, 2019, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/form Google Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary. (n.d.-b). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved May 10, 2019, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/structure Google Scholar
Panter, A. T., & Sterba, S. K. (2011). Handbook of ethics in quantitative methodology. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petrick, J. A., & Quinn, J. F. (1997). Management ethics: Integrity at work. Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Pope, K. S., & Vetter, V. A. (1992). Ethical dilemmas encountered by members of the American Psychological Association: A national survey. American Psychologist, 47(3), 397–411.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poteet, M. L., Parker, B. N., Herman, A. E., DuVernet, A., & Conley, K. M. (2017). Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology 2016 Income and Employment Survey. Retrieved August 13, 2018 from http://www.siop.org/2009SIOPIncomeSurvey.pdf Google Scholar
Pratt, M. G. (2009). For the lack of a boilerplate: Tips on writing up (and reviewing) qualitative research. Academy of Management Journal, 52(5), 856–862.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prinz, J. J. (2008). Is morality innate? In Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (Ed.), Moral Psychology: Vol. I. The evolution of morality: Innateness and adaptation (pp. 367–406). Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.Google Scholar
Prinz, J. J., & Nichols, S. (2010). Moral emotions. In Doris, J. M. & the Moral Psychology Research Group, The moral psychology handbook (pp. 111–146). Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinones, E. (2000). What is corruption? Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 220(1), 23–24.Google Scholar
Reichman, W. (Ed.). (2014). Industrial and organizational psychology help the vulnerable: Serving the underserved. Palgrave/MacMillen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartre, J. P. (1957). Existentialism and human emotions. New York Philosophical Library.Google Scholar
Schminke, M. (Ed.). (2010). Managerial ethics: Managing the psychology of morality. Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Schneider, J., & Smith, K. (1999). SIOP 1999 member survey results. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 37(2), 24–29.Google Scholar
Scott, W. A. (1955). Reliability of content analysis: The case of nominal scale coding. Public Opinion Quarterly, 19, 321–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverman, D. (2015). Interpreting qualitative data. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar
Skogan, W., & Frydl, K. (Eds.). (2004). Fairness and effectiveness in policing: the evidence. The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Inc. (1999a). Guidelines for education and training at the doctoral level in industrial-organizational psychology. https://www.academia.edu/15399784/Guidelines_for_Education_and_Training_at_the_Doctoral_Level_in_Industrial_Organizational_Psychology Google Scholar
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Inc. (1999b). Guidelines for education and training at the master’s level in industrial-organizational psychology.Google Scholar
Tjeltveit, A. C. (1999). Ethics and values in psychotherapy. Routledge.Google Scholar
Treviño, L. K., den Nieuwenboer, N. A., & Kish-Gephart, J. J. (2014). (Un)ethical behavior in organizations. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 635–660.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Treviño, L. K., & Nelson, K. (2004). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right, 3rd ed. John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
University of California Museum of Paleontology. (2018). Understanding evolution. Retrieved August 6, 2018, from https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_41 Google Scholar
Waclawski, J., & Church, A. H. (2000). The 2000 SIOP Member survey results are in! The Industrial- Organizational Psychologist, 38(1), 59–68.Google Scholar
Weaver, G. R. (2006). Virtue in organizations: Moral identity as a foundation for moral agency. Organization Studies, 273(3), 341–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, M. D., & Marsh, E. E. (2006). Content analysis: A flexible methodology. Library Trends, 55(1), 22–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiley, C. (2000). Ethical standards for human resource management professionals: A comparative analysis of five major codes. Journal of Business Ethics, 25, 93–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittmer, D. P. (2001). Ethical decision-making. In Cooper, T. L. (Ed.), Handbook of administrative ethics (2nd ed., pp. 481–507). Marcel Dekker.Google Scholar
Wong, D. (2014). Comparative philosophy: Chinese and Western. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2018 edition). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comparphil-chiwes/ Google Scholar
Wooten, K. C. (2001). Ethical dilemmas in human resource management: An application of a multidimensional framework, a unifying taxonomy, and applicable codes. Human Resource Management Review, 11, 159–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zigmond, M. J., & Fischer, B. A. (2014). Teaching responsible conduct responsibly. Foreword to F. L. Macrina, Scientific integrity: Text and cases in responsible conduct of research, 4th ed. ASM Press.Google Scholar