Moral Intensity Research Articles

The Effect of Moral Intensity on Work Engagement

The Effect of Moral Intensity on Work Engagement

Sensemaking in Military Critical Incidents: The Impact of Moral Intensity

This study explores the relationship between moral intensity and the use of different sensemaking strategies in military critical incidents. First, narratives of military personnel were used to select prototypical high/low moral intensity critical incidents. In a follow-up, a scenario study was conducted with active duty military personnel ( N = 325) to examine the relationship between moral intensity (high vs. low) and the use of sensemaking tactics. This study offers three main conclusions. First, the use of sensemaking tactics is strongly tied to the level of moral intensity in the situation. In high-intense situations, the servicemen draw on previous experiences, prediction of consequences, and help of others to recognize and interpret the situation. Less attention goes out to higher level critical thinking (i.e., moral awareness, integrating available information, and analyzing personal biases in the decision-making process). Thus, it seems that in these critical incidents, the servicemen react without giving room for thorough consideration and deliberation. Second, the number of deployments a serviceman experienced influences the perceived seriousness and harmfulness of the situation negatively in low-intense situations. Finally, and in line with earlier studies, the results indicate that the concept of moral intensity is formed out of three rather than the six dimensions originally proposed by Jones (1991). The implications of these findings are discussed.

The Moderating Role of Context in Determining Unethical Managerial Behavior: A Case Survey

We examine the moderating role of the situational and organizational contexts in determining unethical managerial behavior, applying the case-survey methodology. On the basis of a holistic, multiple-antecedent perspective, we hypothesize that two key constructs, moral intensity and situational strength, help explain contextual moderating effects on relationships between managers’ individual characteristics and unethical behavior. Based on a quantitative analysis of 52 case studies describing occurrences of real-life unethical conduct, we find empirical support for the hypothesized contextual moderating effects of moral intensity and situational strength. By examining these complex contextual moderators, we aim to contribute to organizational ethics research as we shed light on the critical role that context may play in influencing unethical managerial behavior.

The Impact of Moral Intensity and Ethical Tone Consistency on Policy Compliance

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of moral intensity and inconsistent ethical tone on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy compliance. Organizations use BYOD policies to address the heightened risks of data and privacy breaches that arise when employees use their personal devices to access or store company data. These policies are a key part of an organization's system of internal controls that protect organizational assets by prescribing appropriate behavior for individuals who have access to them. We conducted an online experiment to evaluate (1) how the moral intensity of a policy compliance decision influences policy compliance behavior, (2) the efficacy of an intervention designed to increase moral intensity and thus foster compliance, and (3) how an inconsistent ethical tone affects both the perceived ethicality of a policy compliance decision and individuals' intentions to comply with the policy. We find that moral intensity is positively related to policy compliance, and that a simple intervention effectively fosters policy compliance through its impact on moral intensity. Furthermore, we provide evidence that an inconsistent ethical tone erodes policy compliance intentions, and can spill over to affect another work-related behavior. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications.

Prescribing under the Influence: The Business of Breastmilk Substitutes

This study draws on a general theoretical framework comprising of a decision maker (a doctor), perceived moral intensity of the issue (breastfeeding substitute prescription), and the situational environment (hospital policy, pharma company promotions, and mother’s beliefs regarding breastfeeding) to explain the physician’s role and influence on mothers’ infant feeding choices when prescribing infant formula in Kuwait, Middle East. Moral intensity is an issue-contingent model that suggests ethical decisions vary in terms of how much a moral imperative is present in a situation. The moral intensity of the issue is assessed using six components. Path Least Squares results indicate the following moral intensity components have significant impact on prescription behavior: magnitude of consequences, probability of effect, and temporal immediacy. Company promotion and hospital policy also significantly influence doctor’s prescription of infant formula. Doctors appear to disengage from the consequences of over prescribing infant formula.

Whistleblowing Intentions Among Public Accountants in Indonesia: Testing for the Moderation Effects

Our study contributes by providing new insights into the relationship between the individual levels of the antecedents and how the intention of whistleblowing is moderated by perceived organizational support (POS), team norms (TNs), and perceived moral intensity (PMI). In this paper, we argue that the intention of both internal and external whistleblowing depends on the individual-level antecedents [attitudes toward whistleblowing, perceived behavioral control, independence commitment, personal responsibility for reporting, and personal cost of reporting (PCR)] and is moderated by POS, TNs, and PMI. The findings confirm our predictions. Data were collected using an online survey on 256 Indonesian public accountants who worked in the audit firm affiliated with the Big 4 and non-Big 4. The results support the argument that all the antecedents of individual levels can improve the auditors’ intention to blow the whistle (internally and externally). The nature of the relationship is more complex than analysis by adding moderating variables using the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling approach. We found that POS, TNs, and PMI can partially improve the relationship between the individual-level antecedents and whistleblowing intentions. These findings indicate that the POS, TNs, and PMI are a mechanism or that attribute is important in controlling behavior.

식품관련 라이프 스타일에 따른 소비자유형별 특성과 기후친화적 식품소비행동 분석

Individual lifestyle and eating habits have changed rapidly due to the evolution of society. Especially, climate change caused by industrialization has influenced society, with the result that today's consumers perceive sustainability to be an important value. The purposes of this study were to segment consumers on the basis of their food-related lifestyle and to explore climate-friendly food consumption behavior by considering factors such as moral intensity, propensity for disgust with meat as well as consumer characteristics. The results of this study were as follows: first, consumers were segmented into three groups(high involvement, low involvement, convenience oriented). Consumers in the high involvement group presented a higher level of moral intensity and climate-friendly food consumption behavior than the other groups. Furthermore, factors influencing the selection of climate-friendly food were found to differ according to the type of consumer. Consumers in the high involvement group were found to be significantly influenced by age, concentration of effect, the morality of eating meat and meat texture, while consumers in the low involvement were found to be significantly influenced by social consensus and the morality of eating meat. Finally, consumers in the convenience oriented group for food life were found to be significantly influenced by age, harm perception, and the morality of eating meat.

Moral Intensity and Service Delivery in the Hospitality Industry: The Value of Codes of Ethics

There are frequent ethical lapses and ethical dilemmas which are encountered by the hospitality industry employees at all levels in the hotel organizational hierarchies which result from the many d...

Prediksi Whistleblowing: Peran Etika, Faktor Organisasional Dan Faktor Kontekstual

This paper seeks to identify and discusses the factors that affect an organization’s internal whistleblowing intentions related to ethics. This paper integrates theindividual variable which are ethical judgment and the intensity of the moral; organizational variable that support the organizations; and situational variables, such as the status of wrongdoers, the possibility of retaliation, and tolerance of dissent;that is expressed in a group of theoretical propositions, which is used to develop a frame of thoughts in the study. This paper attempts to provide useful knowledges on how individuals form the intention of reporting and how ethical values can affect these intentions, thus, itwill be able to provide a contribution for a further understanding of the phenomena associated with an ethical whistleblowing.The purpose of this paper is to provide a general discussion about the decision-making process of internal whistleblowing along with an overview of the ethical element that is reflected in the psychological, situational and organizational characteristics. Through a theoretical model, based on the existing literature, it indicates that whistleblowing is a very complex phenomenon resulted from an interaction of situational, organizational and individualfactors. The complexity of the phenomenon depends not only on the various factors that affect whistleblowing, but also related to the attitudes toward the ethical judgment and moral intensity. Whistleblowing behavior is embedded in a social context, so it can vary according to the values, beliefs and certain social norms. Factors that may inhibit the whistleblowingbehavioris a violation of the personal relationship between employee and employer, aversion to conflict, and interpersonal relations. The passivity of the employees can weaken the relationship between whistleblowing attitudes andwhistleblowingintentions, therefore,it causes the observer to not disclose the information.Specifically, organizations must improve the legitimacy of an internal whistleblowing and take actions that can reduce the fear of retaliation, increase the perceived support and easily identify the actions and behaviors that must be reported. By expanding the knowledge of the phenomenon and discussing the aspects and its implications, hence, it may encourage any debates on the topic and encourage organizations to rethink their policies and strategies for whistleblowing decision making.
 Keywords: whistleblowing

Anger Strays, Fear Refrains: The Differential Effect of Negative Emotions on Consumers’ Ethical Judgments

Although various factors have been studied for their influence on consumers’ ethical judgments, the role of incidental emotions has received relatively less attention. Recent research in consumer behavior has focused on studying the effect of specific incidental emotions on various aspects of consumer decision making. This paper investigates the effect of two negative, incidental emotional states of anger and fear on ethical judgment in a consumer context using a passive unethical behavior scenario (i.e., too much change received). The paper presents two experimental studies. Study 1 focuses on the interaction of moral intensity (amount of change) and incidental emotion state in predicting the ethical judgment while study 2 investigates the underlying causal mechanism behind the process, using a mediation analysis. The results reveal a significant interaction between moral intensity and incidental emotion. Specifically, individuals in the state of incidental fear exhibit higher levels of ethical judgment as the moral intensity increases as compared to individuals in the state of incidental anger. Further, perceived control is found to mediate the relationship between emotional state and ethical judgment under higher moral intensity condition.

The effect of Moral Intensity of reduced audit quality Acts in Nigeria

The effect of Moral Intensity of reduced audit quality Acts in Nigeria

Estudo da percepção ética dos estudantes de graduação diante de dilemas concernentes a atividade turística

This study aimed to analyze the ethical perception of students on ethical dilemmas of social, economic and environmental common tourist activity. The practice of tourism constantly presents ethical dilemmas in their social actors need to make decisions. Depending on how decisions are taken the effects of such actions, can generate benefits or harms to society due to the constant changes that occur between these social agents when there is the purchase of services and tourism products. It is due to such aspects that makes prominent analyze the ethical perception of the students, since they will be future decision makers and tourism service providers. In this way, we interviewed 103 undergraduate students of tourism course at a public university in northeastern Brazil considering a non-probability sampling for accessibility and convenience. For this analysis was developed with a range of social, economic and environmental nature scenarios. The items were based on six moral issues pertaining to the integrative model Jones (1991) which together form the moral intensity: the magnitude of the impact, social consensus effect of probability, time immediacy, concentration and proximity effect. Among the results is greater ethical awareness for environment-related dilemma and an unethical action tendency for economic die dilemma.

Behavioral intention in social networking sites ethical dilemmas: An extended model based on Theory of Planned Behavior

The expanding use of social networking sites (SNSs) and their flexible functionalities allow individuals to use these sites in unexpected and unethical ways. SNS users face ethical dilemmas each day and they need to decide how to behave in these cases. The aim of this study was to identify the influential factors that have an impact on individuals' ethical decision-making and propose a model of the factors that are significant in the ethical decision-making process in the SNS context. This study employed the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and included personal normative beliefs, moral intensity, perceived threat of legal punishment to the main constructs of TPB namely attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control to predict the behavioral intention using a scenario based questionnaire. The moderating effects of several factors, including age, gender, level of income, ego strength, locus of control and religion, were investigated for the probable effect on the proposed model. Derived from a designed procedure, several scenarios were constructed, of which four were selected to be embedded in the survey instrument. With 441 returned questionnaires in hand, the collected data were analyzed using the partial least squares–structural equation modeling technique. The results showed attitude to be the most influential factor, followed by subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, personal normative beliefs, and moral intensity. Level of education, age, and scenario also showed a significant effect on the relation between predictors and behavioral intention.

Moral Salience and the Role of Goodwill in Firm-Stakeholder Trust Repair

ABSTRACT:Re-establishing trust presents a complex challenge for a firm after it commits corporate misconduct. We introduce a new construct, moral salience, which we define as the extent to which the firm’s behavior is morally noticeable to the stakeholder. Moral salience is a function of both the moral intensity of the firm’s behavior and the relational intensity of the firm-stakeholder psychological contract. We apply this moral salience construct to firm misconduct to develop a model of trust repair that is based on goodwill, and moderated by the firm’s stakeholder culture.

Greenhushing: the deliberate under communicating of sustainability practices by tourism businesses

ABSTRACT Greenhushing selectively communicates fewer pro-sustainability actions by businesses than are practiced; based on a perception of customers’ rights to consumerism. We first studied the gap between the communication of sustainability practices in the audits and websites of 31 small rural tourism businesses in the Peak District National Park (UK). The analysis showed that businesses only communicate 30% of all the sustainability actions practiced. Their websites emphasised customer benefits, using explicit, affective, experiential and active language that legitimises the customers’ hedonistic use of the landscape, while downplaying complex issues and normalising sustainability to reduce customer guilt. Just one website mentioned climate change. We found that greenhushing results from a low moral intensity, masking potentially negative consequences of perceived lower competence, whilst protecting business from more cynical consumers who may interpret their statements as hypocritical. Subsequent textual analysis and interviews were used to understand how communication constitutes these organisations. We propose that greenhushing reshapes and constitutes tourism businesses through their communications. Moreover, greenhushing is a form of public moralisation that adopts communication practices similar to greenwashing, reflecting the social norms expected from a business; however, in this case, located in a moral muteness, rather than moral hypocrisy, that businesses accept but resent.

From Bounded Morality to Consumer Social Responsibility: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Socially Responsible Consumption and Its Obstacles

Corporate social responsibility has been intensively discussed in business ethics literature, whereas the social responsibility of private consumers appears to be less researched. However, there is also a growing interest from business ethicists and other scholars in the field of consumer social responsibility (ConSR). Nevertheless, previous discussions of ConSR reveal the need for a viable conceptual basis for understanding the social responsibility of consumers in an increasingly globalized market economy. Moreover, evolutionary aspects of human morality seem to have been neglected despite the fact that private consumers are undoubtedly human beings. In addition to that, empirical studies suggest that many consumers believe themselves to be responsible but do not act according to their alleged values or attitudes. This raises the question of what deters them from doing so. Therefore, the contribution of this conceptual paper is threefold: we (i) (re-)conceptualize ConSR in terms of a combination of a Max Weber-inspired approach (social action and the ethic of responsibility) with the social connection approach to shared responsibility proposed by Iris Marion Young; (ii) shed light on the previously neglected implications of an evolutionarily induced bounded morality for ConSR, and (iii) identify potential obstacles to socially responsible consumption, particularly against the backdrop of shared social responsibility and bounded morality. In this latter respect, the paper focuses specifically on the obstacles of low moral intensity, moral stupefaction, informational complexity, and the lack of perceived consumer effectiveness. In sum, the paper advances knowledge in the field of ConSR by using a transdisciplinary, literature-based approach.

Moral intensity, moral awareness and ethical predispositions: The case of insurance fraud

The issue of insurance fraud by consumers continues to perplex insurance firms, costing billions of dollars per year in the United States alone. Some analysts report that 10 per cent or more of property/casualty insurance claims are fraudulent, while less than 20 per cent of fraudulent claims being detected. Consumer attitudes are becoming more tolerant of insurance fraud in recent years. Recognizing that not all insurance fraud situations are created equal, we investigate variability in perceptions of moral intensity in dissimilar insurance padding situations in a 2 (to help others versus to profit self) × 2 (a small credit union versus a large online insurer) model and compared the results between two independent samples (college students/Millennials and an older adult population). We also investigated the impact of ethical predispositions (formalism and utilitarianism) on moral awareness and moral judgment using these four scenarios. The results suggest that the Millennials may exhibit more situationalism and more lenient judgments of collaborative versus unilateral ethical violations. In particular, ‘for self’ versus ‘for others’ comparisons show striking differences between the two age groups. The results add to the growing literature in explaining intra-personal variability in moral decision making.

Ethical values in the evaluation of corporate social performance

Purpose– This paper aims to explore two factors that may moderate the relation between an individual’s ethical values and their evaluation of competing ethical and financial outcomes. It is argued that distance (i.e. low proximity) attenuates moral intensity, thereby inhibiting ethical decision-making (EDM). In contrast, it is argued that presenting outcomes in a separate social and environmental perspective in the balanced scorecard (BSC) increases EDM.Design/methodology/approach– In an experiment, participants evaluated social outcomes presented in a BSC. Proximity and scorecard format were manipulated in a 2 × 2 factorial design.Findings– The results indicate that physical and social proximity increase the extent to which performance evaluation is influenced by the ethical values of the evaluator. Contrary to expectations, BSC format did not influence the EDM of the evaluator.Research limitations/implications– Participants were undergraduate students which may limit the generalisability of the results. Further research should be conducted with practicing managers. The study focused on a particular ethical issue, hiring and training from the local community. Further research is necessary to consider the effect of personal ethical values on other aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR).Practical implications– This study indicates that ethical values will be less salient when the outcomes relate to distant locations. There are important implications for multinational corporations seeking to avoid the liability of foreignness in their distant operations.Originality/value– Previous CSR research has focused on the institutional level. The focus of the authors on the individual’s decision-making process increases our understanding of the biases that can affect EDM.

Could the impaired intention of ethical investment be recovered?

AbstractThe environmental pollution caused by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering in October 2013 in Taiwan highlighted the fact that foreign investors tend to support the classical economic ideas of arbitrage and shareholder wealth maximization, which is in conflict with the fact that institutional investors in the current global capital market lean towards the stakeholder theory in ethical investments. Will local investors’ decision-making also be influenced by differences in the perceived ethics of negative environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR)? Compared to the remedial measures implemented by British Petroleum for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, another international corporation, decided to not respond to any news regarding the toxic wastewater incident. In contrast, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering only made clearer promises after extreme public pressure. This study investigated whether remedial measures for negative ECSR are an important factor influencing investors’ decisions. The purpose is to clarify the interactions among perceived moral intensity of negative ECSR, the implementation of remedial measures, and the intention of ethical investment. An experimental design was employed to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that perceived moral intensity has a significant negative impact on the intention of ethical investment. The implementation of remedial measures for negative ECSR affects investors’ intent to invest. Finally, positive ECSR remedial measures also serve as a key moderating variable in the relationship between perceived moral intensity and the intention of ethical investment. This study clarified whether the provision of remedial mechanisms can effectively recover or maintain investor investment intent when companies experience negative ECSR.

Villains, Victims, and Verisimilitudes: An Exploratory Study of Unethical Corporate Values, Bullying Experiences, Psychopathy, and Selling Professionals’ Ethical Reasoning

This study assesses the relationships among unethical corporate values, bullying experiences, psychopathy, and selling professionals’ ethical evaluations of bullying. Information was collected from national/regional samples of selling professionals. Results indicated that unethical values, bullying, and psychopathy were positively interrelated. Psychopathy and unethical values were negatively associated with moral intensity, while moral intensity was positively related to ethical issue importance. Psychopathy and unethical values were negatively related to issue importance, and issue importance and moral intensity were positively related to ethical judgment. Finally, ethical judgment and moral intensity were positively linked to ethical intention; psychopathy was negatively associated with ethical intention.