The creation of an unethical work environment: organisational outcome‐based control systems

Abstract

While research on outcome‐based control systems (and rewards) have been shown to lead to unethical behaviour, the same cannot be said when the research focuses on specific outcome‐based control systems. Both the positive and negative research focused on the effects of moderators on the outcome‐based control system and unethical behaviour link. The relationship was dependent on ethical climate, personality traits, and internal communications. While research yielded a slightly positive result, it was shown that ethical climate was likely a stronger contributor to ethical behaviour. The influence of client fee expectations, the influence of an audit program and unethical auditor behaviour was examined. Further research was necessary to see how people of different ages responded in terms of ethics. While the empirical research did not provide a complete positive link between outcome‐based control systems and unethical behaviour, it did show that the relationship could exist and was dependent often upon other factors, such as the ethical environment of the organisation. The purpose of this article was not to show that outcome‐based control systems are always going to drive employees to behave unethically, but that these systems can lead to unethical behaviour.

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