The Nature and Effects of Ethical Conflict in the Workplace

Abstract

Previous research on workplace conflict focused on disagreements about work tasks, processes, and personal relationships. However, conflicts often involve matters of right and wrong; yet, ethical conflict is notably absent from the literature. We introduce the construct of ethical conflict, create and validate a measure of it, and, drawing from moral convictions theory, explore its unique effects on workplace outcomes. Ultimately, we find that ethical conflict is a double-edged sword: it is associated with negative team dynamics (i.e., decreased satisfaction with group, group viability, group cohesion, group psychological safety; increased negative emotions and perceived goal difficulty) but positively related to moral cognition (i.e., moral awareness, moral identity accessibility) and elaboration of information and perspectives among group members. Overall, our studies provide a theoretical and empirical foundation for future research on ethical conflict.