TY - JOUR
T1 - A counterintuitive argument for résumé embellishment
AU - Marcoux, Alexei M.
N1 - Funding Information:
I wish to thank the School of Business Administration, Loyola University Chicago for a research grant during the summer of 2003 that facilitated writing the initial draft of this paper. The Social Philosophy & Policy Center, Bowling Green State University hosted me as a visiting scholar during the fall of 2004, permitting me to finish the version I submitted originally to this journal. I thank the directors of the Social Philosophy & Policy Center for their generous support. Nicholas Capaldi, Spencer Weber Waller, and an anonymous referee provided helpful and insightful comments. Irfan Ja-frey and Sojo Mary Alex Kumar provided valuable research assistance in the initial stages of writing. I thank them, as well.
Copyright:
Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2006/1
Y1 - 2006/1
N2 - Applied ethicists say little about résumé embellishment. Presumably, this is so because résumé embellishment seems obviously wrong; an instance of ordinary lying, familiar moral prohibitions against which cover the case completely. Analysis of résumé embellishment merely as ordinary lying overlooks its collective action aspects. Taking account of those aspects and their implications, I argue on consequentialist grounds that, given some plausible background conditions, a limited form of résumé embellishment is morally permissible (and perhaps required). This outcome is a particular instantiation of a more general principle about how one ought to act when participating in a morally valuable co-ordinative practice. I conclude by identifying implications for how employers ought to use résumés in hiring decisions.
AB - Applied ethicists say little about résumé embellishment. Presumably, this is so because résumé embellishment seems obviously wrong; an instance of ordinary lying, familiar moral prohibitions against which cover the case completely. Analysis of résumé embellishment merely as ordinary lying overlooks its collective action aspects. Taking account of those aspects and their implications, I argue on consequentialist grounds that, given some plausible background conditions, a limited form of résumé embellishment is morally permissible (and perhaps required). This outcome is a particular instantiation of a more general principle about how one ought to act when participating in a morally valuable co-ordinative practice. I conclude by identifying implications for how employers ought to use résumés in hiring decisions.
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U2 - 10.1007/s10551-005-2412-5
DO - 10.1007/s10551-005-2412-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:29644435485
VL - 63
SP - 183
EP - 194
JO - Journal of Business Ethics
JF - Journal of Business Ethics
SN - 0167-4544
IS - 2
ER -