The Importance Of Accurate Performance Appraisals For Creating Ethical Organizations

Improving the day-to-day ethical judgments of employees within an organization remains a challenge. This study examined how employees’ job performance outcomes influence how others judge the employees’ ethical performance. The research found that respondents judged employees with successful job performance outcomes to have exhibited more ethical behaviors than employees with unsuccessful job performance outcomes. This pattern of results was consistent regardless of the respondent’s ethical beliefs. We discuss implications of these results for research and for practice, particularly in terms of improving judgments of ethical behavior in organizations.