Relationships and Unethical Behavior: A Social Network Perspective

Recent models of unethical behavior have begun to examine the combination of characteristics of individuals, issues, and organizations. We extend this examination by addressing a largely ignored perspective that focuses on the relationships among actors. Drawing on social network analysis, we generate propositions concerning types of relationships (strength, multiplexity, asymmetry, and status) and the structure of relationships (structural holes, centrality, and density). We also consider the combination of the type and structure of relationships and how this embeddedness perspective relates to social contagion and conspiracies.

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