Moral Potency Profiles in the Context of Ethical Organizational Culture: A Multi-Sample Study

Abstract

Moral potency is a critical factor for individual’s conation to act based on their moral judgments thus inhibiting or prohibiting ethical behavior. It is a three-dimensional individual psychological state and resource consisting of moral ownership, moral efficacy, and moral courage. However, what remains a black box is how moral potency varies among subgroups (i.e., profiles) in an organization, and how the profiles are linked with individuals’ perceptions regarding the ethicality of their organizational culture. Our data consisted of three individual samples that enabled us to study the focal phenomena in different contexts (Top sports, Leaders, Followers). Individual latent profiles of moral potency were estimated based on the three dimensions. In addition, we used regression analyses to study the relationship between different moral potency profiles and ethical culture. Three moral potency profiles were identified among all three samples: Average, Below average, and Above average. Sample 3 (Followers) also included a fourth moral potency profile: Low. Our findings provide strong support for the relationship between moral potency profiles and ethical organizational culture. We contribute to the discussion on moral potency in different contexts and discuss how contextual factors, namely ethical organizational culture can effect moral potency profiles.