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The benefits of experiential exercises for making conceptual material more dynamic and relevant, thus enhancing students' learning and developing their skills, are well documented. Presented here is an easy‐to‐administer roleplay that enables students to integrate a wide range of concepts covered in a typical organizational behavior course. Participants assume the roles of members of a food services department attending their weekly staff meeting. At the meeting, the new department manager announces that the previous manager has just resigned Each roleplayer has a different perspective on the problem‐riddled department, and none has a complete set of relevant information. Because the roleplayers have engaging issues, students participate actively, practicing managerial behaviors as they experience various organizational phenomena. An assessment of the exercise indicates its usefulness for developing students' skills, imparting an appreciation for the realities of organizational life, and provoking introspection and self‐learning.

We explored whether (1) an informational intervention improves ratings of individuals on the autism spectrum (IotAS) in a job interview by curbing salience bias and whether expert-based influence amplifies this effect (Study 1); (2) the effect of disclosure of autism on ratings depends on a candidate’s presentation as IotAS or neurotypical (Studies 1 and 2) and (3) social desirability bias affects ratings of and emotional responses to disclosers (Study 2).

In two studies, participants, randomly assigned to experimental conditions, watched a mock job interview of a candidate presenting as an IotAS or neurotypical and reported their perception of his job suitability and selection decision. Study 2 additionally measured participants’ traits associated with social desirability bias, self-reported emotions and involuntary emotions gauged via face-reading software.

In Study 1, the informational intervention improved ratings of the IotAS-presenting candidate; delivery by an expert made no difference. Disclosure increased ratings of both the IotAS-presenting and neurotypical-presenting candidates, especially the former, and information mattered more in the absence of disclosure. In Study 2, disclosure improved ratings of the IotAS-presenting candidate only; no evidence of social desirability bias emerged.

We explain that an informational intervention works by attenuating salience bias, focusing raters on IotAS' qualifications rather than on their unexpected behavior. We also show that disclosure is less helpful for IotAS who behave more neuronormatively and social desirability bias affects neither ratings of nor emotional responses to IotAS-presenting job candidates.

The authors used signaling theory to explain negative perceptions of individuals on the autism spectrum (IotAS) in the job interview and explored whether parasocial contact could improve perceptions.

Participants were randomly assigned across six experimental conditions. Some received information that IotAS' social and communication differences prevent them from attaining jobs they could perform (information), some received this information and watched a video showing IotAS working competently (parasocial contact) and others were exposed to neither information nor video (control). Participants then watched a mock interview of a job candidate presenting as an IotAS or neurotypical and gave their first impressions of him, perceptions of his job suitability and selection decision.

Participants had less favorable first impressions of the IotAS-presenting candidate and perceived him as having lower job suitability and were therefore less likely to select him. Parasocial contact had no effect. However, participants who had received information that IotAS' differences keep them from being hired for jobs they could do perceived the IotAS-presenting candidate as more suitable for the job and had greater intentions to interact with and select him.

The authors enhance understanding of autism in the workplace by explaining how IotAS' signaling behavior during a job interview impedes their selection. The authors also provide evidence that a brief message that IotAS' social and communication differences keep them from securing jobs they could perform can promote IotAS' selection by focusing decision-makers on their job-relevant qualifications.

This introduction to the 20-year anniversary issue of Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations notes that the role of organisations in society, the international and multidisciplinary scope of business ethics and the importance of narrative, issues identified in the early volumes, remain important.

This article considers what has happened in the 20 years since REIO was founded. The article argues that in sub-Saharan Africa many of those self-same issues currently continue to plague Africans, and that these issues urgently need to be addressed if we are going to improve morality in Africa. In exploring these issues, we considered the circumstances which the Victorian novelist, Anthony Trollope (1815–1882), experienced when he lived in Ireland during the Irish famine. Our article argues as to the very similar circumstances which led to the Irish famine and, currently, lead to the recurrent famines in sub-Saharan Africa. Trollope explored both the causes and the ramifications of the Irish famine in his novel Castle Richmond. According to Trollope, many of the effects of the Irish famine could have been averted if those in the community able to help had had the necessary moral willpower to do so. Trollope was an extremely keen fox-hunter and argued as to the communal benefits of fox-hunting. The article also considers a current devotee of fox-hunting, the Oxford philosopher Roger Scruton, and we explore Scruton’s arguments as to the benefits of local communities. We argue that Scruton’s conservative arguments have much in common with that of the renowned communitarian, Michael Sandel. And that if their arguments were seriously considered much of what the Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo fears for her fellow sub-Saharan Africans might be avoided.