A growing literature has focused on understanding how to detect and deter unethical consumer behavior. In this work, we focus on a particularly important type of unethical consumer behavior, consumer insurance fraud, and we analyze a unique dataset to understand how experts investigate suspicious claims. Two separate but related literatures inform the process of investigating suspicious insurance claims. The first literature is grounded in field research and emphasizes the importance of secondary sources. The second literature is grounded in laboratory studies (...) that emphasize the importance of interpersonal interactions. Here we draw upon both literatures to consider the importance of claimant interviews within the context of many investigative actions and the potential for claimants to avoid interviews. In an empirical study using qualitative and quantitative data from auto insurance claim investigations, we analyze investigative chronologies conducted by skilled experts. In doing so, we find that even when investigators can access information from a variety of sources such as witnesses, databases, and physical evidence, claimant interviews are the most important step in determining whether or not claims are denied or paid. Furthermore, we identify interpersonal avoidance as an important signal of unethical claimant behavior. Our findings inform deception detection theory and practice. We identify implications for deception detection in business, particularly for consumer unethical behavior and insurance fraud investigations. (shrink)

Conventional wisdom suggests that dishonesty on the part of an organization's employees has a negative effect on the organization's reputation. However, many organizations condone (or even require) dishonesty under certain circumstances. In this research of 128 airline passengers, we examine situations in which employees are perceived to be dishonest within one such industry, the international airlines, and examine the impact of this dishonesty on organizational reputation and customer satisfaction. We found that the reputation of the firm was most damaged when (...) the lie benefited the company or the employee, rather than the passenger. In addition, the view of the airline significantly decreased when the lie caused a high amount of harm (compared with a low amount) to the passenger. (shrink)

Abstract:This article argues that the important organizational values to study are organizational moral values. It identifies five moral values (honest communication, respect for property, respect for life, respect for religion, and justice), which allow parallel constructs at individual and organizational levels of analysis. It also identifies dimensions used in differentiating organizations’ moral values. These are the act, actor, person affected, intention, and expected result. Finally, the article addresses measurement issues associated with organizational moral values, proposing that content analysis is the (...) appropriate measurement technique to be used for an organization-level conception of moral values. (shrink)

Interviews with flight attendants are analyzed to refine a person-situation model of organizational dishonesty. The refined model suggests that organizational characteristics have direct and indirect (through flight characteristics) effects on likelihood of dishonesty, type of dishonesty, and motivation for dishonesty. The interviews confirm the existence of three motivations for dishonesty in customer service interactions. In addition to the three motivations originally modeled (enrichment, altruism, and revenge), flight attendants demonstrated a fourth: enforce personal moral codes, and a fifth: habituation. The article (...) discusses the implications of the habituation motivation for organizations which encourage benevolent dishonesty, because they accustom employees to saying things they know not to be true. (shrink)

Recognizing dishonesty is difficult. It involves both cognitive and moral judgments in situations where it is often costly to gather information. Some individuals are better at it than others; some situations make information gathering less costly. This article uses signal detection theory to model the individual and situational effects on assessments that someone has lied. Signal detection theory is explained, and examples of how it can be used to model other moral judgments are provided.

This article presents a model of employee dishonesty and formation of stakeholders' images of organizations, which applies theories of moral judgment and attribution. It describes the person-situation interaction effects of characteristics of employee behavior and of persons making moral judgments on stakeholders' moral judgments, amounts of blame, loci of blame, and images of organizations. Using a situationally based definition of dishonesty, the article examines the effects of the act, the actor, the result, the person affected, and the intent of an (...) employee's behavior on stakeholders' images of the organization, as well as the effects of the characteristics of the person making the moral judgment. The situationally based definition of dishonesty provides a theoretical basis for understanding how differences in situations lead to differences in moral judgments by the same individuals. The person making the moral judgment is presented as a part of the model to explain how differences in viewpoints result in different moral evaluations of the same situations by different judges. Research directions are identified and discussed. (shrink)

The business environment has increasingly expanded outside single nations or regions of the world to encompass many differing countries. Along with this expansion come business opportunities and challenges when facing business practices and attitudes not so similar to our own. In studying how these national cultural differences affect ethical decision making, managers and employees alike gain an understanding and respect for those differing business practices. This study considers the national cultural dimension of collectivism versus individualism. Survey data were gathered from (...) 252 full-time employees working in the collective country of Taiwan and the individualist country of the United States of America. Results indicate that employees from the collective culture of Taiwan are more likely to indicate they would make an unethical decision that benefits the organization and less likely to openly question an unethical practice by their organization. Implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

This paper describes the moral judgments made by various stakeholders in determining whether an event, caused by an organizational employee, constitutes dishonesty. It models person-situation interaction effects of situations in organizational settings and persons making moral judgments to predict judgments of dishonesty. Using a prototype definition of dishonesty, the paper examines the effects of differences in four areas (the prototypicality of the act, the actor''s motivation, the potential consequences, and the person judging the event) on the moral judgment of whether (...) the event constitutes dishonesty. The implications for managers and researchers of the resulting contingent prototype model of dishonesty are discussed. (shrink)