This study will address issues in behavioral ethics using a novel multi-method approach. The availability of confidential ethics hotlines (both telephone and web-based) increased dramatically with the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002. However, apart from statistics on the prevalence of ethics hotlines in corporate America, little is known about the frequency and types of claims reported. This study will involve organizing, categorizing, and analyzing data collected by a large provider of ethics hotline services, a database of more than 1,000,000 cases over a 10-year time frame. The PIs will test the impact of naturally occurring ethical and outcome primes on hotline reporting behavior. In addition, they will develop an Ethics Index showing trends in the reporting of various ethical violations over time. They hypothesize that major business scandals and related events reported in the media should serve as primes to increase attention to ethical violations and result in significantly higher rates of wrongdoing reporting. Additionally, the PIs will survey a sample of working professionals to explore how the mechanism of counterfactual priming may increase reporting of unethical actions in organizations.
In terms of broader impacts, this research should improve understanding of how organizations can best use ethics hotlines to decrease unethical behavior. Detailed information will be obtained on the prevalence and nature of reported wrongdoings, and on the effects of contextual and management practices on reporting rates. The planned Ethics Index will be useful to practitioners who need to monitor relative prevalence of ethical behavior. The survey findings will yield theoretical and practical insight into management methods that are most likely to increase reporting of ethical violations. In addition, this project will benefit from a newly developed ethics center through collaborative relationships developed among researchers, ethical compliance officers from organizations, and students interested in how to create more ethical organizations. It is expected that this will enhance the speed of translation of research findings into effective practice.
