The Influence Of Moral Disengagement On Ethical Decision-Making

In recent years, business that went against the ethics in the commercial sector occurs frequently which caused serious damages to the society, As a result, it raises a question:Why do people make unethical decisions? Tenbrunsel and Messick (2004) suggested many ethical violation events is not just the problem of the organization or managers’ ethical level, but also it was closely related to its potential psychological process of ethical decision-making. Bandura (1986) proposed the concept of moral desengagement from the perspective of social cognitive theory and tried to explain the psychological processes behind the reality of business ethics. Detert, Trevino and Sweitzer (2008) considered individual was more likely to make unethical decision in the case of moral desengagement. Therefore, the psychological processes and mechanisms for ethical decision-making, was useful in understanding why some people will do unethical decision "knowingly" when they are faced with ethical dilemmas.Based on this realistic background and previous studies at home and abroad, this paper focuses on the relationship between ethical decision-making process in three stages, whether the moral disengagement has impact on ethical decision-making process, the relationship between accountability type and ethical decision-making process and under different accountability types whether the relationship between moral disengagement and ethical decision-making process changes.In this study, we received180valid copies of questionnaires, and did empirical analysis by using factor analysis, correlation analysis, analysis of variance, regression analysis. The results showed that:(1) There’s a significant positive correlation between the various stages of the ethical decision-making process;(2) Advantage comparison and diffusion of responsibility have a significant negative role in ethical awareness and ethical judgment; Advantage comparison, displacement of responsibility and diffusion of responsibility have a significant negative effect in ethical intention.(3) There are significant differences between accountability to individual and accountability to the company or direct leader in the three-stage process of ethical decision-making,(4) There are significant differences on the impacts the moral disengagement has on ethical decision-making process under different types of accountability. At last, we discussed the significance and limitations of this study...