Regulating Ethical Failures: Insights from Psychology

Speakers
David De Cremer
Professor of Behavioral Business Ethics
Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
Ann Tenbrunsel
Ann Tenbrunsel
Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame
Peter Kim
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California
Niels van Quaquebeke
Niels van Quaquebeke
Management & Economics, Kühne Logistics University
Eric van Dijk
Leiden University
Edward Carberry
Edward Carberry
Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University Rotterdam
William Bottom
Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis

Abstract

We proudly present you the first Behavioural Business Ethics Conference and welcome you as a participant. This conference is organized by the recently founded Erasmus Centre of Behavioural Ethics (www.erim.nl/behaviouralethics), which is part of the Rotterdam School of Management, one of the top three research schools in management in Europe.
 
This conference is a perfect opportunity for you to get in contact with the foremost scholars in the field of Behavioural Ethics. We hope that by attending this conference you can deepen your insights into the new field of behavioral ethics and at the same time broaden your professional network.
 
We sincerely hope you will enjoy this conference, and we look forward to listening to all the great work that is being done in our field.
 
   
David de Cremer Ann Tenbrunsel
 
 
The numerous scandals in business such as those at AIG, Tyco, WorldCom, and Enron have raised many concerns about the emergence of unethical and irresponsible behavior in organizations. The seemingly unending occurrence of instances of corruption, in both business and politics, has also activated consciousness about ethics in general and business ethics in particular. Although there may be no universal definition of business ethics, and one scholar likened defining it to “nailing jello on a wall,” most definitions focus on evaluating the moral acceptability of the actions of organizational leaders and their employees. However, here at the Erasmus Centre of Behavioural Ethics (ECBE) we argue that such a view is too narrow in scope. Rather than the source of unethical behaviour being a lack of information or misapplication of ethical principles, we start from the idea that many ethical failures can be explained by a lack of awareness that one is even facing an ethical problem. This view helps to explain why, despite the pervasiveness of contemporary ethical failures and irresponsible actions, many managers still maintain the belief that they are ethical people. In line with this perspective, we advocate that in addition to a prescriptive approach in which a moral principle is communicated and evaluated, we also need a behavioural approach which examines how individuals make actual decisions and engage in real actions when being faced with ethical dilemmas (i.e. a descriptive approach).
 

 

Conference schedule
   
  The location of the conference at both days is JB-41 (J-building, ground floor, room 41).
   

 

Wednesday 21 October
09.00-09.30: Introduction dean and David de Cremer
   
  Theme 1: Ethics in a social context
09.30-10.00: How Bad Apples Can Motivate Ethical or Unethical Behavior
  Francesca Gino
10.00-10.30: Trust in Authorities as a Boundary Condition to Procedural Fairness Effects on Tax Compliance
  Marius van Dijke
10.30-11.00: Coffee break
11.30-12.00: Restoring Human Relations in Business Education and Practice
  Bill Bottom
12.00-13.30: Lunch at Novotel
                 
   
  Theme 2: Ethical leadership and regulation
13.30-14.00: Navigating by values: The role of ideal and counter-ideal values for followers’ responses towards their leaders
  Niels van Quaquebeke
14.00-14.30: A moral self-regulation account to ethical leadership
  Lieven Brebels
14.30-15.00: Developing a Theoretical Framework of Corporate Self-Regulation:  Scandals, Impression Management, and the Persistence of Executive Compensation Practices in the United States
  Ed Carberry
15.00-15.30: Coffee break
15.30-16.00: The (in)effectiveness of sanctions to promote cooperation, and the (un)willingness to impose sanctions
  Eric van Dijk
16.00-16.30: Too much of a good thing can be bad: the irony of ethical leadership
  Jeroen Stouten
18.00-19.00: Drink at Faculty Club (H-Building 17th floor).
19.00-22.00: Dinner at Faculty club
   
   

 

Thursday 22 October
09.00-09.30: If you want it, you can have it: The effects of follower control and relational needs on leader’s enactment of fair procedures
  Niek Hoogervorst
   
  Theme 3: Psychological mechanisms of ethical and unethical behavior
09.30-10.00: Unethical practices: Gains and losses, and why recession may breed future fraud
  Chris Reinders Folmer
10.00-10.30: Nostalgia and Prosocial Behavior
  Constantine Sedikides
10.30-11.00: Coffee break
11.30-12.00: High status: no pain when not contributing to a public gain
  Maarten Boksem
12.00-13.30: Lunch at Novotel
13.30-14.00:                 From Competition to Sabotage, Bribery & Risk
  Niro Sivanathan
   
  Theme 4: Trust and reconciliation
14.00-14.30: The importance of trust - and why most people trust too little
  Detlef Fetchenhauer
14.30-15.00: Show me the Money: Financial Compensations and the Repair of Trust in Exchange Relations
   Pieter Desmet
15.00-15.30: Coffee break
15.30-16.00: The Manifestation of Mob Mentalities
  Peter Kim
16.00-16.30: Applying The Needs-Based Model To Organizational Reconciliation Processes
  Johannes Ullrich
 
Contact information:                                                          
David de Cremer  
Email  

Download

Information

Type
Conference
Programme
Organisation
Date
Wed. 21 Oct. 2009 › Thu. 22 Oct. 2009
Time
09:00 - 22:00
Location
Bayle Building JB-41

Coordinator

David De Cremer
Professor of Behavioral Business Ethics
Judge Business School, University of Cambridge