Bounded autonomy and behavioral ethics: Deonance and reactance as competing motives

    Authors

    R. Folger; D. B. Ganegoda; D. B. Rice; R. Taylor;D. X. H. Wo

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Hum. Relat.

    Keywords

    behavioral ethics; bounded autonomy; deonance theory; duties; organizational justice; reactance theory; rights; MORAL DISENGAGEMENT; DECISION-MAKING; DEONTIC JUSTICE; WHISTLE; ORGANIZATIONS; INFORMATION; INCENTIVES; DEVIANCE; FAIRNESS; MODEL; Management; Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary

    Abstract

    We analyze business behavioral ethics in terms of bounded autonomy, namely the result of tensions between the countervailing motivations of reactance (tendencies that involve the freedom of behaving in certain ways as a right) versus deonance (tendencies that involve the appropriateness of behaving in certain ways as an obligation). We focus in particular on how the resolution of such tensions (i.e. establishment of a boundary between rights and dutiesfree behaviors versus non-free behaviorsin a state of dynamic equilibrium) can cause behavior to be seen as ethical by the person performing the behavior (the actor), but seen as unethical by impartial observers. That discrepancy comes from the actor's assessment of the behavior in question as having either an inherent status (the type of behavior it is) or an instrumental status (what it does). This analysis leads us to a discussion of the following four types of situations involving unethical behavior: freedom expansion based on a behavior's inherent status or on its instrumental status; and freedom contraction based on a behavior's inherent status or on its instrumental status. We outline propositions consistent with those distinctions and conclude with theoretical implications.

    Journal Title

    Human Relations

    Volume

    66

    Issue/Number

    7

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    905

    Last Page

    924

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000321214700002

    ISSN

    0018-7267

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