Negative Affect and Counterproductive Workplace Behavior: The Moderating Role of Moral Disengagement and Gender

There has been growing scholarly interest in understanding individual-level antecedents of counterproductive workplace behavior (CWB). While researchers have found a positive relationship between individuals’ negative affect and engagement in CWB, to date, our understanding of the factors which may affect this relationship is limited. In this study, we investigate the moderating roles of moral disengagement and gender in this relationship. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that individuals with a greater tendency to experience negative emotions were more likely to engage in CWB when they had a higher propensity to morally disengage. Moreover, we found that this interacting relationship varied across men and women. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings and offer avenues for future research.     

Investigating the Effects of Moral Disengagement and Participation on Unethical Work Behavior

With massive corruption uncovered in numerous recent corporate scandals, investigating psychological processes underlying unethical behavior among employees has become a critical area of research for organizational scientists. This article seeks to explain why people engage in deceptive and fraudulent activities by focusing on the use of moral-disengagement tactics or rationalizations to justify egregious actions at work. In addition, participation in goal-setting is argued to attenuate the relationship between moral disengagement and unethical behavior. Across two studies, a lab simulation and field survey, a measure of moral disengagement was developed for use with working adults. The hypothesized main and interactive effects of moral disengagement, participation, and unethical behavior were tested and largely confirmed.     

Workplace Bullying: Considering the Interaction Between Individual and Work Environment

Deontology and utilitarianism are two competing principles that guide our moral judgment. Recently, deontology is thought to be intuitive and is based on an error-prone and biased approach, whereas utilitarianism is relatively reflective and a suitable framework for making decision. In this research, the authors explored the relationship among moral identity, moral decision, and moral behavior to see how a preference for the deontological solution can lead to moral behavior. In study 1, a Web-based survey demonstrated that when making decisions, individuals who viewed themselves as moral people preferred deontological ideals to the utilitarian framework. In study 2, the authors investigated the effect of moral identity and moral decision on moral behavior in an experimental study. The results showed that when deontology was coupled with the motivational power of moral identity, individuals were most likely to behave morally.     

Workplace Harassment Intensity and Revenge: Mediation and Moderation Effects

This study examines the mediating role of rumination, state anger, and blame attribution, and the moderating role of trait forgiveness in the relationship between workplace harassment intensity and revenge among employed students at a medium-sized Midwestern U.S. university (N = 310) and full-time employees from various industries in Shanghai, China (N = 251). We tested the proposed model using techniques described by Hayes (Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis, The Guilford Press, New York, 2013). Results within both samples suggested that workplace harassment intensity is positively associated with both major and minor revenge. Results of multiple mediation tests showed that state anger and blame attribution mediated the relationships between workplace harassment intensity and both types of revenge behavior. Furthermore, trait forgiveness moderated the relationship between blame attribution and major revenge.     

农民思想道德素质与农户家庭脱贫致富的关系研究

基于理论分析的视角,探讨了发展经济学家关于人的思想道德素质影响经济增长和经济发展的总路径,诠释了四种类型的农民典型落后思想道德素质导致农户家庭贫困的具体路径,反之亦然。这一具体路径遵循了发展经济学家关于人的思想道德素质影响经济增长和经济发展的总路径。最后通过对中国反贫困历程的反思,得出"贫困者自身落后的思想道德素质乃贫困之总根源"的结论,相应地,提出"新时期思想反贫困"的政策建议。     

A Social Cognitive Perspective on the Relationships Between Ethics Education, Moral Attentiveness, and PRESOR

This research examines the relationships between education in business ethics, Reynolds’s (J Appl Psychol 93:1027–1041, 2008) “moral attentiveness” construct, or the extent to which individuals chronically perceive and reflect on morality and moral elements in their experiences, and Singhapakdi et al.’s (J Bus Ethics 15:1131–1140, 1996) measure of perceptions of the role of ethics and social responsibility (PRESOR). Education in business ethics was found to be positively associated with the two identified factors of moral attentiveness, “reflective” and “perceptual” moral attentiveness, and with the PRESOR “stakeholder view” factor. Also, reflective moral attentiveness was found to act as a mediator in the relationship between education in business ethics and the PRESOR stakeholder view factor. Evidence of gender and social desirability bias effects was also found. The implications of these relationships and social cognitive theory for improved understanding of the mechanisms by which a variety of variables have their effects on PRESOR in business are discussed.     

道德解脱和惩罚知觉对伦理决策的影响

道德解脱和惩罚知觉是管理者伦理决策中的脱离机制和约束机制,文章通过有调节作用的中介关系模型,分析了道德解脱和惩罚知觉对管理者伦理决策过程的影响,比较了组织有利和组织有害伦理决策中,管理者在伦理判断和伦理行为意向上的差异。结果表明道德解脱是管理者伦理判断的重要前因变量,惩罚知觉和伦理判断及其交互项都会对伦理行为意向产生影响,惩罚知觉在管理者伦理判断低时效应更明显;此外,管理者在组织有利情境下的伦理判断和伦理行为意向要显著低于组织有害情境。本研究对理解管理者伦理决策的潜在心理过程有积极贡献。     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Ethical Work Climate and Moral Awareness

This paper draws from the fields of history, sociology, psychology, moral philosophy, and organizational theory to establish a theoretical connection between a social/organizational influence (ethical work climate) and an individual cognitive element of moral behavior (moral awareness). The research was designed to help to fill a gap in the existing literature by providing empirical evidence of the connection between organizational influences and individual moral awareness and subsequent ethical choices, which has heretofore largely been merely assumed. Results of the study provide evidence that ethical work climate (EWC) is a primary predictor of individual moral awareness, and that the influence of social factors often overrides the effects of individual differences in a work group setting. Implications for future research are provided.     

Workplace Romance 2.0: Developing a Communication Ethics Model to Address Potential Sexual Harassment from Inappropriate Social Media Contacts Between Coworkers

This article examines ethical implications from workplace romances that may subsequently turn into sexual harassment through the use of social media technologies, such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, text messaging, IMing, and other forms of digital communication between office colleagues. We examine common ethical models such as Jones (Acad Manag Rev 16:366–395, 1991) issue-contingent decision-making model, Rest’s (Moral development: Advances in research and theory, 1986) Stages of Ethical Decision-Making model, and Pierce and Aguinis’s (J Org Behav 26(6):727–732,2005) review of workplace romance versus sexual harassment issues. The article makes a contribution by developing a new communication ethics model that includes response positive and response negative contingencies to guide decision-making about inappropriate social media contacts that spillover into the workplace. In addition, we recommend that human resource personnel take a more active role in communicating appropriate ethical rules of conduct concerning the use of social media technologies inside and outside the office.     

Role of Individual Cultural Orientations on Relationships Between Role Stress and Work Outcomes

The authors investigate the moderating role of specific cultural orientations such as need for independence, need for authority, and tolerance for uncertainty of the relationships between role stressors and work outcomes among salespeople. The study, based on survey data of salespeople in India, found that these specific attitudes moderate the effects of role stress on work outcomes. Because individual cultural orientations in any country can vary along the three cultural dimensions included in this study, the findings of this study should provide useful guidelines for managers in other countries as well. The findings are especially relevant for Asian countries, located in the South, South-East and Far-East that exhibit considerable similarity in cultural orientations.     

A Moral Disengagement Investigation of How and When Supervisor Psychological Entitlement Instigates Abusive Supervision

Journal of Business Ethics - Building on the emerging research on antecedents of abusive supervision, the current research offers an empirical investigation concerning how and when supervisor...     

Understanding the Interplay Among Regulatory Self-Efficacy,Moral Disengagement,and Academic Cheating Behaviour During Vocational Education: A Three-Wave Study

This study uses a quasi-experimental design to investigate what happens to individual socially responsible attitudes when they are exposed to group dynamics. Findings show that group engagement increases individual attitudes toward social responsibility. We also found that individuals with low attitudes toward social responsibility are more likely to change their opinions when group members show more positive attitudes toward social responsibility. Conversely, individuals with high attitudes do not change much, independent of group characteristics. To better analyze the effect of group dynamics, the study proposes to split social responsibility into relative and absolute components. Findings show that relative social responsibility is correlated with but different from absolute social responsibility although the latter is more susceptible than the former to group dynamics.     

The Doctrine of the Mean: Workplace Relationships and Turnover Intention

The present study examines the curvilinear relationships between LMX/TMX and team members' turnover intention simultaneously. That is, members with high LMX, TMX, or both are more likely to have turnover intention. Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 452 nurses, and we adopted the response surface methodology and polynomial regression to test our theoretical model. The hierarchical regression analysis showed that TMX has a U‐shaped relationship with turnover intention but not with LMX. In addition, the results indicate that both the congruence and incongruence of LMX and TMX result in higher turnover intention, but moderate levels of LMX and TMX have the lowest turnover intention. Strengths, limitations, practical implications, and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigating Moral Links Between Religiosity,Altruism, and Green Consumption

Religious practice and green consumption seem inherently related, as each activity purportedly benefits society. Despite this, few studies have explored the possibility that religion influences green purchase intentions. Further, individuals often struggle to reconcile their religious and nonreligious motives in their day-to-day activities. Toward this end, the current study investigates the roles that religion, price, and social motives may play as factors that influence green consumption. The study also examines the possible intervention of other altruistic motives such as attitude toward charitable institutions in determining green consumption. The study develops a new perspective on how green products should be marketed while delivering actionable theoretical and managerial implications.     

Moral Repair in the Workplace: A Qualitative Investigation and Inductive Model

The topic of moral repair in the aftermath of breaches of trust and harmdoing has grown in importance within the past few years. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study that offers insight into a series of key issues related to offender efforts to repair interpersonal harm in the workplace: (1) What factors motivate offenders to make amends with those they have harmed? (2) In what ways do offenders attempt to make amends? (3) What outcomes emerge from attempts to make amends? Drawing from the findings, we build an inductive model intended to guide future business ethics and management inquiry and research in this area.     

A Social Influence Interpretation of Workplace Ostracism and Counterproductive Work Behavior

We used social network analysis to examine a theoretical model exploring why, and under what circumstances, the perpetrators’ ostracizing behaviors are accurately perceived by the target employees. In turn, these perceptions of ostracism lead to the target employees’ counterproductive work behaviors. Adopting perspectives from both perpetrators and targets, we directly measured the ostracizing behaviors by all potential perpetrators (coworkers) and perceived workplace ostracism by target employees. We integrate Social information processing theory and conservation of resource theory to propose a moderated mediation model, and found that employees who have a high level of need to belong are more likely to capture coworkers’ ostracizing behaviors, and those with low political skill are more likely to engage in counterproductive work behavior as their reaction to perceived workplace ostracism. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.