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“I won't let you down:” Personal ethical lapses arising from women’s advocating for others

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  • Kouchaki, Maryam
  • Kray, Laura J.

Abstract

The current research examines whether women’s personal ethics are compromised when representing others in strategic interactions. Across five studies (n = 1337), we demonstrate that women’s ethical choices are more sensitive to whether they are representing themselves versus advocating for others compared to men’s ethical choices. We find that other-advocating women are more deceptive than self-advocating women, whereas men are just as likely to engage in morally questionable behaviors when representing themselves or others. We further show that women’s unethical behavior is driven by their anticipatory guilt as they seek to not let their constituents down in an advocacy role. Relative to men, women’s ethical behavior when advocating on behalf of others is especially likely to reflect the presumed ethical preferences of their constituents rather than solely a reflection of their own ethical preferences. Given women’s relatively high personal ethics, these results establish a risk to adopting an advocacy role for women: the social considerations inherent to advocacy put pressure on women to engage in deceptive behaviors that compromise their personal ethics.

Suggested Citation

  • Kouchaki, Maryam & Kray, Laura J., 2018. "“I won't let you down:” Personal ethical lapses arising from women’s advocating for others," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 147-157.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:147:y:2018:i:c:p:147-157
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.06.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kray, Laura J. & Kennedy, Jessica A. & Van Zant, Alex B., 2014. "Not competent enough to know the difference? Gender stereotypes about women’s ease of being misled predict negotiator deception," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 61-72.
    2. Wiltermuth, Scott S. & Bennett, Victor M. & Pierce, Lamar, 2013. "Doing as they would do: How the perceived ethical preferences of third-party beneficiaries impact ethical decision-making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 280-290.
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    8. Kennedy, Jessica A. & Kray, Laura J. & Ku, Gillian, 2017. "A social-cognitive approach to understanding gender differences in negotiator ethics: The role of moral identity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 28-44.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chui, Celia & Kouchaki, Maryam & Gino, Francesca, 2021. "“Many others are doing it, so why shouldn't I?”: How being in larger competitions leads to more cheating," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 102-115.
    2. Ke Michael Mai & David T. Welsh & Fuxi Wang & John Bush & Kaifeng Jiang, 2022. "Supporting Creativity or Creative Unethicality? Empowering Leadership and the Role of Performance Pressure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 111-131, August.

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