Wage Cuts and Managers’ Empathy: How a Positive Emotion Can Contribute to Positive Organizational Ethics in Difficult Times

Abstract

Using the lens of positive organizational ethics, we theorized that empathy affects decisions in ethical dilemmas that concern the well-being of not only the organization but also other stakeholders. We hypothesized and found that empathetic managers were less likely to comply with requests by an authority figure to cut the wages of their employees than were non-empathetic managers. However, when an authority figure requested to hold wages constant, empathy did not affect wage cut decisions. These findings imply that empathy can serve as a safeguard for ethical decision making in organizations during trying times without generally undermining organizational effectiveness. We conclude by discussing the implications of our research.

Why bad feelings predict good behaviours: The role of positive and negative anticipated emotions on consumer ethical decision making

“…A scenario‐based questionnaire depicting ethical issues was used. Scenarios have been widely used in the business ethics literature (Antonetti & Maklan, ; Dietz & Kleinlogel, ; Singhapakdi, Vitell, Lee, Nisius, & Yu, ; Vitell & Patwardhan, ; Winterich et al, ), featuring as “extremely useful vehicles for understanding subjects' judgements in hypothetical ethical decision situations” (Trevino, , p. 128). The use of scenarios “helps to standardize the social stimulus across respondents and at the same time makes the decision‐making situation more real“ (Alexander & Becker, , p. 103).…”

What goes around comes around: The integrated role of emotions on consumer ethical decision‐making

“…To test the proposed hypotheses, a self-administered paper and pencil questionnaire, using a scenario-based approach, was applied. Scenarios have long been recognized as particularly suited to marketing ethics research (Hunt & Vitell, 1986) and have been widely used in the business ethics literature (Dietz & Kleinlogel, 2013;Singhapakdi, Vitell, Lee, Nisius, & Yu, 2013;Winterich et al, 2015). Scenarios allow consumer ethical issues to be presented in a concrete and detailed manner, while controlling environmental factors (O'Fallon & Butterfield, 2005), and standardize social and contextual stimuli (Alexander & Becker, 1978), imbuing respondents' answers and decision-making with added realism, and giving researchers access to their attitudes and judgements to ethical decision situations (Trevino, 1992).…”

Responsible Leadership: Review and Prospects

“…Related researches also provide the evidence for the view. For example, leaders with empathy are prone to engage in charity and behave responsibly [12]; likewise, leaders with empathy are more likely to make ethical decisions and be responsible for their employees [13].…”