Jason Hwang

Kai Chi Yam 1:30-330pm

MGMT 320 A
hwangjas@uw.edu
MGMT Written Research Alternative
Article title: Ego depletion and its paradoxical effects on ethical decision-making
Journal: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
(Volume 124, issue 2, July 2014)
1. What is the main research question addressed in this article?
The main research question that was address in the article was the following:
If ego depletion reduces self-control resources that can increase unethical
behavior and also depletes action initiative necessary to enact unethical behaviors,
under what conditions is ego depletion positively (or negatively) associated with
unethical behavior?
2. What methodology was used to test the research question?
In this study, the researches took questions or unethical behaviors that were deemed
unethical by high social consensus (behaviors that were generally accepted as unethical).
These unethical behaviors would require a lot more thought and action initiative than
would something that is obscure or in what we would say a gray area.
The researches conducted three studies that utilized a variety of methods that have
been previously validated. There were several samples that included a field study of tax
accountants, and a sample of undergraduate students. Participants in the study were
assigned to four conditions and were given an opportunity to cheat (unethical behavior)
for additional payment at the end of the study. In the second study, they asked
professional tax accountants to complete a survey 10 days prior to the deadline of the tax
season (around April), which was during their most stressful or cognitively demanding
time of year. Recruitment e-mails were sent to 888 alumni who graduated with a

Bachelors Degree in Accounting at the authors respective institutions. They were invited
to participate anonymously on a voluntary basis. They used a snowball sampling
technique where they invited the accountants to solicit fellow accountants to complete the
study. The studies were not longitudinal; they were collected at several points in different
times.
3. What were the results of this study? What was the answer to the research
question?
Their research found that ego depletion did in fact lead to changes in unethical
behavior. They found that ego depletion only leads to more unethical behavior of lower
social consensus, meaning that those with lower egos tend to still abide ethically to
ethical issues of high social consensus (e.g., a person still wont murder someone just
because their ego has been depleted). However, their unethical behavior does increase for
lower social consensus (e.g., a person might lie if ego is depleted). They also found that
ego depletion actually causes lower level of unethical behavior of high social consensus.
4. What are suggestions for future research on this topic?
My personal suggestions would to include different kinds of professionals in different
fields. Professional tax accountants were used in this study because they are known to
have a higher standard of ethics. Perhaps it would be interesting to see how other
professionals would react who may seem more morally righteous, but may lack in
ethicality. It is hard to differentiate morality or ethicality in different industries, and I
believe that tax accountants would struggle less with moral implications, as money does
not have much humanistic qualities.
5. What did you learn from this study?
I found the study to be especially interesting, as an undergrad student studying
business. There is much corruption in the business world, especially in Finance, and
learning more about what are potential causes of unethical behavior is pertinent to me. I

would never have guessed that ego-depletion or from lack of sleep would increase my
unethical behavior levels of lower social consensus behaviors. It is difficult to study this
phenomenon, and I am impressed at how they performed the study. All in all, I learned
more about the behaviors of those under stress and its relationship with participating in
unethical behaviors.