IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ororsc/v4y1993i3p478-495.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lying, Deceit, and Subterfuge: A Model of Dishonesty in the Workplace

Author

Listed:
  • Steven L. Grover

    (School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405)

Abstract

Honesty is a key element of ethical behavior in organizations, yet has received little theoretical or empirical attention. This article derives a model of the antecedents of deception in organizations. Self-interest theories, such as agency theory, and prosocial behavior theories of behavior are reviewed and an argument developed that intrapersonal conflict may meld the divergent theories and explain lying in organizations. Role theory identifies potential sources of intrapersonal conflict in organizations that may serve as antecedents to lying. Different types of role conflict are examined, each of which may lead to distress, and, in turn, may be resolved through deception: People may behave according to one role demand, and then state, or create the impression of, having behaved according to another role demand.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven L. Grover, 1993. "Lying, Deceit, and Subterfuge: A Model of Dishonesty in the Workplace," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(3), pages 478-495, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:4:y:1993:i:3:p:478-495
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.4.3.478
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.4.3.478
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/orsc.4.3.478?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rong-Tsu Wang, 2013. "Modeling Corporate Social Performance and Job Pursuit Intention: Mediating Mechanisms of Corporate Reputation and Job Advancement Prospects," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 569-582, October.
    2. McKinley, William & Ponemon, Lawrence A. & Schick, Allen G., 1996. "Auditors' perceptions of client firms: The stigma of decline and the stigma of growth," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 21(2-3), pages 193-213.
    3. Gill, David & Prowse, Victoria & Vlassopoulos, Michael, 2013. "Cheating in the workplace: An experimental study of the impact of bonuses and productivity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 120-134.
    4. Octavian RUJOIU & Valentina RUJOIU, 2014. "Academic Dishonesty And Workplace Dishonesty. An Overview," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 8(1), pages 928-938, November.
    5. Danielle E. Warren & Maurice E. Schweitzer, 2018. "When Lying Does Not Pay: How Experts Detect Insurance Fraud," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 711-726, July.
    6. Wiltermuth, Scott S. & Bennett, Victor M. & Pierce, Lamar, 2013. "Doing as they would do: How the perceived ethical preferences of third-party beneficiaries impact ethical decision-making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 280-290.
    7. L. Kent Marett & Joey F. George, 2004. "Deception in the Case of One Sender and Multiple Receivers," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 29-44, January.
    8. Joseph P. Gaspar & Redona Methasani & Maurice E. Schweitzer, 2022. "Emotional Intelligence and Deception: A Theoretical Model and Propositions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 567-584, May.
    9. Kovic, Marko & Rauchfleisch, Adrian & Sele, Marc & Caspar, Christian, 2016. "Digital astroturfing in politics: Definition, typology, and countermeasures," SocArXiv 7ucsh, Center for Open Science.
    10. Peter Fleming & Stelios C. Zyglidopoulos, 2008. "The Escalation of Deception in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(4), pages 837-850, September.
    11. John R. Carlson & Joey F. George & Judee K. Burgoon & Mark Adkins & Cindy H. White, 2004. "Deception in Computer-Mediated Communication," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 5-28, January.
    12. Chieh-Peng Lin & Yuan-Hui Tsai & Sheng-Wuu Joe & Chou-Kang Chiu, 2012. "Modeling the Relationship Among Perceived Corporate Citizenship, Firms’ Attractiveness, and Career Success Expectation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(1), pages 83-93, January.
    13. Marian Eabrasu, 2020. "Cheating in Business: A Metaethical Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 519-532, March.
    14. Marco Meyer & Chun Wei Choo, 2024. "Harming by Deceit: Epistemic Malevolence and Organizational Wrongdoing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 439-452, January.
    15. Joseph P. Gaspar & Maurice E. Schweitzer, 2021. "Confident and Cunning: Negotiator Self-Efficacy Promotes Deception in Negotiations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 139-155, June.
    16. Adam Barsky, 2011. "Investigating the Effects of Moral Disengagement and Participation on Unethical Work Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(1), pages 59-75, November.
    17. Benjamin Edelman & Ian Larkin, 2015. "Social Comparisons and Deception Across Workplace Hierarchies: Field and Experimental Evidence," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 78-98, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:4:y:1993:i:3:p:478-495. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.