Developing a scale for measuring perceptions of ethical misconduct

The purpose of the study is to develop a scale to measure individual’s ethical misconduct perceptions in the workplace. The Ethics Resource Center (2014) identified the most frequent types of ethical misconduct within the United States. These behaviors served as the 28 initial items for the implicit perceptions of ethical misconduct scale. A previous study identified four dimensions of unethical misconduct: Deceit, Use of Drugs and Alcohol, Sexual Misconduct, and Theft. The perceptions of ethical misconduct survey items were reduced to reflect the four dimensions. Therefore, we propose a confirmatory factor analysis on a separate data set will confirm these dimensions. We also believe that perceptions of ethical misconduct will be positively correlated with counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Additionally, individuals with dark personality traits, such as psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, were more likely to perceive unethical misconduct as ethical