-1271- Emotional Components of Unethical Decisions: an Exploratory Study

The role of emotions in decision-making has been explored by others and has revealed that both “immediate emotions”, those present at the time of the decision, and “expected emotions”, those expected to result from a decision, effect which alternative will be chosen (Lowenstein, 2001). The significance of emotions in behavior decisions has also been estimated as it relates to product and service choice (Morris, 2002). This research employs a mixed-method design to understand the role emotions play in making decisions regarding ethical behavior. The research applies a validated technique for measuring human emotions to determine whether there is an emotional reaction to the mere consideration of unethical behavior and which emotions, if any, respond to the thought of unethical behavior. EMOTIONS AND ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING Emotions direct our attention to important events that demand a decision, they provide useful information about the desirability of alternative courses of action and they often provide the motivation necessary to implement a chosen course of action. In this way emotions pull us into and through the decision-making process and the implementation of our decisions (Priesmeyer, 2008). As Rajeev has stated, “numerous ethical decisionmaking models have succeeded in integrating person-specific, issue-contingent, and organizational contributors to ethical decisions, the need now is to probe further into specific causalities” (Rajeev, 2007). Lowenstein provides a useful model which guides this inquiry. His identification of immediate and expected emotions in a decision-making model suggest that we must take into account the emotional state of an individual immediately prior to considering a decision and we can expect there will be a change in an individual’s emotional state as a consequence of considering the decision. Specifically, his model states that “Immediate emotions” influence the “decision/behavior” and that the “decision/behavior” results in “Expected Consequences” which subsequently result in “Expected emotions”. Feedback loops allow these expected consequences and emotions to affect the immediate emotions and the decision directly (Lowenstein, 2001). An examination of current ethical decision-making models reveals a predominance of cognitive processes with little attention to affective influences. The “literature reveals that ethical decision making represents a fixed sequence of stages – comprising moral perception, reasoning (or evaluation), judgment, intention, behavior, behavioral