Abstract

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.