The Role of Ethical Ideology in Workplace Deviance

Christine A. Henle, Robert A. Giacalone, Carole L. Jurkiewicz

Journal of Business Ethics · 2005 · Volume 56 · Issue 3

Abstract

Ethical ideology is predicted to play a role in the occurrence of workplace deviance. Forsyth’s (1980) Ethics Position Questionnaire measures two dimensions of ethical ideology: idealism and relativism. It is hypothesized that idealism will be negatively correlated with employee deviance while relativism will be positively related. Further, it is predicted that idealism and relativism will interact in such a way that there will only be a relationship between idealism and deviance when relativism is higher. Results supported the hypothesized correlations and idealism and relativism interacted to predict organizational deviance. Idealism was a significant predictor of interpersonal deviance, but no interaction was found.

Keywords

ethical ideology, idealism, relativism, workplace deviance

Enable JavaScript for citation tools and additional paper interactions.