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Increasing the saliency of ethical decision making for SIOP members

In the Banks et al. (2022) focal article, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Committee for the Advancement of Professional Ethics (CAPE) provided a useful framework to guide the identification, evaluation, and resolution of situations containing ethical ambiguities. This framework used in combination with the Lefkowitz (2021) taxonomy of paradigmatic forms of ethical dilemmas and the data from Lefkowitz and Watts (2021) should provide much utility for making appropriate ethical decisions and engaging in ethical behavior. Banks et al. (2022) noted that ethical decision making requires active attention to issues and outcomes as they occur and the intent to behave in an ethical manner. Indeed, Banks et al. stated their assumption that “the vast majority of [industrial organizational (I-O)] psychologists want to be ethical and ‘do the right thing’” (p. X). This statement needs to be qualified. Although Lefkowitz and Watts (2021) found proportionately fewer acts of covert ethical violations in 2019 than in 2009, they still found corruption (i.e., intentional volitional unethical acts) to be the second most common form of ethical dilemma or misconduct, with a reported rate of 18.5%. Similarly, Lefkowitz (2021) reported that 25.6% of incidents submitted by SIOP members were classified as corruption. The Lefkowitz and Watts distinction between covert and overt ethical violations, respectively, aligns with Sashkin and Prien’s (1996) blunderers whose unethicality is committed unintentionally because of ignorance, lack of foresight, or overzealousness and bounders who intentionally behave in an unethical manner. It may be that this 20% (actually 18.5%–25.6%) who are bounders cause 80% of our ethical problems. Regardless, this is a sufficiently large proportion that it should be of concern to SIOP and should be addressed through intentional efforts by SIOP to recognize, address, and prevent such behavior. Lefkowitz (2021) indicated SIOP’s attitude toward ethics could be characterized as benign neglect; he identified historical markers of SIOP’s lack of attention to ethics. The CAPE framework for ethical decision making will facilitate appropriate decisions by those who are aware and motivated to use it. However, we believe that the role of ethics needs to become more salient in the discipline of I-O psychology. Accordingly, here we expand our earlier call and recommendations (Stone et al., 2021) that, to ensure the integrity of our discipline, SIOP needs to be more intentional and proactive in promoting the role of ethics in both graduate training and in professional practice. Below we explain further how our recommendations might be operationalized. An important thread that runs through all of our recommendations is the need to make the importance of ethics more salient and to increase the positive valence of acting in an ethical manner; that is, we must be motivated to behave ethically.