The Role of Spirituality in Ethical Decision Making During Projects

Introduction

The occurrence of unethical decision-making is increasing globally. It is estimated that $2.9 trillion is lost globally by businesses as a result of fraudulent activity (Moore et al., 2012). The Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2018 (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2018) reports that despite organisations having formal business ethics and compliance programmes, economic crime and fraud are on the rise. It is encouraging to note from the findings of the survey that almost every serious incident of fraud has been brought to the attention of senior management, and that business leaders are often personally held responsible for ethical or compliance breakdowns. However, a reactive approach to unethical decision-making does not seem to be the ideal, and it is therefore necessary to understand unethical decision-making, so as to predict such behavioural intent, because of the harmful impact it has on individuals, organisations and society (Moore et al., 2012). By contrast, ethical decision-making has a positive influence on profit, managerial well-being and corporate reputation, which implies that businesses will benefit from conducting business in an ethical manner (Ferrel et al., 2005).

Organisational leadership plays a critical role in creating a favourable organisational culture. It has been asserted that senior leaders and managers “not only take responsibility for organisational culture, but also communicate it in clear terms to all organisational members, and model the desired values, attitudes and behaviours” (Werner & Bagraim, 2011, p. 41). Unfortunately, organisational leaders have become so obsessed with making a profit, that they often neglect business ethics (Agbim et al., 2013), and this behaviour is then modelled by organisational members. Observing and experiencing this negative behaviour becomes employees’ cognitive map of organisational functioning, which ultimately influences their behaviour (Koys & DeCotiis, 1991). Such a materialistic focus on profit maximisation seems outdated, and it is therefore necessary to move beyond this materialistic focus to embrace more humane and socially acceptable practices, to promote responsible leadership.

In line with positive psychology theory, which proposes that behaviour should be considered from a positive stance, it seems more appropriate to consider factors that may positively influence or promote ethical decision-making, rather than focusing on unethical decision-making. Unfortunately, previous research focusing on the promotion of ethical decision-making has yielded disappointing results. For example, ethics training can only promote intellectual awareness of ethical behaviour (Bowden & Smythe, 2008), and codes of conduct may be regarded as moral aspirations (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003), hence the rise in unethical conduct despite training initiatives and codes of conduct being in place. This begs the question, “What else can be done to facilitate ethical decision-making in a complex work environment?”

There seem to be two important considerations which need to be explored in greater depth regarding ethical decision-making, namely the context within which decisions are taken, and the individual who makes the decisions. This argument is in line with Cianci et al.’s (2014) assertion that moral processing is influenced by both individual differences and the context in which individuals are embedded, such as the organisational culture and climate. Workplace spirituality has been found to promote an organisational culture where employees can experience interconnectedness, which promotes ethical decision-making (Otaye-Ebede et al., 2020). Corner (2009) asserts that an emerging theme in management literature is that workplace spirituality is related to business ethics. Indeed, the relationship between spirituality and ethics has been established theoretically and empirically (April et al., 2010; McGhee & Grant, 2008). However, the relationship between workplace spirituality and ethical decision-making should be confirmed and expanded on within different contexts, such as project management, because the immediate job context and characteristics of the work may influence ethical decision-making (Treviño, 1986).