What Determines Ethical Behavior?

This chapter analyzes why unethical activity takes place. It assumes that both individual and situational reasons are equally important when it comes to explaining ethical decision making. To explain this "person- situation" approach, the chapter explores the impact of individual moral character, followed by the situational context including the particular issue, organizational factors, as well as personal constraints that drive behavior. It looks at the importance of an individual's moral character on ethical decision making. The chapter focuses on the "bad" or "good" apples, or the bad features of otherwise good apples, as playing an important role in the ethical decision-making process. All dominant ethical decision-making models refer to situational or organizational factors that can impact the decision-making process. Building on these past models, the situational context should be comprised of three interrelated components: the issue; the organizational environment; and the personal context. Situational factors can challenge a person's moral character.