Application of the theory of planned behavior to ethical dilemmas in organizations

Abstract

The theory of planned behavior model was used to investigate business managersa?? responses to two ethical dilemmas in organizations: the use of electronic monitoring and retrenchment. The results show that attitude and subjective norms both contributed unique variance to explaining behavioral intentions. The more negative the attitudes toward use of electronic monitoring or retrenching the employees, the weaker the intentions to execute the decisions. The lower the perceived social pressures to use electronic monitoring or retrench employees, the weaker the intentions to do so. The results also suggest that respondents were more inclined to retrench employees when instructed to do so by a legitimate authority. Potential contributions and implications of the findings are discussed.