Serial Ethical Transgressors in Organizational Research Academia: A 14 year Professional Life/Roller-Coaster-Ride as a Victim, Victim Advocate, and Hesitant Whistleblower

This paper is an autoethnographic qualitative study on the basis of my experiences with serial ethical transgressors (SETs) in organizational research academia over a 14-year period. The account is structured into three key "seasons," each highlighting different cases of ethical misconduct and their impact on my personal and professional life. Season 1 focuses on my ex-wife, Professor P, who demanded academic work for her from me in return for me being able to see my children, and then moved onto using university facilities to prevent my now older daughter from living with me. Season 2 details the actions of Professors E and A, who manipulated authorship credits and exploited their positions for career advancement, often at the expense of junior researchers. Season 3 focuses on Professor R’s systematic abuse of power and manipulation tactics to gain organizational resources and control over colleagues and junior researchers. Links between Professor P, E, and R are also reported. The discussion identifies normatively-focused and ego-activating feedback, a dichotomous focus on either removing a transgressor or doing nothing, and a tendency of decision makers to reframe ethical transgressions as bilateral conflict as phenomena that contribute to the problem in academia. Inconsistent responses by universities, social climates, and fairness are also discussed in light of the events in the narrative. Most notably, the two male professors who were also natives of their country were removed from their positions. In contrast, the three female professors of whom one has a second-generation immigrant background, one is a foreigner, and one does research on minority discrimination were so far all able to evade consequences. This work aims to broaden the discourse on academic ethics and advocate for a more responsive and just system of accountability.