HOT and Attractive? The Hazardous Organization Tool as an Instrument to Avoid Attracting and Retaining People with Low Ethical Standards

To foster and sustain an ethical culture, organizations need to attract and retain people with high ethical standards. However, there is a lack of knowledge about which organizational characteristics influence the pre- and post-entry work attitudes and behaviors of people with high ethical standards. To fill this gap, we drew on person–organization fit (PO fit) theories and developed the Hazardous Organization Tool (HOT) based on a broad personality trait that is strongly related to ethical standards and predictive of unethical workplace behavior—honesty-humility from the HEXACO personality model. The HOT consists of 9 items that describe organizations that are rated as more attractive by people with low ethical standards. The HOT can be used to measure the extent to which people are attracted to hazardous organizations (HOT-A) and the extent to which people perceive an organization to be hazardous (HOT-P) with different instructions but identical scale options, ensuring commensurability for testing complex fit effects. We examined the validity of the HOT in four samples (total N = 1260). We found moderate to strong correlations between attractiveness ratings of the items (HOT-A) and honesty-humility (ranging from −.31 to −.56) and dark personality traits (ranging from.37 to.63). In addition, hazardous organization perceptions (HOT-P) were related to negative work attitudes and motivation, particularly for employees who were not attracted to hazardous organizations (those with high ethical standards). Overall, the current study suggests that the Hazardous Organization Tool is a valid measure. Implications for the PO fit literature and management practice are discussed.