The ethical behavior prevalent in an organization often determines business success or failure. Much research in the business context has scrutinized ethical behavior, but there are still few insights into its roots; this study furthers this line of inquiry. In line with identity work theory, we examine how employees’ identification with a family business shapes internal ethical decision-making processes. Because it is individuals who engage in decision-making—be it ethical or not—our research perspective centers on the individual level. We followed an inductive, qualitative approach and conducted interviews with 19 employees in seven family businesses. We found that individuals engage in identity work when they identify as individual family firm employees and when they identify with the perceived characteristics of the family firm. These processes of identification, in turn, influence how employees cope with ethical situations. Our findings contribute to ethics and family business research, as well as to identity theory.

组织中普遍存在的道德行为通常决定业务的成败。商业环境中的许多研究都对道德行为进行了审查，但对道德行为的根源仍然知之甚少。这项研究进一步推动了这方面的研究。根据身份工作理论，我们研究了员工对家族企业的认同如何塑造内部道德决策流程。因为是个人参与决策（无论是否合乎道德），我们的研究视角集中在个人层面。我们采用归纳，定性的方法，对7家家族企业的19名员工进行了采访。我们发现，当个人被识别为个人家族企业雇员时，或者当他们认同家族企业的感知特征时，他们就会从事身份识别工作。这些识别过程反过来会影响员工应对道德状况的方式。我们的发现有助于道德和家族企业研究，以及身份理论。