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Mid-level Managers, Organizational Context, and (Un)ethical Encounters

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Abstract

This article details day-to-day ethics issues facing MBAs who occupy entry-level and mid-level management positions and offers defined examples of the stressors these managers face. The study includes lower-level managers, essentially excluded from extant literature, and focuses on workplace behaviors both undertaken and observed. Results indicate that pressures from internal organization sources, and ambiguity in letter versus spirit of rules, account for over a third of the most frequent unethical situations encountered, and that most managers did not expect to face those issues. Various contextual factors accounted for 32% of the organizational factors that affected decisions. We discuss implications for the workplace, especially the unique ethics challenges for newer managers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Idaho State University, Pocatello, U.S.A.

    Kathy Lund Dean

  2. Illinois State University, Normal, IL, U.S.A.

    Jeri Mullins Beggs

  3. Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.

    Timothy P. Keane

Authors
  1. Kathy Lund Dean
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  2. Jeri Mullins Beggs
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  3. Timothy P. Keane
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathy Lund Dean.

Additional information

A version of this paper was presented at the annual Academy of Management meeting, Chicago, August 7–11, 2009. This manuscript has benefited from comments & suggestions made by three anonymous Academy MED division reviewers as well as those by the JBE reviewers.

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Dean, K.L., Beggs, J.M. & Keane, T.P. Mid-level Managers, Organizational Context, and (Un)ethical Encounters. J Bus Ethics 97, 51–69 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0495-0

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