A positive behavioural ethics perspective on organisational integrity

Abstract

In this chapter we highlight what we know about the behavioural ethics literature that studies ethically positive individual differences, emotions, cognitions, behaviours, and structures, in an effort to encourage more research that focuses on how organisations and the people within them can help build communities characterised by ethical behaviours and that may encourage flourishing, wisdom, thriving, and resilience. This is in contrast to much of the behavioural ethics literature that generally focuses on understanding unethical behaviour in the workplace, negative emotions such as guilt or shame, negative cognitive processes such as moral licensing, and negative individual differences such as Machiavellianism. We review research on, amongst others, positive individual differences such as moral attentiveness, positive ethical behaviours such as ethical leadership and ethical voice, positive emotions such as compassion and moral elevation, and structures in organisations that foster ethical behaviour. In that way, we align this review with positive organisational scholarship as it relates to behavioural ethics in organisations and hope to spur more positively orientated research in the future.

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