The Effect Of Empathy, Machiavellianism, And Organizational Ethical Climate On Ethical Conduct Of Staff: The Mediation Effects Of Moral Disengagement

“Why do people make unethical decisions”, a host of scandals in society inspire the researchinterest of scholars.Bandura put forward the concept of moral disengagement from the perspective of socialcognitive theory, which provided a new theoretical perspective in explaining individual ethical behavior.The theory,concept,and measurement of moral disengagement were introduced into China systematicallyfor the first time by Wang Xingchao and Yang Jiping,who focused their attention on the outcome variable(Moral decisions and pro-social behavior, etc）.Their research just reported the impact of demographicvariables, excluding other influencing factors.However,the discussion of influencing factors to moralexcuse allows us better understanding and predict which kind of personality traits in certain organizationatmosphere will tend to produce moral anonymity. It is of great significance to the organization leader andthe development of the society.This research adopted the moral disengagement questionnaire, Interpersonal Reactivity Index(IRI), organizational ethical climate questionnaire, ethical behavior scale, the standard20-item Mach IVand Marlowe-Crowne social desirability scale to hold surveys in448employees which were picked up atrandom in our country. By using correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factoranalysis, hierarchical regression analysis, advantage analysis and structural equation model and Sobelinspection technology, we discussed the influencing factors to the moral excuse in these enterpriseemployees, trying to find out the contributions of each factor, so that we were able to make further analysison the mechanism action of its dependent variable affecting its independent variables. The results showedas follows:First, empathy, Machiavellianism and organizational ethical atmospheres had different relativeimportance to moral disengagement. Empathy was the largest one.Second, in the mediation effect study of the moral disengagement’s influencing effect to empathy,moral disengagement played a partial intermediary role between the empathy and ethical behavior.Third, in the mediation effect study of the moral disengagement’s influencing effect toMachiavellianism, moral disengagement played a partial intermediary role between the Machiavellianism and ethical behavior.Fourth, in the mediation effect study of the moral disengagement’s influencing effect toorganizational ethical climate, moral disengagement played a partial intermediary role between theorganizational ethical climate and ethical behavior.Finally, this study summarized the deficiencies and the problems which should be further studied.