Moral Attention Research Articles

Ethics Education, Moral Attentiveness and Consumer Wisdom: Exploring the Relationships

Ethics education has recently garnered a great deal of attention; it has been viewed as a remedy against a plague of diverse forms of immoral practices carried out by businesses and consumers. Markedly, ethics education has proved its effectiveness in influencing students’ moral cognition and behavior as future business practitioners. However, the effect of being exposed to ethics courses on students as consumers has not been investigated yet. Thus, a post-only quasi-experimental design was conducted to examine such an influence on the dimensions of moral attentiveness and consumer wisdom; as cognitive and behavioral constructs respectively. Results revealed that ethics education had a positive influence on students’ reflective moral attentiveness as well as two dimensions of consumer wisdom, which are purpose and perspective. Finally, the research provides theoretical and practical implications as well as directions of the available research avenues for future researchers.

Pluralism and the Design of Autonomous Vehicles

This paper advocates for an ethical analysis of autonomous vehicle systems (AVSs) based on a moral epistemic pluralism. This paper contends that approaching the design of intricate social technologies, such as AVSs, is most effective when acknowledging a diverse range of values. Additionally, a comprehensive ethical framework for autonomous vehicles should be applied across two interconnected layers. The first layer centers on the individual level, where each autonomous vehicle becomes a unit of moral consideration. The second layer focuses on the system level, directing moral attention toward the intricate autonomous vehicle system as a whole. Distinguishing the approach from metaphysical pluralism, the paper responds to counterarguments from a moral relativist and value monist perspectives. It concludes by emphasizing the necessity of embracing epistemic pluralism to navigate the complex ethical landscape of AVSs, urging a holistic understanding that transcends individual events and integrates system-level considerations.

Linking ethical leadership to employee's prohibitive voice: the role of reflective moral attentiveness and leader identification

Linking ethical leadership to employee's prohibitive voice: the role of reflective moral attentiveness and leader identification

Cultivating Moral Attention in Ellison's Invisible Man and Murdoch's Moral Theory

Cultivating Moral Attention in Ellison's Invisible Man and Murdoch's Moral Theory

Exploring the Impact of Musical Stimuli on Moral Attention

Music plays a significant role in human activities, with its dual role of functionality and entertainment. It exerts diverse influences on individuals. This study explores music’s impact on individuals’ moral cognition. To ensure the objectivity and accuracy of the findings, this study employed eye tracking as the research methodology. Participants were exposed to two distinct types of music: Rock music and Yayue, a serene and elegant form of traditional Chinese music. Participants were randomly assigned to either the Rock music group or the Chinese Yayue group. They were tasked with viewing images depicting moral and immoral behaviors while these two musical backgrounds played. The eye-tracking technology recorded participants’ gaze patterns, providing quantitative insights into their visual attention under different musical conditions. Our data analysis revealed that, in both groups, immoral images initially captured participants’ attention. However, participants exposed to Rock music focused more on immoral images, whereas those listening to traditional Chinese Yayue music significantly prioritized moral images. These findings contribute valuable new perspectives to the intersection of music and education research, shedding light on the dynamic relationship between music and moral cognition.

Pengaruh Kesadaran Etis, Locus Of Control, Pengalaman Kerja Dan Komitmen Profesi Terhadap Perilaku Akuntan Sebagai Variabel Moderasi

This exploration was led planning to decide the impact of moral mindfulness, locus of control, work insight and expert obligation to bookkeeper conduct as a directing variable. The populace in this study is a public bookkeeping firm in Semarang and Solo. The testing method utilized by the analysts was to utilize comfort inspecting. This study included 121 respondents from public accounting firms in Semarang and Solo who were external auditors and included junior accountants, senior accountants, managers, and partners. The information examination method utilized in this study utilized various straight relapse investigation with the SPSS program apparatus. Accountant behavior is unaffected by ethical awareness, locus of control, or work experience, according to the findings of this study. Nevertheless, accountant behavior is influenced by professional commitment. Proficient Responsibility doesn't direct Moral Attention to bookkeeper conduct. Professional Commitment is not a moderation factor Locus of Control on accountant behavior. Work Experience does not moderate Ethical Awareness of accountant behavior.

Fish as fellow creatures—A matter of moral attention

AbstractUp against capacity‐based approaches to animal ethics, Cora Diamond has put the idea of animals as our fellow creatures. The aim of this article is to explore the implications of this concept for our treatment of fish. Fish have traditionally been placed at the borders or even outside of the moral community, although there is growing evidence that they have perceptual and social capacities comparable to animals that are considered morally significant. Given that a fellow creature's approach is not primarily concerned with capacities, fish may pose a challenge: Can fish be seen as our fellow creatures, and if so, on what grounds? In exploring these questions, we defend Diamond against Jeff McMahan's critique of her account and its implications that the fellow creature‐concept is reducible to either capacities or special relationships and leaves no room for argument‐based moral reform. We suggest that moral attention is key to grasping the moral significance of fish and discuss how scientific research can support such attention. In so doing, we demonstrate how Diamond's approach to animal ethics provides a viable alternative to the dominant animal ethics approaches. Finally, we indicate how this approach can be useful for discussions on industrial fish farming.

Serial characterization as a feminist ethics of care in Better Call Saul

We pursue the consequences of temporal complexity for character development in Better Call Saul (2015–22). We advance this argument by attempting an Aristotelian reading of Better Call Saul but then show some of the deficits that follow from transferring this methodology from theatrical to serialized televisual character. Following this, we highlight some of the deficits of a judgemental approach to character that appear within the narrative of Better Call Saul, and we propose instead to understand serialized character development ateleologically. This distinction introduces the relevance of a feminist ethics of care, which we believe provides a more relevant frame for the moral evaluation of serialized character. In contrast to the absolutism of universal principles, a feminist ethics of care orients one to understand those for whom one cares in ‘relational contexts’ that emphasize specific, material and concrete conditions. This dichotomy between judgement and care is dramatized within Better Call Saul through the interpretations that two characters bring to an extended deceit. Just as the discursive and diegetic complexity of the series prompts viewers to continually re-frame and re-evaluate Jimmy McGill, Jimmy likewise regularly uses a similar move of misdirection during his scams in which he invites other characters’ judgement about one aspect of his performance while accomplishing his actual goal by other means. Jimmy routinely invites judgement through taking on personae that he ultimately discards, reserving and preserving evaluation of his authentic motivations in continual acts of deferral. If Jimmy is ever rehabilitated, he arrives at such a possibility through an authentic confession directed towards the person who has cared most for him, Kim Wexler. Ultimately, we believe that Better Call Saul uses the structure of its serialized discourse to endorse the moral attention and responsiveness that are characteristic of a feminist ethic of care, rather than a system of characterization based on a teleological, final judgement that sees character from an endpoint looking backwards.

Do Morality-Based Individual Differences and Relational Climates Matter? Ethical Leadership and Knowledge Hiding: A Multilevel Framework

The purpose of the study is to uncover how and when ethical leadership impacts knowledge hiding behavior. First, by examining the individual level morality-based characteristics (moral identity and reflective moral attentiveness) as separate and serial mediators concerning ethical leadership and knowledge hiding (level 1). Second, by investigating the moderating role of team- level relational climates in relation to ethical leadership and knowledge hiding (level 2). Time- lagged design was used to collect data through a structured questionnaire from 300 employees of Information Technology (IT) organizations in Pakistan. Level 1 findings revealed a significant and negative relationship of ethical leadership with knowledge hiding. Follower’s individual level morality-based characteristics served as individual and serial mediators to ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. Level 2 of the study only found the moderating role of team communal sharing climate in relation to ethical leadership and knowledge hiding. The study brings to fore the “morality-based perspective” for understanding knowledge hiding at the workplace.

The Nexus Between Ethical Leadership and Employees' Perception of Workplace Safety During COVID-19 Under Mediation and Moderation Model.

Workplace safety is a crucial aspect of employee well-being and organizational success, with ethical leadership playing a key role in shaping employees' perceptions of safety. Today, the underlying mechanisms through which ethical leadership influences workplace safety perception remain underexplored, especially in the Pakistan healthcare industry. Based on the social cognitive theory, this study aims to investigate the relationship between ethical leadership and workplace safety perception and examine the mediating role of media quality, communication climate, and supervisory communication and the moderating role of moral attentiveness. An empirical survey method was used to conduct the quantitative study, with respondents representing nursing staff from hospitals in Pakistan. Data was collected using an online questionnaire during COVID-19, and Smart PLS was used to analyze the data. The study demonstrated that ethical leadership positively and significantly affects workplace safety perception. Media quality, communication climate, and supervisory communication mediate between ethical leadership and workplace safety perception. Moral attentiveness moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and workplace safety perception. Ethical leadership is an essential tool that improves media quality, communication climate, supervisory communication, and moral attentiveness. The article presents a novel approach to examining the relationship between ethical leadership and workers' safety perceptions under the influence of mediating and moderating variables. By better understanding these dynamics, the study contributes to developing organizational strategies to improve workplace safety and overall employee well-being. In addition, it is a pioneering study exploring ethical leadership's role in influencing workers' perceptions of safety. Overall, the study is a great initiative that fosters the ethical concepts of individuals, thus achieving health protection and safety.

An Investigation of the Relationship Between Ethics-Oriented HRM Systems, Moral Attentiveness, and Deviant Workplace Behavior

Deviant workplace behaviors (DWB) cause enormous costs to organizations, sparking considerable interest among researchers and practitioners to identify factors that may prevent such behavior. Drawing on the theory of moral development, we examine the role of ethics-oriented human resource management (HRM) systems in mitigating DWB, as well as mechanisms that may mediate and moderate this relationship. Based on 232 employee-supervisor matched responses generated through a multi-source and multi-wave survey of 84 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan, our multilevel analysis found that ethics-oriented HRM systems relate negatively to employee DWB via the mediation of perceptual and reflective moral attentiveness. This indirect relationship is further moderated by two societal-inequality induced factors – employee gender and income level – such that the indirect effects of ethics-oriented HRM systems on DWB through perceptual and reflective moral attentiveness are stronger among women and lower-income employees.

Employees’ Perceptions of Green Supply-Chain Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Sustainability in Organizations: Mediating Effect of Reflective Moral Attentiveness

(1) Background: The increasing level of concern over reduction non-renewable resources, global warming, pollution, and social issues has led firms to initiate green and social activities. Furthermore, there is limited empirical evidence on the potential impact of green initiatives, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and reflective moral attentiveness (RMA) on sustainable performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effect of reflective moral attentiveness (RMA) on the relationship between green supply-chain-management practices (GSCM) and CSR on sustainable performance. Based on the natural-resource-based view, stakeholder resource-based view, and signaling theory, this study investigated the role of GSCM practices and CSR in sustainable performance using cross-sectional data from the manufacturing and services industries from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Pakistan. (2) Methods: Using a non-probability convenience-sampling method, 500 employees were selected from the firms which are listed on the Pakistan stock exchange (PSE) and questionnaires were distributed. Complete questionnaires were received from 380 employees and used in the analysis, yielding a response rate of 76%. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) software was used for the confirmatory-factor analysis (CFA) and the testing of the hypotheses. The CFA results revealed the reliability and validity of the questionnaires. (3) Results: The results of the structural model (hypotheses testing) show that four attributes of GSCM practices (internal environmental management, green purchasing, cooperation with customers, and eco-design) have a positive influence on sustainable performance, while investment recovery and CSR were found to be insignificant. Moreover, there were significant and positive influences of GSCM and RMA on sustainable performance. On the other hand, control variables, such as gender, experience, and age, were found to have no significant role in sustainable performance. A further analysis revealed that reflective moral attentiveness mediated the relationship between GSCM, CSR, and sustainable performance. (4) Conclusions/implications: This study has several implications for green services and manufacturing firms specifically and for practitioners, researchers and academics in general. The innovation and novelty of this study lie in its determination of the contribution of RMA, GSCM, and CSR to achieving sustainable performance. Firms can improve their clean production activities by incorporating this model as a strategy. Future studies may add moderators and mediators to explore the impact of CSR and GSCM practices upon sustainability.

Love, knowledge (wisdom) and justice: Moral education beyond the cultivation of Aristotelian virtuous character

ABSTRACT There could hardly have been a more influential twentieth-century philosophical essay than Elizabeth Anscombe’s ‘Modern moral philosophy’, in which she condemned the prevailing and competing ethics of duty and utility of her day and urged moral philosophers to abandon the search for any general conception of ‘morality’ in favour of return to Aristotle’s more particular focus on virtue and virtues as powers or qualities of good human character. While moral philosophers have not been slow to rally to this banner—with timely and useful attention to a wide range of character virtues—it was inevitable that moral educationalists would also soon turn towards understanding virtuous character to be a prime if not main concern of moral education. However, without denying that recent moral philosophical attention to virtue and virtues has been worthwhile, it is crucial to appreciate that in and of themselves such qualities mostly fall short of moral status and value and that some independent criterion of the moral cannot, as Anscombe recommended, be renounced. In this spirit, the present paper also attempts to comprehend such moral and educational significance by reference to interlinked concepts of love, knowledge and justice.

Moral attention among graduate students

The research aims to identify: • Moral Attention among Postgraduate Students. • Statistically significant differences in moral attention according to gender (male - female), specialization (scientific - human) and degree (Master - PhD) To achieve the objectives of the research, the researchers chose the research sample from graduate students at the University of Babylon, according to the simple random method, from eight faculties, three humanities and six scientific faculties. The proportionality was applied to the research sample, the moral attention measurement tool that was built by the researchers according to the theoretical framework and the definition adopted by Reynolds (2008), which consists of (26) paragraphs divided into two areas. • There is a good level of moral attention among graduate students. • There are no statistically significant differences according to the gender variable, and specialization variable, and according to the certificate variable. In light of this, the researchers came up with a set of suggestions and recommendations.

Gossip 2.0: The role of social media and moral attentiveness on counterproductive work behaviour

AbstractThis study investigates how negative workplace gossip (NWG) affects counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) through emotional exhaustion. We seek to advance a more nuanced view of negative gossip regarding CWB by exploring the contingency roles of social media (SM) and moral attentiveness (MA). With the use of multisource, time‐lagged data from 306 information technology (IT) professionals and their supervisors, we highlight the importance of SM and MA in understanding how individuals react to negative gossip. Our results indicate a positive relationship between negative gossip and CWB mediated by emotional exhaustion. Notably, we found that the use of SM in the workplace strengthens the positive relationship between negative gossip and employees' emotional exhaustion. In addition, the indirect effect of gossip on CWB via exhaustion was moderated by individuals' moral attentiveness. Finally, we describe the implications for managers and promising avenues for future research.

Enhancing employees' duty orientation and moral potency: Dual mechanisms linking ethical psychological climate to ethically focused proactive behaviors

AbstractBased on social cognitive theory (SCT), we develop and test a model that links ethical psychological climate to ethically focused proactive behavior (i.e., ethical voice and ethical taking charge) via two distinct mechanisms (i.e., duty orientation and moral potency). Results from multi‐wave field studies conducted in the United States, Turkey, France, Vietnam, and India demonstrate that an ethical psychological climate indirectly influences employees' ethical voice and ethical taking charge behaviors through the dual mechanisms of duty orientation and moral potency. Additionally, we find that individuals' moral attentiveness strengthened these mediating processes. Together, these findings suggest that ethical psychological climate is an important antecedent of ethically focused proactive behavior by stimulating individuals' sense of duty and enhancing their moral potency, particularly when employees are already highly attuned to moral issues.

The New History of Old Inequality

Abstract Since the financial crisis of 2008 and the publication in 2014 of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, income and wealth inequality have returned to public and scholarly interest. Most subsequent discussion has focused on the fall and rise of inequality in the twentieth century, but meanwhile another body of economic history literature has reconstructed long-run inequality dynamics in early modern Europe. This article surveys the new history of old inequality and discusses its three principal findings: first, that between about 1300 and about 1900 inequality increased continuously almost everywhere, meaning there is no clear link between economic growth and inequality. Secondly, the only phenomena that substantially reduced inequality were unprecedented catastrophes. Thirdly, although few things have decreased inequality, many strategies of elite wealth defence have increased it, motivating new comparative concepts like the ‘inequality possibility frontier’ and the ‘extraction ratio’. Inequality will continue to be a subject of urgent political and moral attention, and this field opens up a research agenda that could bridge the methodological divide between economic history as practised by economists and by historians.

Integral Ecology As Theosemiotic: A Case For A Pragmatist Theological Ethics

Integral Ecology As Theosemiotic: A Case For A Pragmatist Theological Ethics

Marketing ethics education and consumer wisdom: conceptualizing the relationship

PurposeThe purpose of this conceptual paper is to present a framework for the interplay between ethics education and consumer wisdom for future empirical research. The paper aims to conceptualize the influence marketing ethics education has on students as consumers, not as future marketing executives per se due to the little literature that exist in this direction. By tackling this research gap, this paper extends the understanding of the social cognitive theory. It examines the role marketing ethics education plays in enhancing students' moral attentiveness and ethical awareness, which consequently shape their consumer wisdom.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed conceptual framework is based on theoretically observing and analyzing the possible interrelations between ethics education and consumer wisdom.FindingsThis research offers multiple research propositions to examine these interrelationships through future empirical research.Practical implicationsThe value of this paper lies in its potential importance for policymakers and marketing educators. Shedding light on this relationship is beneficial to educational institutions and the means by which courses' curricula are designed. Consequently, students will be equipped with the right foundation to become more ethical and wiser consumers.Originality/valueThis conceptual paper extends the research in the field of consumer behavior and marketing education. It employs the reciprocal causation model of Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory to consumer wisdom; a novel construct in the field of consumer behavior. This opens an array to understanding the potential role of ethics education as a potential antecedent in shaping consumer wisdom. The study also explores the prospective mediating role of moral attentiveness and ethical awareness to the conceptualized relationship.

Antecedents of Proactivity: The Effect of Ethical Climate Through Duty Orientation and Moral Potency

Although prior research has directly linked an organization’s ethical climate to several positive organizational outcomes, surprisingly little research has examined why ethical climates have these effects or when they are more likely to occur. Drawing on social cognitive theory (SCT) as our overarching framework, we attempt to address this gap in the literature by developing and testing a model that indirectly links ethical climate to extra-role, proactive work behavior (i.e., taking charge and employee voice) via two distinct psychological mechanisms (i.e., duty orientation and moral potency). Based on results from an experiment and four field studies conducted in France, Turkey, the United States, and Vietnam, we demonstrate that an ethical climate indirectly influences employees’ willingness to speak up and take charge through the dual mechanisms of duty orientation and moral potency. Additionally, we find that in the presence of an ethical climate, employees’ duty orientation and moral potency are strengthened when individuals also possess high levels of moral attentiveness. Together, these findings suggest that an ethical climate can be an important antecedent of employees’ proactive behavior by stimulating their sense of duty and enhancing their moral courage, particularly when employees are already highly attuned to moral issues. Keywords: Ethical climate, moral potency, duty orientation, moral attentiveness, employee voice, taking charge, cross-cultural