Unnoticed Unethical Behavior when Gradually Escalated: Implications for Management of Safety

The authors paid attention to an unethical behavior motivated by the economic incentive or the pursuit of efficiency. When facing a situation under which one must weigh the ethics of safety rule and the efficiency (economic aspect) in the balance, it is difficult to recognize the unethical behavior when it was corroded gradually than when it was corroded abruptly. More concretely, it was explored how the change of actual amount of money and estimate (gradual change, or abrupt change), the reward of approval of the estimate, the revelation probability of dishonesty and the amount of punishment affected the dishonesty (unethical behavior) under the conflict of interest. The participants were less likely to criticize the actions of others, and tended to approve the estimate and receive the reward when their behavior eroded gradually over time than when their behavior changed abruptly. The authors could identify the combined effect of both large amount of punishment (reward of 10% of the estimated value) and low revelation probability (1%) for the contribution of increased percentage approval of the gradual change. In other words, the percentage approval under the gradual change condition was significantly larger than that under the abrupt change condition when the reward and the probability of revelation was 10% and 1%, respectively.