Professor Strait to publish article on unethical behavior of public employees

Professor Patricia Strait, chair of the Human Resource Management and Leadership programs, will have published an article titled "Five Theories to Explain and Manage the Unethical Behavior of Public Employees" in volume four, number 4 of the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences.

The article explores ways to understand and control the unethical behavior of employees through the application of classic ethics theories. Dr. Strait provides this abstract to introduce the paper.

"This theory-based paper explores the ability of five ethics theories to explain, predict, and manage the unethical behavior of public employees. The theories discussed include: Naturalism Theory, Devil Theory, Pragmatism Theory, Emotive Theory, and Social View Theory. Emphasis is placed upon the theory’s ability to serve as a managerial strategy to control unethical behavior. Challenges regarding the implementation of these theories are also discussed. It is not the intention of this paper to suggest that one theory is inherently better than the other theories or that one of these theories is capable of serving in all organizational situations, but rather to inform the public practitioner as to the theoretical perspectives available so that he or she may choose the most appropriate theory according to the circumstances at hand, the employees involved, and the organization in question."

Learn more about the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences and about the Human Resource Management and Leadership programs.

Posted August 24, 2009