National Center for Professional and Research Ethics (NCPRE)

The National Center for Professional & Research Ethics (NCPRE) brings together information on best practices in research, academia and business in an online portal and center. Its centerpiece project is Ethics CORE, an online ethics resource. Other key projects include:

• A certificate program in Teaching Responsible Conduct of Research to develop the next generation of Ethics Educators
  
• The Survey of Organizational Research Climate, which allows institutions to empirically measure their research climate
  
• An Ethics Outreach Leadership program taking peer led ethics education into the high school setting
  
• Organization of the University of Illinois annual Ethics Awareness Week programming
  Read more about the center here

The Ethics Core

Ethics CORE gathers, preserves and provides comprehensive access to resources related to professional and research ethics for many audiences. Via a comprehensive federated search engine, it provides information and expertise for:

• Instructors who teach ethics
  
• Students with questions about research integrity
  
• Researchers and engineers who encounter ethical challenges in practice
  
• Administrators in universities
  
• Businesses who oversee ethics and compliance policies
  
• Scholars who conduct research on professional and research ethics
  
• Anyone with additional questions or interests in these areas

Read more about Ethic Core here

The Effect of Incentive Framing and Descriptive Norms on Internal Whistleblowing

Firms are under increasing pressure to implement effective internal whistleblowing systems. While firms can provide incentives to encourage internal whistleblowing, it remains controversial how such incentives should be structured. We examine whether the effectiveness of incentives encouraging internal whistleblowing is a joint function of the framing of such incentives (reward or penalty) and the strength of descriptive norms supporting internal whistleblowing. We predict and find in a lab experiment that penalties lead to a greater increase in internal whistleblowing (compared to rewards) when descriptive norms supporting whistleblowing are stronger. Our study contributes to the previous accounting literature on dishonesty and the role of management control systems design in promoting honesty and ethical norms in organizations. We also contribute to an emerging accounting literature on the links between controls, norms, and individual behavior by distinguishing between descriptive norms and injunctive norms and by highlighting the interplay between these two types of norms. Our results have important implications for organizations considering adopting incentives to encourage internal whistleblowing.

Chen, Clara Xiaoling, et al. "The Effect of Incentive Framing and Descriptive Norms on Internal Whistleblowing." Contemporary Accounting Research, vol. 34, no. 4, Dec. 2017, pp. 1757–1778. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/1911-3846.12325.

Explore More

Access to "The Effect of Incentive Framing and Descriptive Norms on Internal Whistleblowing" is available HERE>>

Aguilera, R., Garcia-Castro, R. Forthcoming. Incremental Value Creation and Appropriation in a World with Multiple Stakeholders. Strategic Management Journal

Bell, G., Filatotchev, I., Aguilera, R. Forthcoming. Corporate Governance and Investors' Perceptions of Foreign IPO Value: An Institutional Perspective. Academy of Management Journal

Garcia-Castro, R., Aguilera, R. Forthcoming. Family Business and Performance Revisited: A Set-Theoretic Cross-National Inquiry. Journal of Family Business Strategy

Aguilera, R.V. and Vadera, A. (forthcoming 2008) "A Comparative Account of Corporate Ethics and HR Practices." In Paul R. Sparrow (Ed.), Handbook on International Human Resource Management Research: Integrating People, Process and Context. Oxford: Blackwell.

Aguilera, R.V. and A. K. Vadera (2007) "The Dark Side of Authority: Antecedents, Mechanisms, and Outcomes of Organizational Corruption." Journal of Business Ethics. (Download PDF)

Williams, C.A. and Aguilera, R.V. (2007) "Corporate Social Responsibility in Comparative Perspective." In A. Crane, A. McWilliams, D. Matten, J. Moon and D. Siegel (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Aguilera, R.V., D. Rupp, C. Williams, and J. Ganapathi. (2007). "Putting the S Back in CSR: A Multi-level Theory of Social Change in Organizations." Academy of Management Review, 32 (3): 836-863.

Aguilera, R.V., C. Williams, Conley, J., and D. Rupp. (2006). "Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility. A Comparative Analysis of the U.K. and the U.S." Corporate Governance: An International Review, 14(3): 147-157.

Rupp, D., J. Ganapathi, R.V. Aguilera, and C. Williams. (2006) "Employee Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility: An Organizational Justice Framework," Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Aguilera, R.V. (2005) "Corporate Governance and Director Accountability: An Institutional Comparative Perspective." British Journal of Management, 16: 1-15. (Download PDF)

Michael Loui, Faculty Advisory Committee Member

Please visit Michael Loui's faculty profile for a complete list of his publications.

M. C. Loui, "Ethics and Social Responsibility for Scientists and Engineers," Friday Forum, University YMCA, Champaign, Illinois, February 6, 2009. (Download PDF, 36 KB)

M. C. Loui, "Assessment of an engineering ethics video: Incident at Morales," Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 95, no. 1, pp. 85-91, January 2006. (Download PDF, 148 KB)

G. Hashemian and M. C. Loui, "Engineering courage: from "not my business" to positive responsibility," Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Indianapolis, Ind., October 19-22, 2005, pp. S3D-17 to S3D-18.

M. C. Loui, "Ethics and the development of professional identities of engineering students," Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 94, no. 4, pp. 383-390, October 2005. Copyright American Society for Engineering Education, 2005. (Download PDF, 79 KB)

M. C. Loui, "Educational technologies and the teaching of ethics in science and engineering," Science and Engineering Ethics, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 435-446, July 2005. Copyright Opragen Publications, 2005. ( Download PDF, 199 KB)

M. C. Loui, E. W. LeFevre, S. P. Nichols, C. M. Skooglund, J. H. Smith, F. Suppe, P. E. Ulmer, and V. Weil, "Incident at Morales: an engineering ethics video," Proceedings of the Thirty-Third ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Westminster, Colo., November 5-8, 2003, pp. S1H-1 to S1H-2.

M. C. Loui, "Seven ways to plagiarize: handling real allegations of research misconduct," Science and Engineering Ethics, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 529-539, October 2002. Copyright Opragen Publications, 2002. (Download PDF, 186 KB)

M. C. Loui, "Fieldwork and cooperative learning in professional ethics," Teaching Philosophy, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 139-156, June 2000.

Other Authors

Ann E. Tenbrunsel, David M. Messick, "Ethical Fading: The Role of Self-Deception in Unethical Behavior," Social Justice Research, Vol. 17, No. 2, June 2004. (Download PDF, 79 KB)

John L. Carey, "The Independence Concept Revisited," Accounting Seminar at the University of Illinois, April 1970. (Download Word Document)

Professional Organizations

Visit the following websites if you would like to learn more about ethics and compliance:

Ethics and Compliance Initiative (ECI)
Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE)