Dennis J. Moberg

The Development of Moral Imagination

Moral imagination is a reasoning process thought to counter the organizational factors that corrupt ethical judgment. We describe the psychology of moral imagination as composed of the four decision processes identified by Rest (1986), i.e., moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral intention, and moral behavior. We examine each process in depth, distilling extant psychological research and indicating organizational implications. The conclusion offers suggestions for future research. The majority of men are subjective toward themselves and objective toward all others—terribly objective sometimes—but the real task is in fact to be objective toward one’s self and subjective toward all others.

Preferential Treatment in Preselection Decisions According to Sex and Race

Resumes of fictitious applicants for entry-level professional positions were mailed to 458 potential employers, and the responses were analyzed. A three-group experimental design permitted control ...

The Big Five and Organizational Virtue

Recent developments in personality research point to an alchemy of character composed of five elements: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. This paper surveys this research for its implications to the study of the virtues in organizational ethics. After subjecting each of these five character traits to several tests as to what constitutes a virtue, the empirical evidence supports an organizational virtue of agreeableness and an organizational virtue of conscientiousness. Although the empirical evidence falls short, an argument is mobilized on behalf of an additional organizational virtue of openness to experience.

Making Business Ethics Practical

Our critics confuse the role normative ethical theory can take in business ethics. We argue that as a practical discipline, business ethics must focus on norms, not the theories from which the norms derive. It is true that our original work is defective, but not in its form, but in its neglect of contemporary advances in feminist ethics.

Role Models and Moral Exemplars: How Do Employees Acquire Virtues by Observing Others?

Role modeling is widely thought to be a principal vehicle for acquiring the virtues. Yet, little is known about role modeling as a process. This paper surveys the behavioral sciences for insights about how one person can find the actions of another person so inspirational that the person attempts to reproduce the behavior in question. In general, such inspiration occurs when an observer sees a model similar to herself, wrestling with a problem she is having, such that the model’s accomplishments are seen as attainable. When the behavior modeled is moral, additional complications arise, not the least of which is the contemporary skepticism about anyone held up as a hero. The paper concludes with some suggestions about how organizations can facilitate the development of the virtues through role modeling.

Alleviating Poverty Through Profitable Partnerships: Globalization, Markets and Economic Well-Being

Introduction 1. World Poverty in the 21st Century 2. Failed Strategies in the Alleviation of Poverty 3. Mental Models and Contributing Biases on Global Poverty 4. Narratives of Multinational For-Profit Enterprises and Corporate Social Responsibility 5. Global Poverty and Moral Imagination 6. Institutional Barriers, Moral Risk and Transformative Business Ventures 7. Public-Private Partnerships and other Hybrid Models for Poverty Alleviation 8. Future Prospects for Profitable Partnerships

On Employee Vice

Vice is a neglected concept in business ethics. This paper attempts to bring vice back into the contemporary dialogue by exploring one vice that is destructive to employee and organization alike. Interestingly, this vice was first described by Aristotle as akolastos . Drawing extensively on the criminology literature, the findings challenge both common sense and popular images of white-collar crime and criminals. While not all instances of employee betrayal are attributable to vice, some most certainly are, and the paper offers a description of those violations of trust in which vice may play a role.

Mentoring for protégé character development

As role models, mentors serve as moral exemplars to their protégés. Yet, since the mentoring literature gives scant attention to the mentors role in protégé moral education, mentors are largely unwitting participants in this process. Grounded in research from moral psychology and philosophy, this article provides guidance to mentors who want to be more intentional about the process of protégé character development. Based upon a theoretical analysis, eight propositions are offered regarding ways mentors can help their protégés form character as an integrated system of motivation, emotion, knowledge and cognition through experience, reflection, and inspiration.

Virtuous Peers in Work Organizations

A6stract: It is argued that virtuous peers in work organizations have two elements of character no matter what the nature of the goods the organization produces: loyalty to common projects for their own sake and trustworthiness. Each of these is shown to be a uniquely human attribute, an element of character that contributes to a life well lived, and a trait that leads to the flourishing of an entire work community.

Helping subordinates with their personal problems: A moral dilemma for managers

When subordinates ask their managers for help with their personal problems, it creates moral dilemmas for their managers. Managers are contractually obliged to maintain equivalent relations between their subordinates and that is compromised when one subordinate makes this kind of request. By applying deontological principles to this dilemma, additional options are revealed, and the moral duties managers owe their subordinates in these situations are clarified.