TY - JOUR
T1 - Show me the … family
T2 - How photos of meaningful relationships reduce unethical behavior at work
AU - Hardin, Ashley E.
AU - Bauman, Christopher W.
AU - Mayer, David M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2020/11
Y1 - 2020/11
N2 - Environmental cues in the workplace influence unethical behavior, but the effects of these cues are less well understood than the effects of individual differences and social aspects of situations on unethical behavior. In this paper, we examine a common but underappreciated aspect of workspaces: photos of close others. Drawing on the literatures on symbols at work and behavioral ethics, we theorize that having photos of close others in sight decreases the hegemony of an economic schema in people's minds, which in turn decreases their propensity to commit unethical behavior. Supporting our theory, a field survey and three experiments find a negative relationship between displaying photos of close others at work and financial transgressions and indicate that a decrease in the salience of the economic schema is a mechanism that drives the effect. We discuss implications of the results for the literatures on behavioral ethics, symbols at work, and work-life integration.
AB - Environmental cues in the workplace influence unethical behavior, but the effects of these cues are less well understood than the effects of individual differences and social aspects of situations on unethical behavior. In this paper, we examine a common but underappreciated aspect of workspaces: photos of close others. Drawing on the literatures on symbols at work and behavioral ethics, we theorize that having photos of close others in sight decreases the hegemony of an economic schema in people's minds, which in turn decreases their propensity to commit unethical behavior. Supporting our theory, a field survey and three experiments find a negative relationship between displaying photos of close others at work and financial transgressions and indicate that a decrease in the salience of the economic schema is a mechanism that drives the effect. We discuss implications of the results for the literatures on behavioral ethics, symbols at work, and work-life integration.
KW - Economic schema
KW - Financial transgressions
KW - Photographs
KW - Symbols
KW - Unethical behavior
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85086946605
U2 - 10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.04.007
DO - 10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.04.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85086946605
SN - 0749-5978
VL - 161
SP - 93
EP - 108
JO - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
JF - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
ER -