Are Employees Safer When the CEO Looks Greedy?

Don O’Sullivan (), Leon Zolotoy (), Madhu Veeraraghavan () and Jennifer R. Overbeck ()
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Don O’Sullivan: Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne
Leon Zolotoy: University of Melbourne
Madhu Veeraraghavan: TA Pai Management Institute
Jennifer R. Overbeck: University of Melbourne

Journal of Business Ethics, 2025, vol. 198, issue 3, No 8, 655-673

Abstract: Abstract In this study, we explore the relationship between perceived CEO greed and workplace safety. Drawing on insights from the social psychology literature, we theorize that CEOs are cognizant that their perceived greed has implications for how observers respond to failures in workplace safety. Our theorizing points to a somewhat counterintuitive positive relationship between perceived CEO greed and workplace safety. Consistent with our theorizing, we find that the relationship is attenuated when the CEO is insulated from how observers respond to firm conduct and is amplified when the CEO’s characteristics have a larger impact on how observers respond to adverse firm-level events. We contribute to business ethics research on executive greed, on the relationship between CEO traits and (ir)responsible corporate conduct, and on the antecedents of workplace safety.

Keywords: CEO greed; Workplace safety; Reflexivity; Upper echelons (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-024-05820-x

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