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What can Psychology Tell us About Business Ethics?

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Abstract

Insights from contemporary psychology can illuminate the common psychological processes that facilitate unethical decision making. I will illustrate several of these processes and describe steps that may be taken to reduce or eliminate the undesirable consequences of these processes. A generic problem with these processes is that they are totally invisible to decision makers – i.e., decision makers are convinced that their decisions are ethically and managerially sound.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 354 Paso Robles Drive, Santa Barbara, CA, 93108, U.S.A.

    David M. Messick

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  1. David M. Messick
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Correspondence to David M. Messick.

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Messick, D.M. What can Psychology Tell us About Business Ethics?. J Bus Ethics 89 (Suppl 1), 73–80 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9906-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9906-x

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