Abstract

The importance of performance measurement and control system (PMCS) in enhancing the firm profitability and sustainability has certainly been admitted by many, but findings on its effectiveness have been inconclusive with certain dysfunctional behaviours (DB) like budgetary slack, information or measures manipulation, or gaming, have been reported. Hence, a lot has been debated about what actually lead to these DBs. However, the bulk of researches has only concentrated on the technical aspects towards the betterment of the system which is unfortunately not always true. Ironically, though ethics has captured vast attention and has been admitted as bearing great importance in influencing one’s behaviour, it is a great surprise that very few empirical studies had linked ethics to DB in the context of PMCS. Hence this paper will try to propose how ethical antecedents will affect employees’ propensity to engage in DB. Based on reviews of extant literatures, the article first elaborates the DB in the context of PMCS before proceeding to the ethical antecedents, grouped in personal and organizational ethics, believed to influence the occurrence of DB. Propositions on how these factors will influence DB will be discussed based on social learning theory which would lead to the proposed theoretical framework. Practical implications will also be discussed.

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