Encouraging Ethical Behavior in Organizations: Punishment as Magnitude of Consequences

Recent ethical failures at some large and once-respected organizations have affected the lives of many people and have illustrated that encouraging ethical behavior is of increasing importance. Ethical behavior on the part of authority figures encourages ethical behavior in subordinates. But codes of ethics must be enforced as well: ethical behavior must be rewarded, while unethical behavior must be punished. Rewards and punishments should be visible to have an impact. Use of groupware is one way to get participation in ethical processes in distributed organizations. Since it has been shown that one’s level of moral reasoning increases with education (Kohlberg 1969), universities should also encourage ethical behavior. This paper adapts Jones (1991) model of ethical decision making and applies it to ethical issues in a university context. Specifically, the study examines the effect of authority and proximity in a groupware environment on the decision concerning the level of punishment for a student guilty of cheating.