Effect of Self-Accountability on Self-Regulatory Behaviour: A Quasi-Experiment

Amit Dhiman (), Arindam Sen () and Priyank Bhardwaj ()
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Amit Dhiman: Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
Arindam Sen: HSBC
Priyank Bhardwaj: PWC

Journal of Business Ethics, 2018, vol. 148, issue 1, No 6, 79-97

Abstract: Abstract An individual’s accountability to oneself leads to self-regulatory behaviour. A field experiment afforded an opportunity to test this relation, given that external accountability conditions were absent. A single group pre-test/post-test design was used to test the hypothesis. A group of full-time resident management students, n ≈ 550, take four meals during the day in the institute mess. As a part of the experiment, food wastage in the form of leftovers on the plates of subjects was measured. As a pre-test, the measurement occurred at two levels. Subjects could see how much they are adding to the total waste by looking at a weighing scale placed under a waste basket, and they could also see the total waste data for each of the four meals for the day and a day earlier displayed at a prominent place. After 105 days, the weighing scale under the basket was removed, and as a post-test measurement, the total waste data for the four meals were noted down for another 72 days. A manipulation test indicated that the experiment has had the desired effect of invoking self-accountability in subjects during the pre-test phase, and diluting it during the post-test phase. Time series analysis of pre-test and post-test data indicated that the wastage data decreased in the pre-test phase. However, the post-test waste data showed an increase over a period of time. The results indicate that accountability conditions like social norms invoke self-accountability cognition leading to self-regulatory behaviours in individuals.

Keywords: Internal accountability; Quasi-experiment; Self-accountability; Self-regulation; Deontological view (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2995-4

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