Ethical Orientation and Research Misconduct Among Business Researchers Under the Condition of Autonomy and Competition.

The topics of ethical conduct and governance in academic research in the business field have attracted scientific and public attention. The concern is that research misconduct in organizations such as business schools and universities might result in practitioners, policymakers, and researchers grounding their decisions on biased research results. This study addresses ethical research misconduct by investigating whether the ethical orientation of business researchers is related to the likelihood of research misconduct, such as selective reporting of research findings. We distinguish between deontological and consequentialist ethical orientations and the competition between researchers and investigate the moderating role of their perceived autonomy. Based on global data collected from 1031 business scholars, we find that researchers with a strong deontological ethical orientation are less prone to misconduct. This effect is robust against different levels of perceived autonomy and competition. In contrast, researchers having a consequentialist ethical orientation is positively associated with misconduct in business research. High levels of competition in the research environment reinforce this effect. Our results reveal a potentially toxic combination comprising researchers with a strong consequentialist orientation who are embedded in highly competitive research environments. Our research calls for the development of ethical orientations grounded on maxims rather than anticipated consequences among researchers. We conclude that measures for ethical governance in business schools should consider the ethical orientation that underlies researchers' decision-making and the organizational and institutional environment in which business researchers are embedded.

Trait resilience and resilient behavior at work: The mediating role of the learning climate.

Although the positive effects of resilience at work are well documented, the mechanisms that explain the translation of trait resilience into resilient behavior at work remain unclear. Drawing on person-environment fit theory in conjunction with trait-activation theory and utilizing two-wave data of Dutch employees, we investigated whether and which learning-supportive environment (i.e., a perception of learning climate) mediates the effects of trait resilience as a personal characteristic on behavioral resilience at work. Our results indicate that an appreciation learning climate as well as a facilitating learning climate mediate the relationship between trait resilience and resilient behavior at work. Taken together, this study suggests that managers should be cautious encouraging perceptions of error avoidance within their organizations.

Antecedents of COVID-19 rumination: A three-wave study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of our lives and has caused a considerable rise in psychological complaints such as anxieties and depression. The majority of studies so far has focused on outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic. To augment current knowledge, we focus on the antecedents of COVID-19 rumination. Specially, we examine how negative and positive work events prior to the outbreak influence individuals' coping capacity with regard to COVID-19 (i.e., the extent to which individuals have recurrent negative thoughts about COVID-19). Drawing on Conservation of Resources Theory (COR), we maintain that positive and negative work events prior to the pandemic can affect one's self-efficacy experiences and in turn can impact recurrent negative thoughts about COVID-19. Alongside exploring the proposed theoretical mediation model, we test one of the key assumptions of the COR theory: the notion of primacy of negative over positive affect that results from negative (vs. positive) work events. Three-waved data was collected among Dutch employees (T1 = 302; T2 = 199; T3 = 171); two prior to the pandemic and one at the onset of the outbreak. Results showed that positive work events increased self-efficacy, which in turn reduced COVID-19 rumination. Contrary to the expectation of primacy of the effects of negative work events, we found no significant impact of negative work events on individuals' COVID-19 rumination.

Employee adjustment and well-being in the era of COVID-19: Implications for human resource management.

Today's organizations have to remain alert and adaptive to unforeseen events, such as external crises, which create increased uncertainty among their workforce and pose immediate threats to the organizations' performance and viability. However, with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, organizations suddenly have to navigate the unprecedented and thereby find new solutions to challenges arising across many areas of their operations. In this article, we discusses some of these challenges, focusing on the implications COVID-19 has for human resource management (HRM) as organizations help their workforce cope with and adjust to their newly altered work environment. In addition, we propose several avenues for future research and advocate for an integrated research agenda for tackling the challenges discussed.