Promoting Ethical Behaviour Through Management of Bad Apples: A Conceptual Analysis

Abstract

The paper provides a conceptual analysis of multiple facets related to dynamics of'bad apples'in any organisation-their behaviour, characteristics, individual forces, organisational forces, and moderators that promote their existence and growth in regard to creating and sustaining ethical culture. It also emphasises the role of management to work efficiently considering the negative forces brought to the working space by these 'bad apples'. More so, specific issues like ethical and unethical behaviour, morality, and the environment under which the ethical behaviour transforms into unethical behaviour in the organisation are also analysed. Studies narrated that organisations can promote ethical environment through employee feedback, employee engagement, organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), adherence to ethical code of conduct, social exclusion, sound reward, and whistle blowing policy. The paper further emphasizes the influence of moral intensity through probability of effect, proximity, social consensus, magnitude of consequences and temporal immediacy, on ethical behaviour. Besides, people with personality trait of machiavellianism and self-monitoring are more likely to become/follow 'bad apples' and have also been observed to accelerate the individual level of unethical behaviour in the organisation. The need for empirical study was felt taking into account the above mentioned variables to reach an objective conclusion on the proliferation and management of 'bad apples' in any organisation and promotion of ethical behavior.