Quick decisions tend to reinforce self-interest choices among MBA students: The direct and moderating effects of temporal constraint and situational factors in ethical decision making

Abstract

Employees face increasingly time-pressured operational environments. Using theory from Reynolds' () neurocognitive model of ethical decision making, we explore how temporal constraint, consequence framing, and organizational norms affect self-interested decision making in business. Conducting three experimental manipulations with a sample of MBA students, we found the following: First, consistent with previous studies, high time pressure promotes self-interested intentions. Second, unethical framing encourages self-interested intentions, though this relationship is unaffected by the presence of time pressure. Third, unethical organizational norms encourage group-interested intentions. Lastly, however, when these same norms are experienced under high time pressure, individuals display self-interested intentions. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.