Moral Diversity and its Impact on Individuals’ Ethical Decision Making in Organizations

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the concept of moral diversity into the behavioral ethics and organizational diversity literature. We propose a theoretical model specifying how and under what conditions moral diversity (i.e., organizational members espousing different ethical systems) influences one’s own eventual (un)ethical decisions. We argue that moral diversity becomes visible when organizational members engage in ethical conversations and it is during such conversations that the impact of moral diversity occurs. We theorize about the role of moral identity centrality, identity-protection and restructuring responses, individual locus of control, and self-directed and other-directed moral emotions on moral diversity’s impact on changing/influencing an individual’s (un)ethical decisions. Finally, the implications of research on moral diversity for behavioral ethics research and practice, as well as future research avenues are discussed.