The Relationship among the Sense of Power, the Sense of Status and Status Seeking Styles with Self-beneficial and Other-beneficial Unethical Decision-Making

Unethical decision-making could be considered as both selfish and self-beneficial in addition to being aimed at benefiting others. The aim of this study was to investigate the differential relationship among the sense of power, the sense of status and status seeking styles (i.e., prestige and dominance) with two forms of unethical decision-making. Participants were 150 citizens of Tehran, who voluntary participated in this study. Data were gathered by the sense of power scale, the sense of status scale, the dominance-prestige scale, and the unethical decision-making questionnaire (self-beneficial and other-beneficial forms). The multiple regression analysis showed that dominance was positively and prestige was negatively associated with self-beneficial unethical decision-making, whereas dominance was positively associated with other-beneficial unethical decision-making. The relationship between the sense of power and the sense of status with two forms of unethical decision-making was not significant. The results of this study supported the conceptual distinction between two forms of unethical decision-making. It seems that the sense of power or the sense of status alone could not explain unethical decision-making, and status seeking styles (i.e., prestige and dominance) would be the main mental mechanisms which contribute to the tendency for unethical decision-making.