Ethical Decision Making and the Employed Lawyer |
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Authors: | Sally Gunz Hugh Gunz |
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Institution: | (1) School of Accountancy, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. West, Waterloo, ON, Canada, N2L 3G1 |
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Abstract: | This article addresses one of the more disturbing questions raised by the major financial failures of the recent past; namely,
how it could be that professionals, highly trained both in ethics and technical disciplines, should apparently collude with
management in corporate misbehaviour. The article builds on evidence suggesting that professionals in employment contexts
find ways of adapting in order to minimise perceived or actual conflict between their professional and organizational obligations
and that this, in turn, may affect the way in which they exercise professional judgment. It uses identity theory to propose
that professionals may adopt modified identities when employed and that these identities may be expressed, in part, in the
way in which they resolve ethical dilemmas. The article reports on the results of a qualitative study in which corporate counsel
showed evidence of adopting these identities. The findings suggest that this line of research offers insight into a far more
complex world of employed professionals than that traditionally hypothesised and that the popular approach of regulators and
others to monitoring corporate governance by appointing professionals as gate-keepers within the organization is perhaps problematic. |
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Keywords: | employed lawyer identity theory ethical decision making professions ethical dilemma |
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