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Dilemmas featuring competing moral imperatives are prevalent in organizations and are difficult to resolve. Whereas prior research has focused on how individuals adjudicate among these moral imperatives, we study the factors that influence when individuals find solutions that fall outside of the salient options presented. In particular, we study mo...
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Peer victimization is prevalent among college-aged students, yet no study to our knowledge has examined various strategies of defending peers from victimization among this population. This study investigated the associations between multiple defending strategies (i.e., direct, indirect, including prosocial and aggressive defending), how moral disen...
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... In the NEDMs we identified, steps can be phrased in various ways: open-ended questions, closed-ended questions, instructions, or requirements. Open-ended questions, such as asking who the relevant stakeholders are, aim to stimulate divergent, creative, and autonomous thinking by encouraging reflection and exploration (cf., Zhang, Gino, & Margolis, 2018). Closedended questions, such as whether a proposed action can be justified to stakeholders, are intended to lead to a clear, predefined answer, often a binary "yes" or "no." ...
Normative ethical decision-making models (NEDMs) are designed to enhance ethical decision-making. NEDMs are widely employed in business contexts. Unfortunately, there is no overview of NEDMs available in the scientific literature for use in business contexts. Additionally, there is no analytical framework that allows the classification and evaluation of existing NEDMs. Our literature search identified 27 unique NEDMs published in the English-language scientific business literature through 2024. We subsequently developed a novel, four-dimensional NEDM analytical framework. Applying this framework to the identified models revealed that most NEDMs consist of five to eight steps that must be followed in a fixed sequence, omit key decision-making steps, treat decision-makers as objective, primarily engage with classical ethical theories while making minimal attempts to weigh conflicting moral norms, values or principles, and prescribe how decisions should be made rather than prescribing decision outcomes. We discuss how our framework can assist scholars and practitioners in developing, validating, and selecting NEDMs.
... Within the studies that included child labor as part of experimental manipulations, most focused on child labor originating "overseas", "foreign countries" (Folkes & Whang, 2003), "third-world facilities" (Shea & Hawn, 2019), or "a poor country" (Ritov & Baron, 1999) with Zhang et al. (2018) explicitly stating "Southeast Asia", Wang et al. (2021) using a case study regarding Levi Strauss & Co.'s use of child labor in Bangladesh, and Wellman et al. (2016) referring to "a supplier". Across five studies, child labor violations were experimentally manipulated, not to assess attitudes or reactions to child labor violations per se, but rather as a response to unethical/immoral behavior in a corporate setting. ...
Although children are a sizeable portion of the workforce, and many of these employed children are engaged in child labor, organizational research has largely ignored this population. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the critical and timely need for organizational research on the experience of work for children, particularly those engaged in child labor (defined as work that is mentally, physically, socially, or morally dangerous or threatens the education of children). I argue this is inherently a question particularly important for those with expertise in occupational health psychology, given the definitionally hazardous nature of child labor and the developmentally critical period during which children tend to be employed. To achieve this aim, I first review the current state of child labor globally with an example of recent backsliding as highlighted by modern legislative efforts to roll back protections for employed minors in the United States. I then provide results of a scoping review of 19 top organizational science journals, which largely suggest that employed children are rarely the subjects of study in mainstream organizational research, and those that are studied may not best represent the population of employed minors globally. Lastly, I provide recommendations and research questions for organizational and occupational health scholars to improve our empirical understanding of the nature of work for employed youth. Overall, this paper provides a strong foundation for increased organizational research with employed children, particularly those engaged in child labor.
... When faced with legal constraints, individuals are forced to make a choice between violating the law or violating a moral domain they see as imperative. Importantly, given the zero-sum nature of these constraints, there are rarely integrative solutions available (unlike other cases) (see Zhang et al. 2018). Thus, although past empirical work has significantly advanced our understanding of the many cases when ethical concerns and the law align, it has precluded our understanding of the Kundro, Croitoru, and Helgason: Morality and Legal Regulations Organization Science, Articles in Advance, pp. ...
Nearly every employee is subject to some form of legal requirement as a function of their work. Laws are often implemented by authorities to ensure that employees and organizations engage in ethical and moral conduct at work. Importantly, acting in a moral manner is linked to benefits for employees, increasing intrinsic motivation that facilitates high levels of proactive behavior. Yet, employees increasingly face situations where laws or regulations conflict with what they perceive as morally appropriate (i.e., legal constraints on moral behavior), which we argue instead have negative consequences for employees. Combining insights from the literature on motivation and moral foundations theory, we propose that when employees face legal constraints on moral behavior, they feel less intrinsically motivated, leading them to engage in less proactive behavior. We further predict that legal constraints are less damaging when employees perceive them as necessary versus unnecessary evils. We test our model across three complementary studies: a field study of employees from a company in a heavily regulated industry and two preregistered experiments.
... Beliefs about decision conflict, however, cannot easily explain the preference for moral rule-following in dilemmatic contexts. People experience, and are expected to experience, high decision conflict when faced with ethical dilemmas (i.e., situations in which there is a conflict between two moral principles; Kidder, 1995;Kohlberg, 1971;Zhang et al., 2018). Furthermore, as discussed, in the context of honesty-prosociality dilemmas, people often value dishonesty when they know that honesty will cause harm. ...
People believe that some lies are ethical, while also claiming that “honesty is the best policy.” In this article, we introduce a theory to explain this apparent inconsistency. Even though people view prosocial lies as ethical, they believe it is more important—and more moral—to avoid harmful lies than to allow prosocial lies. Unconditional honesty (simply telling the truth, without finding out how honesty will affect others) is therefore seen as ethical because it prevents the most unethical actions (i.e., harmful lies) from occurring, even though it does not optimize every moral decision. We test this theory across five focal experiments and 10 supplemental studies. Consistent with our account, we find that communicators who tell the truth without finding out how honesty will affect others are viewed as more ethical, and are trusted more, than communicators who look for information about the social consequences of honesty before communicating. However, the moral preference for unconditional honesty attenuates when it is certain that looking for more information will not lead to harmful lies. Overall, this research provides a holistic understanding of how people think about honesty and suggests that moral rules are not valued because people believe all rule violations are wrong, but rather, because they believe some violations must be avoided entirely.
... Saying "I don't" rather than "I can't" eat cookies, for example, can make people more likely to stick to their goals (i.e., avoid sweets) because it makes them feel more empowered (Patrick and Hagtvedt 2012). Similarly, rather than thinking about what they should do when faced with dilemmas, thinking about what they could do helps people generate more creative solutions (Zhang, Gino, and Margolis 2018). But while some work has examined the effect of switching one verb for another, there has been less attention to whether the same verb might have different effects depending on the particular tense in which it is expressed. ...
... More broadly, verbs offer a rich area for future research. While a few papers have examined particular pairs of different verbs (e.g., can't vs. don't, or could vs. should; Patrick and Hagtvedt 2012;Zhang et al. 2018), there has been less attention to things like tense, or the impact of different grammatical types or forms of verbs. ...
When sharing information and opinions about products, services, and experiences, communicators often use either past or present tense (e.g., “That restaurant was great” or “That restaurant is great”). Might such differences in verb tense shape communication’s impact, and if so, how? A multimethod investigation, including eight studies conducted in the field and lab, demonstrates that using present (vs. past) tense can increase persuasion. Natural language processing of over 500,000 online reviews in multiple product and service domains, for example, illustrates that reviews that use more present tense are seen as more helpful and useful. Follow-up experiments demonstrate that shifting from past to present tense increases persuasion and illustrate the underlying process through both mediation and moderation. When communicators use present (rather than past) tense to express their opinions and experiences, it suggests they are more certain about what they are saying, which increases persuasion. These findings shed light on how language impacts consumer behavior, highlight how a subtle, yet central linguistic feature shapes communication, and have clear implications for persuasion across a range of situations.
... Rational decision-making style is characterized by thorough information search and deliberation (Harren, 1979;Scott & Bruce, 1995) and has been shown to predict highquality decisions (Phillips et al., 2016). In experimental settings, deliberation (or contemplation) about ethical issues (Gunia et al., 2012) and alternative ethical actions (Zhang et al., 2018) has been shown to improve the quality of ethical decisions. Thus, employees who habitually search for information and deliberate about decision options should be 2 In addition to the ethical decision-making process and the role of individual differences, Schwartz (2016) discusses the influence of situational factors on the ethical decision-making process as well as negative feedback loops wherein (un)ethical behavior predicts subsequent awareness of ethical norms. ...
... According to the "fast and frugal" perspective, in contrast, intuitive (or heuristic) decision-making allows decision-makers to quickly gather relevant information and make effective decisions in most situations (Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011). Similarly, ethical decision-making studies that have primed intuitive thinking have reported mixed findings (see, e.g., Welsh & Ordóñez, 2014;Zhang et al., 2018). Due to the conflicting theoretical perspectives and mixed empirical findings, we examine the relation between intuitive decision-making style and CWB in an exploratory manner. ...
The current paper proposed individual differences in judgment and decision-making (JDM)—namely, the skill associated with recognizing social norms, decision-making styles, and risk–benefit perceptions—as a novel set of predictors of counterproductive work behavior (CWB). We hypothesized that the skill associated with recognizing social norms, rational decision-making style, and perceived riskiness of unethical behavior would be related negatively to CWB, whereas the avoidant decision-making style, spontaneous decision-making style, and perceived benefits of unethical behavior would be related positively to CWB. Moreover, we hypothesized that JDM-focused individual differences would exhibit incremental validity above and beyond the traditional individual difference predictors of CWB (personality, trait affect, and cognitive ability). Results from three independent samples provided strong support for the hypotheses. The strongest predictor of CWB was individual differences in perceived benefits of unethical behavior (meta-analytic correlation across the three samples = .487). This result suggests a simple insight, yet one almost completely missing from the existing CWB literature: People who believe unethical behavior is likely to benefit them will tend to enact more CWB than those who do not. Additionally, across the three samples, the novel JDM-focused individual difference predictors performed well in comparison to the traditional individual difference predictors, suggesting their usefulness to research and practice. We therefore suggest several avenues for future research on JDM-focused individual differences as predictors of CWB. Additionally, vis-à-vis practical implications, we discuss the possibility of using JDM-focused individual differences in employee selection and organizational intervention contexts with the aim of reducing CWB.
... Despite this consensus, emerging research has hinted that morality may not always harm creativity and instead could help promote it. Recent research has found that individuals entrenched in moral dilemmas can engage in high levels of divergent thinking-a key antecedent of creativity (Zhang, Gino, & Margolis, 2018). Moreover, employees who moralize their work may be particularly motivated to enact their work in a way that upholds moral values, leading them to use "moral imagination" at work (Werhane, 1999). ...
... Indeed, employees will feel comfortable and even encouraged to develop morally sound solutions because they believe these ideas will be valued by their organization (Liedtka, 1989). Thus, their focus is likely to shift to achieving ideal moral outcomesleading them to consider the different possibilities available by integrating multiple perspectives (Zhang et al., 2018). As a result, employees are likely to become cognitively flexible. ...
... Since the organization does not share the same values, individuals are less likely to believe that they have the support of their organization to think outside the box, mitigating the likelihood that they think in cognitively flexible ways. As a result, they are likely to feel limited by the organization's values and thus become unwilling to break from accepted practices (Gino & Wiltermuth, 2014;Zhang et al., 2018). In these instances, individuals are thus unlikely to become cognitively flexible. ...
Morality is espoused and encouraged across organizations, with decades of research documenting the benefits of moral considerations in deterring unethical behavior. Despite the importance of morality at work, organizational ethics research has suggested that individuals who moralize their work are likely to experience two drawbacks. First, research suggests that moralizing work will decrease creativity because employees become overburdened by moral considerations. Second, research suggests that individuals who moralize work are prone to engage in problematic social sanctioning behavior. In this dissertation, I draw on emerging research to challenge this dismal view of moralization. Specifically, I argue that, counter to current assumptions, work moralization can increase creativity and decrease social sanctioning behaviors. Instead of being a burden, this dissertation suggests that moralization is a nuanced process that can have beneficial or problematic outcomes depending on various contextual factors that are ingrained within organizations. In Chapter 1, I draw on the dual pathway theory of creativity to demonstrate that work moralization can decrease creativity through rumination, but also increase creativity through cognitive flexibility. In Chapter 2, I draw on theories of self-conscious emotions to demonstrate that work moralization can increase social sanctions through shame, but also decrease these same behaviors through pride. I test my theory in two organizational contexts – a federal organization and a sanitation plant – and also in two complementary, immersive online experiments. This dissertation challenges the prevailing consensus surrounding work moralization, painting a more nuanced and accurate picture of this phenomenon.
... Similarly, Bierly et al. (2009) showed that individuals with a highly creative personality can generate ethical solutions owing to their flexible thinking abilities, especially in uncertain situations, such that they may be less likely to act in an unethical manner. Relatedly, Zhang et al. (2018) found that approaching ethical dilemmas with a different mindset ("could" versus "should") increases divergent thinking (a characteristic of creative personality), which can result in increased moral insight or the cognitive recognition of solutions that may be less unethical. ...
Research shows that the effects of creative personality on moral disengagement and unethical behaviors are mixed. To reconcile the disparate findings, we draw on interdependence theory to unravel how and when creative personality is related to moral disengagement through countervailing pathways. Specifically, we propose competitive motivation and prosocial motivation as two distinct mechanisms that explain the double-edged effects of creative personality on moral disengagement and subsequent unethical behaviors. Furthermore, we hypothesize a cross-level moderating effect of competitive climate on the relationships between competitive/prosocial motivation and moral disengagement. Results based on three-wave data from 753 employees showed that creative personality increased moral disengagement and subsequent unethical behaviors through competitive motivation, but decreased moral disengagement and subsequent unethical behaviors through prosocial motivation. In addition, competitive climate weakened the negative relationship between prosocial motivation and moral disengagement and the negative indirect relationship between creative personality and unethical behaviors via prosocial motivation and moral disengagement.
... In responding to this question, we make three main contributions: (1) We draw attention-to the best of our knowledge, for the first time-to the limited set of decision contexts in which moral disengagement has typically been studied, and build a case that, moving forward, this context should be expanded to include right vs. right dilemmas (Badaracco, 1997;Zhang et al., 2018); (2) We enhance theory on what motivates moral disengagement. Existentialist thinking reveals moral disengagement as a morally unacceptable manner of coping with overwhelming moral demands, rather than a manner of one's conscience "getting away" with narrowly self-interested behavior; (3) We enhance theory on how to prevent moral disengagement by providing two alternative paths from what has been argued for up to this point. ...
... We will show that existentialists deliberated moral disengagement extensively through the concepts of 'bad faith,' in the case of Sartre, and the notion of 'not willing oneself free' in the case of De Beauvoir. We then go on to argue that existentialist thinking introduces a fresh and important context in which to study moral disengagement, namely right vs. right dilemmas (Badaracco, 1997;Zhang et al., 2018). ...
... Like existentialist philosophers, management scholars have grappled conceptually with right vs. right conflicts for almost a century (e.g., Badaracco, 1997;Barnard, 1982). Only recently has there been empirical data, rigorously collected, to suggest that right vs. right dilemmas are of the most frequent and most difficult issues that managers and executives face, as compared with right vs. wrong dilemmas (Zhang et al., 2018). Given the complexity of organizational life, middle managers can experience being responsible to their own morals, as well as to others and for others. ...
We bring the distinct and complementary existentialist perspectives of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir to bear on the phenomenon of moral disengagement in managerial decision-making. Existentialist thinking is a rich source of insight on this phenomenon, because—as we demonstrate—the concept of moral disengagement overlaps significantly with the notion of ‘a consciousness in bad faith’ in Sartre’s writing, and the notion of ‘not willing oneself free’ in De Beauvoir’s writing. These concepts play a critical role in existentialist ethics, and thus existentialists carefully deliberated the phenomenon that these concepts aim to illuminate. Rather than being motivated by self-interest as implied by the bulk of extant empirical work on moral disengagement, existentialist perspectives suggest that moral disengagement can instead be motivated by an overwhelming sense of responsibility towards diverse others. From an existentialist perspective, the temptation to morally disengage will not only be felt by individuals that have a strong, trait-like propensity for moral disengagement, but by managers in general. This temptation is likely to be felt in the specific context of right vs. right dilemmas, which have up to now rarely been studied by moral disengagement scholars. Even though existentialist thought paints the problem of moral disengagement as more widespread and entrenched in the human condition, it also suggests ways of preventing moral disengagement. In arguing for these preventative approaches, we make careful distinctions between Sartre and De Beauvoir, thereby becoming the first to argue that De Beauvoir offers a unique contribution to our understanding of ethical decision-making in management.
... It helps explain why the routinization process is more likely for some individuals than for others. As highlighted in the business ethics literature, most studies have investigated the processes conducive to misconduct rather than focusing on the personal factors that can contribute to more competent moral functioning (Margolis, 2009;Moore & Gino, 2013;Zhang, Gino, & Margolis, 2018). ...
Moral disengagement plays an important role in the routinization of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) as a key mediator. What remains unclear are the factors that could attenuate the power of moral disengagement in this process. Building on social-cognitive theory, we hypothesize the moderating role of moral self-efficacy and suggest the importance of two different dimensions: self-reflective and behavioral moral self-efficacies. While the former should buffer the CWB-moral disengagement path over time, the latter should buffer the moral disengagement-CWB path. After presenting the psychometric properties of the moral self-efficacy scale in two independent samples (Study 1: United Kingdom, N = 359; Study 2: Italy, N = 1308), we test the posited multi-wave moderated-mediated model. Results from a structural equation model supported our hypotheses. Results demonstrate that the routinization of CWB through the mediation of moral disengagement over time is conditionally influenced by the two moral self-efficacy dimensions. Employees high in capability to look back and question the assumptions that affected their behavior (i.e., self-reflective moral self-efficacy) are less likely to morally disengage as a result of previous engagement in CWB. Employees high in capability to morally self-regulate (i.e., behavioral moral self-efficacy) are less likely to engage in CWB as a result of their moral disengagement. Results of the conditional indirect effect suggest that previous engagement in CWB is not translated in future engagement in CWB for those individuals high in both moral self-efficacy dimensions.
