In three studies we examined how market competition influences leaders’ willingness to discipline transgressing employees. We found that fierce market competition changes the lens through which ethical transgressions are viewed to an instrumental one. When they have to discipline transgressing employees, leaders in highly competitive markets are more influenced by the profitability of an ethical transgression for the company than those in less competitive markets. Our findings show that that for leaders, profits precede ethics as market competition increases.

doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2014.119, hdl.handle.net/1765/101230
74th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2014
Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics

Desmet, P., Hoogervorst, N., & van Dijke, M. (2014). Prophets vs. Profits: How market competition influences leaders' disciplining behavior. In 74th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2014 (pp. 1350–1355). doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2014.119