On Organisational Factors that Elicit Managerial Unethical Decision-Making

The article provides the academic community and management practitioners with the results of an extensive empirical study conducted on a large sample of 777 managers about the perceived influence of selected organisational factors on managerial unethical decision-making. The findings indicate that factors that predominantly induce managerial unethical decision-making are the "profits-only" mindset of company owners, the unfair human resource management policies instilled in the workplace and the unethical behaviour of superiors. Results also show that the pressure to produce profits at any expense emphasised by company owners is strongly associated with managers' interest in results without considering the way they were achieved In addition, inconsistently with the previous theory, a revised categorisation of organisational factors eliciting unethical decisions is outlined based on empirical findings. This new classification introduces "Prioritisation of economic results", "violation of internal ethical guidelines", and "situational tensions" categories. The study provides important implications for managers and grounds for further comparative analysis. In its scope and scale, it is the first study of its kind carried out in the Slovak business environment.