Moral Disengagement And Employees' Ethical Decision-making

In recent years, all over the world, the concern with business and marketing ethics has been on the rise, leading to intensified research efforts in this area. Albert Bandura's theory of moral disengagement was developed to explain why certain people are able to engage in unethical decision making or inhumane conduct without apparent distress. It is also important to consider whether ethical leadership can influence the ethical quality of follower decisions. In the present study, we tried to examine the influence of moral disengagement on the ethical decision making dimensions of moral recognition, moral judgment, and moral intent. We also tried to investigate the moderating role of ethical leadership playing in the linkages between moral disengagement and ethical decision making in the context of Chinese organization.In this study, first, the research of moral disengagement was summarized, which included the concept, the related theory, measure and research. After that, based on psychological measurement technique, the moral disengagement questionnaire was revised. At last, we analyzed the moderating role of ethical leadership playing in the linkages between moral disengagement and ethical decision making in the context of Chinese organization.A structured questionnaire was employed as the research instrument for this study. Data were collected from 640 college students,819 full-time employees, and 424 criminals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and hierarchical regression modeling (HRM) were utilized to analyze the data for testing the hypotheses proposed.Firstly, the revision of the moral disengagement questionnaire has good reliability and validity. In college students, general staff and criminals, the eight dimensions structure of moral disengagement is good. Questionnaire has good distinguished validity. Male criminals'moral disengagement level is significantly higher than male college students and male employees' moral disengagement; Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the measures were above 0.90, showing good measurement reliabilities.Secondly, moral disengagement questionnaire has good prediction validity. Moral disengagement had a direct influence on physical aggression, and an indirect influence through the anger-hostility action. Moral disengagement only had an indirect influence on verbal aggression through the anger-hostility action. The anger-hostility action is a partial mediator of the relationship of moral disengagement and physical aggression; but fully mediates the relationship of moral disengagement and verbal aggression.Thirdly, moral disengagement in different groups has significant differences. Male college students had higher scores in the moral disengagement than females. College students form cities had higher scores in the moral disengagement than the students form rural. Juniors scored higher in the moral disengagement than college students in other grades. Male employee moral disengagement is significantly higher than female employee moral disengagement. Moral disengagement has a significantly positive correlation with employees' age. Moral disengagement also positively correlates with employees' education. But, for criminals, moral disengagement only negatively correlates with education.Lastly, in line with predictions, results of SEM analysis revealed that moral disengagement had a significant negative influence on moral recognition. But moral disengagement had a significant positive influence on moral judgment and moral intent. However, moral disengagement's positive effect on moral judgment was partially mediated by moral recognition. Meanwhile, moral disengagement's positive effect on moral intent was partially mediated by moral judgment. In addition, results of hierarchical regression modeling analysis suggested ethical leadership significantly moderated the relationship between moral disengagement and moral recognition, and moral judgment. Nevertheless, ethical leadership did not have moderating effect on the relation between moral disengagement and moral intent. But ethical leadership had a significant negative influence on moral intent.The present study clearly indicates that moral disengagement have a signification effect on ethical decision making, that is, employees with high moral disengagement will more likely making unethical decision. However, the effect can be moderated by ethical leadership. This implicates that managers should pay more attention to ethical leadership for employees in order to reduce their moral disengagement and unethical decision making. Finally, the limitations and future research directions were discussed.