Thinking Like a Bad Guy: Teaching Critical and Creative Managerial Ethical
Thinking Using Codes of Ethics

Robert A. Giacalone; Mark D. Promislo; Vickie Coleman Gallagher

ORDER ARTICLE PERMISSIONS/REPRINTS/OFFPRINTS/

To order copies, and/or permissions to include this article in textbooks, edited volumes, course booklets, online/digital course packs, etc., and/or to order multiple individual hard copies for classroom use, please use the secure online payment, or the appropriate form available on the Order Forms page, or alternatively, contact the Publishing Editor, Peter Neilson, pneilson@neilsonjournals.com directly.

Thinking Like a Bad Guy: Teaching Critical and Creative Managerial Ethical Thinking Using Codes of Ethics

Robert A. Giacalone

Texas State University, USA

Mark D. Promislo

Rider University, USA

Vickie Coleman Gallagher

Cleveland State University, USA

Volume 20: 2023 pp. 117-136: ABSTRACT

Miscreants, in the form of deviants and dark personalities, impact organizations more than we realize. Most management instruction on ethics issues focuses on helping students to understand how to evaluate difficult situations, make ethical decisions, and engage in ethical actions. While this approach works well for the individual decision maker, it fails to help students learn how to anticipate and proactively prevent the unethical actions of others. Using ethical codes as a backdrop, “Thinking Like a Bad Guy” is a provocative classroom activity to elicit critical and creative thinking among business students. The goal of this exercise is to facilitate student learning so they can anticipate the behaviors of bad actors and alter organizational processes and procedures to mitigate the ability of others to violate organizational ethical standards.
Keywords: deviants, dark personalities, organizational procedures, ethical standards.