Muel Kaptein
Biographic Data
| ID | 4127582 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Muel Kaptein |
| GIVEN NAMES | Muel |
| FAMILY NAME | Kaptein |
| SIGNATURE | KAPTEIN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Erasmus University Rotterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5066-306X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 110 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Limits of the Ethical Responsibilities of Companies: Using Corporate Social Contract Theory to Identify Boundary Principles
Many normative theories in business ethics articulate the ethical responsibilities that companies have but fail to specify the ethical responsibilities that companies do not have. This omission can create the misleading impression that companies’ ethical responsibilities are unlimited, leading to both normative and practical problems. This article addresses this gap by exploring the limits of companies’ ethical responsibilities. Using corporate s…
Understanding the Effectiveness of Ethics Programs in Preventing Unethical Behavior by Unravelling the Dimensions of Team Ethical Culture
Unethical behavior in the workplace is a widespread phenomenon. A burgeoning body of research has examined the influence of the ethics program and ethical culture of an organization on the unethical behavior of its employees. The existence of different team ethical cultures within an organization, however, offers a new perspective on the occurrence of unethical behavior beyond the individual and organizational levels. To extend the understanding …
The Status of Normative Ethical Decision-Making Models: The Development and Application of an Analytical Framework
Normative ethical decision-making models (NEDMs) are designed to enhance ethical decision-making. NEDMs are widely employed in business contexts. Unfortunately, there is no overview of NEDMs available in the scholarly literature for use in business contexts. Additionally, there is no analytical framework that allows the classification, comparison, and evaluation of existing NEDMs. Our literature search identified 28 unique NEDMs published in the …
To Punish or to Forgive: Managerial Responses to Unethical Employee Behavior from an Organizational Ethical Culture Perspective
This article examines whether management should respond to unethical employee behavior with punishment or forgiveness from the perspective of how these responses influence the ethical culture of an organization. Using expressive punishment theory, this article argues that both punishment and forgiveness can positively influence various dimensions of an organization’s ethical culture. However, as these managerial responses are mutually exclusive, …
A Profit Cap is not yet a General Moral Duty for Companies: A Corporate Social Contract Perspective
In both the literature and practice, it has been advocated that companies should have a profit cap. Utilizing corporate social contract theory, this article posits that under at least three conditions, companies do not have a general moral duty to cap their profits. These conditions entail that a company adheres to the contracting principles of its stakeholder relationships, that the constitutive stakeholders of the company have not otherwise sti…
Team ethical culture as a coupling mechanism between a well‐implemented organizational ethics program and the prevention of unethical behavior in teams
Many organizations have adopted an organizational ethics program to prevent unethical behavior within the organization. Decoupling the adoption of ethics programs from their implementation has been identified in the literature as an explanation for the ineffectiveness of such programs. In addition to this so‐called policy–practice decoupling, means–ends decoupling may also occur when a well‐implemented ethics program is nevertheless ineffective. …
A Paradox of Ethics: Why People in Good Organizations do Bad Things
This article takes a novel approach to explaining the causes of unethical behavior in organizations. Instead of explaining the unethical behavior of employees in terms of their bad organization, this article examines how a good organization can lead to employees’ unethical behavior. The main idea is that the more ethical an organization becomes, the higher, in some respects, is the likelihood of unethical behavior. This is due to four threatening…
How Much You See Is How You Respond: The Curvilinear Relationship Between the Frequency of Observed Unethical Behavior and The Whistleblowing Intention
This article uses a sample of 3076 employees working in the USA to examine the relationship between the frequency of unethical behavior that employees observe in their organization and their intention to whistleblow. The results confirm the expected curvilinear relationship based on the Focus Theory of Normative Conduct. This relationship is a combination of a diminishing negative relationship between the frequency of observed unethical behavior …
Longitudinal Patterns of Ethical Organisational Culture as a Context for Leaders’ Well-Being: Cumulative Effects Over 6 Years
The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the temporal dynamics of ethical organisational culture and how it associates with well-being at work when potential changes in ethical culture are measured over an extended period of 6 years. We used a person-centred study design, which allowed us to detect both typical and atypical patterns of ethical culture stability as well as change among a sample of leaders. Based on latent profile anal…
The Moral Duty to Love One’s Stakeholders
Much has been written about the general moral duty to love one’s neighbors. In this article, I explore the specific application of this moral duty in the work setting. I argue from a secular perspective that individuals have the moral duty to love their stakeholders. Loving one’s stakeholders is an affective valuing of the stake-related values these stakeholders pursue and as such is the real recognition of one’s stakeholders as stakeholders and …
Integrity Scandals of Politicians: A Political Integrity Index
How often are politicians confronted with public allegations of integrity violations? Which types of violations, government levels, and parties do these scandals involve? The Political Integrity Index developed in The Netherlands offers information about the number and types of political integrity scandals in the country since 2013. This article presents a brief overview of the relevant literature on integrity and corruption and on political scan…
Virtue and virtuousness in organizations: Guidelines for ascribing individual and organizational moral responsibility
This article advances research on moral responsibility in organizations by drawing on both philosophical virtue ethics grounded in the Aristotelian tradition and Positive Organizational Scholarship research concerned with virtuousness. The article discusses the very conditions that make possible the realization of virtues and virtuousness, respectively. These conditions ground notions of moral responsibility and the resulting praise or blame on o…
The Integrity of Integrity Programs: Toward a Normative Framework
Most of the norms developed for integrity programs are grounded in positivist arguments focused on effectiveness. The norms developed in this article are grounded in normative arguments that are directly deduced from the concept of integrity itself. The four norms are intentional wholeness; organizational wholeness; societal wholeness; and processual wholeness. These norms are operationalized into subnorms and indicators, resulting in a normative…
A Model of Neutralization Techniques
Neutralizations are important explanations for the rise and persistence of deviant behavior. We can find many different and overlapping techniques of neutralizations in the literature, which may be a reason for inconsistent research findings on the use and influence of neutralization techniques. Therefore, by following both a deductive and an inductive approach, this article develops a model that covers these techniques in a logical way. This is …
Integrity Management as Interorganizational Activity: Exploring Integrity Partnerships That Keep the Wheel in Motion
Much research on integrity management centers on the internal activities and measures individual organizations can employ to foster integrity. Using institutional and cultural theory, this article, conversely, explores how organizations can cooperate with peer organizations to manage integrity. Based on empirical research, 23 different integrity partnerships were mapped and analyzed, resulting in four categories: the integrity workshop (sharing i…
Understanding Integrity Policy Formation Processes: A Case Study in the Netherlands of the Conditions for Change
The increase of attention to integrity in the public sector has been accompanied by growing interest in integrity as a field of inquiry. As yet, analyses of integrity policy as a change process have not been part of the research agenda. Insight into the actors, factors, and circumstances that influence policy change could lead to more realistic goals and offers, and, at the same time, opportunities for improving public integrity. This study appli…
The Institutionalization of Integrity in Local Government
Scientific research and legal provisions offer more guidance on what regulations and instruments government organizations should apply to manage integrity than on how they should manage integrity, although the latter is at least as important as the former. Based on interviews with integrity officials in Dutch local government organizations, this exploratory study develops a descriptive typology of different approaches to the institutionalization …
Understanding unethical behavior by unraveling ethical culture
Unethical behavior in the workplace is a widespread phenomenon. In this article a model for the ethical culture of organizations that consists of eight dimensions is employed to explain unethical behavior. The sample was composed of 341 triads consisting of a manager and two direct reports. The results show that six dimensions of ethical culture were negatively related to observed unethical behavior: ethical role modeling of management, ethical r…
Developing and testing a measure for the ethical culture of organizations: The corporate ethical virtues model
Based on four interlocking empirical studies, this paper initially validates and refines the Corporate Ethical Virtues Model which formulates normative criteria for the ethical culture of organizations. The findings of an exploratory factor analysis provide support for the existence of eight unidimensional subscales: clarity, congruency of supervisors, congruency of management, feasibility, supportability, transparency, discussability, and sancti…
A Model of Neutralization Techniques
Neutralizations are important explanations for the rise and persistence of deviant behavior. We can find many different and overlapping techniques of neutralizations in the literature, which may be a reason for inconsistent research findings on the use and influence of neutralization techniques. Therefore, by following both a deductive and an inductive approach, this article develops a model that covers these techniques in a logical way. This is …
Developing and testing a measure for the ethical culture of organizations: The corporate ethical virtues model
Based on four interlocking empirical studies, this paper initially validates and refines the Corporate Ethical Virtues Model which formulates normative criteria for the ethical culture of organizations. The findings of an exploratory factor analysis provide support for the existence of eight unidimensional subscales: clarity, congruency of supervisors, congruency of management, feasibility, supportability, transparency, discussability, and sancti…
Understanding unethical behavior by unraveling ethical culture
Unethical behavior in the workplace is a widespread phenomenon. In this article a model for the ethical culture of organizations that consists of eight dimensions is employed to explain unethical behavior. The sample was composed of 341 triads consisting of a manager and two direct reports. The results show that six dimensions of ethical culture were negatively related to observed unethical behavior: ethical role modeling of management, ethical r…
The Institutionalization of Integrity in Local Government
Scientific research and legal provisions offer more guidance on what regulations and instruments government organizations should apply to manage integrity than on how they should manage integrity, although the latter is at least as important as the former. Based on interviews with integrity officials in Dutch local government organizations, this exploratory study develops a descriptive typology of different approaches to the institutionalization …
Understanding Integrity Policy Formation Processes: A Case Study in the Netherlands of the Conditions for Change
The increase of attention to integrity in the public sector has been accompanied by growing interest in integrity as a field of inquiry. As yet, analyses of integrity policy as a change process have not been part of the research agenda. Insight into the actors, factors, and circumstances that influence policy change could lead to more realistic goals and offers, and, at the same time, opportunities for improving public integrity. This study appli…
Integrity Scandals of Politicians: A Political Integrity Index
How often are politicians confronted with public allegations of integrity violations? Which types of violations, government levels, and parties do these scandals involve? The Political Integrity Index developed in The Netherlands offers information about the number and types of political integrity scandals in the country since 2013. This article presents a brief overview of the relevant literature on integrity and corruption and on political scan…
The Integrity of Integrity Programs: Toward a Normative Framework
Most of the norms developed for integrity programs are grounded in positivist arguments focused on effectiveness. The norms developed in this article are grounded in normative arguments that are directly deduced from the concept of integrity itself. The four norms are intentional wholeness; organizational wholeness; societal wholeness; and processual wholeness. These norms are operationalized into subnorms and indicators, resulting in a normative…
Integrity Management as Interorganizational Activity: Exploring Integrity Partnerships That Keep the Wheel in Motion
Much research on integrity management centers on the internal activities and measures individual organizations can employ to foster integrity. Using institutional and cultural theory, this article, conversely, explores how organizations can cooperate with peer organizations to manage integrity. Based on empirical research, 23 different integrity partnerships were mapped and analyzed, resulting in four categories: the integrity workshop (sharing i…
Developing and testing a measure for the ethical culture of organizations: The corporate ethical virtues model
Based on four interlocking empirical studies, this paper initially validates and refines the Corporate Ethical Virtues Model which formulates normative criteria for the ethical culture of organizations. The findings of an exploratory factor analysis provide support for the existence of eight unidimensional subscales: clarity, congruency of supervisors, congruency of management, feasibility, supportability, transparency, discussability, and sancti…
Understanding unethical behavior by unraveling ethical culture
Unethical behavior in the workplace is a widespread phenomenon. In this article a model for the ethical culture of organizations that consists of eight dimensions is employed to explain unethical behavior. The sample was composed of 341 triads consisting of a manager and two direct reports. The results show that six dimensions of ethical culture were negatively related to observed unethical behavior: ethical role modeling of management, ethical r…
The Institutionalization of Integrity in Local Government
Scientific research and legal provisions offer more guidance on what regulations and instruments government organizations should apply to manage integrity than on how they should manage integrity, although the latter is at least as important as the former. Based on interviews with integrity officials in Dutch local government organizations, this exploratory study develops a descriptive typology of different approaches to the institutionalization …
Understanding Integrity Policy Formation Processes: A Case Study in the Netherlands of the Conditions for Change
The increase of attention to integrity in the public sector has been accompanied by growing interest in integrity as a field of inquiry. As yet, analyses of integrity policy as a change process have not been part of the research agenda. Insight into the actors, factors, and circumstances that influence policy change could lead to more realistic goals and offers, and, at the same time, opportunities for improving public integrity. This study appli…
Integrity Management as Interorganizational Activity: Exploring Integrity Partnerships That Keep the Wheel in Motion
Much research on integrity management centers on the internal activities and measures individual organizations can employ to foster integrity. Using institutional and cultural theory, this article, conversely, explores how organizations can cooperate with peer organizations to manage integrity. Based on empirical research, 23 different integrity partnerships were mapped and analyzed, resulting in four categories: the integrity workshop (sharing i…
A Model of Neutralization Techniques
Neutralizations are important explanations for the rise and persistence of deviant behavior. We can find many different and overlapping techniques of neutralizations in the literature, which may be a reason for inconsistent research findings on the use and influence of neutralization techniques. Therefore, by following both a deductive and an inductive approach, this article develops a model that covers these techniques in a logical way. This is …
Virtue and virtuousness in organizations: Guidelines for ascribing individual and organizational moral responsibility
This article advances research on moral responsibility in organizations by drawing on both philosophical virtue ethics grounded in the Aristotelian tradition and Positive Organizational Scholarship research concerned with virtuousness. The article discusses the very conditions that make possible the realization of virtues and virtuousness, respectively. These conditions ground notions of moral responsibility and the resulting praise or blame on o…
The Integrity of Integrity Programs: Toward a Normative Framework
Most of the norms developed for integrity programs are grounded in positivist arguments focused on effectiveness. The norms developed in this article are grounded in normative arguments that are directly deduced from the concept of integrity itself. The four norms are intentional wholeness; organizational wholeness; societal wholeness; and processual wholeness. These norms are operationalized into subnorms and indicators, resulting in a normative…
How Much You See Is How You Respond: The Curvilinear Relationship Between the Frequency of Observed Unethical Behavior and The Whistleblowing Intention
This article uses a sample of 3076 employees working in the USA to examine the relationship between the frequency of unethical behavior that employees observe in their organization and their intention to whistleblow. The results confirm the expected curvilinear relationship based on the Focus Theory of Normative Conduct. This relationship is a combination of a diminishing negative relationship between the frequency of observed unethical behavior …
Longitudinal Patterns of Ethical Organisational Culture as a Context for Leaders’ Well-Being: Cumulative Effects Over 6 Years
The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the temporal dynamics of ethical organisational culture and how it associates with well-being at work when potential changes in ethical culture are measured over an extended period of 6 years. We used a person-centred study design, which allowed us to detect both typical and atypical patterns of ethical culture stability as well as change among a sample of leaders. Based on latent profile anal…
The Moral Duty to Love One’s Stakeholders
Much has been written about the general moral duty to love one’s neighbors. In this article, I explore the specific application of this moral duty in the work setting. I argue from a secular perspective that individuals have the moral duty to love their stakeholders. Loving one’s stakeholders is an affective valuing of the stake-related values these stakeholders pursue and as such is the real recognition of one’s stakeholders as stakeholders and …
Integrity Scandals of Politicians: A Political Integrity Index
How often are politicians confronted with public allegations of integrity violations? Which types of violations, government levels, and parties do these scandals involve? The Political Integrity Index developed in The Netherlands offers information about the number and types of political integrity scandals in the country since 2013. This article presents a brief overview of the relevant literature on integrity and corruption and on political scan…
A Paradox of Ethics: Why People in Good Organizations do Bad Things
This article takes a novel approach to explaining the causes of unethical behavior in organizations. Instead of explaining the unethical behavior of employees in terms of their bad organization, this article examines how a good organization can lead to employees’ unethical behavior. The main idea is that the more ethical an organization becomes, the higher, in some respects, is the likelihood of unethical behavior. This is due to four threatening…
A Profit Cap is not yet a General Moral Duty for Companies: A Corporate Social Contract Perspective
In both the literature and practice, it has been advocated that companies should have a profit cap. Utilizing corporate social contract theory, this article posits that under at least three conditions, companies do not have a general moral duty to cap their profits. These conditions entail that a company adheres to the contracting principles of its stakeholder relationships, that the constitutive stakeholders of the company have not otherwise sti…
Team ethical culture as a coupling mechanism between a well‐implemented organizational ethics program and the prevention of unethical behavior in teams
Many organizations have adopted an organizational ethics program to prevent unethical behavior within the organization. Decoupling the adoption of ethics programs from their implementation has been identified in the literature as an explanation for the ineffectiveness of such programs. In addition to this so‐called policy–practice decoupling, means–ends decoupling may also occur when a well‐implemented ethics program is nevertheless ineffective. …
The Limits of the Ethical Responsibilities of Companies: Using Corporate Social Contract Theory to Identify Boundary Principles
Many normative theories in business ethics articulate the ethical responsibilities that companies have but fail to specify the ethical responsibilities that companies do not have. This omission can create the misleading impression that companies’ ethical responsibilities are unlimited, leading to both normative and practical problems. This article addresses this gap by exploring the limits of companies’ ethical responsibilities. Using corporate s…
Understanding the Effectiveness of Ethics Programs in Preventing Unethical Behavior by Unravelling the Dimensions of Team Ethical Culture
Unethical behavior in the workplace is a widespread phenomenon. A burgeoning body of research has examined the influence of the ethics program and ethical culture of an organization on the unethical behavior of its employees. The existence of different team ethical cultures within an organization, however, offers a new perspective on the occurrence of unethical behavior beyond the individual and organizational levels. To extend the understanding …
The Status of Normative Ethical Decision-Making Models: The Development and Application of an Analytical Framework
Normative ethical decision-making models (NEDMs) are designed to enhance ethical decision-making. NEDMs are widely employed in business contexts. Unfortunately, there is no overview of NEDMs available in the scholarly literature for use in business contexts. Additionally, there is no analytical framework that allows the classification, comparison, and evaluation of existing NEDMs. Our literature search identified 28 unique NEDMs published in the …
To Punish or to Forgive: Managerial Responses to Unethical Employee Behavior from an Organizational Ethical Culture Perspective
This article examines whether management should respond to unethical employee behavior with punishment or forgiveness from the perspective of how these responses influence the ethical culture of an organization. Using expressive punishment theory, this article argues that both punishment and forgiveness can positively influence various dimensions of an organization’s ethical culture. However, as these managerial responses are mutually exclusive, …
Political science (16 works) · Ethics in Business and Education (14 works) · Public relations (12 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Business ethics (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Quality of Life Research (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Business (7 works)