Lying in organizations: theory, research, and future directions

Pundits, practitioners, and policy makers have trumpeted the importance of ethical business behavior. To the general public," business ethics" conjures up images of the major, publicized catastrophes, such as the gas leak at Union Carbide's Bhopal plant and tine Exxon Valdez oil spill. Closer inspection of highly publicized unethical activity, however, often reveals a constellation of much smaller behaviors that allow catastrophes or gross misconduct to occur (Guy, 1990). Business ethics theory can be enhanced by examining the underlying behaviors that contribute to major wrongdoing. This chapter analyzes one such behavior: lying. In this chapter, I demonstrate the need to examine lying, review the extant literature on lying, and suggest future directions for lying research.