C. Justice Tillman

A Multi-Functional View of Moral Disengagement: Exploring the Effects of Learning the Consequences

This paper takes us beyond the unethical act and explores the use of moral disengagement as a multi-stage, multi-functional regulatory, and coping mechanism that not only allows individuals to engage in unethical behavior, but also manage the negative emotions (i.e., guilt and shame) from learning the consequences of such behavior. A resource-based lens is applied to the moral disengagement process, suggesting that individuals not only morally disengage prior to committing an unethical act in order to conserve their own resources, but also morally disengage as a coping mechanism to reduce emotional duress upon learning of the consequences of their actions, which we describe as post-moral disengagement. These assertions are tested using a scenario-based laboratory study consisting of 182 respondents. Findings indicate that individuals will morally disengage in order to commit an unethical act, will experience negative emotions from having learned of the consequences, and then will engage in post-moral disengagement as a coping mechanism. In addition, the findings suggest that guilt and shame relate differently to moral disengagement.

When Birds of a Feather Flock Together: The Role of Core-Self Evaluations and Moral Intensity in the Relationship Between Network Unethicality and Unethical Choice

Leveraging perspectives from social cognitive theory, the attention-based view, and social networks literatures, we tested the relationship between unethical choice and network unethicality, which we define as respondents’ perceptions of their peer advisors’ unethical choices. Although social cognitive theory predicts that perceptions of peer advisor unethical choice are positively associated with unethical choice, we theorize that the nature of this relationship depends on the personality of the actor (core self-evaluation) and the situation (moral intensity). Results from a lagged study suggest that individual and situational variables may act as key buffers to the adverse impact of unethical social influence on ethical choice. Strengths, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.