Douglas R. May

The Effectiveness of Ethics Education: A Quasi-Experimental Field Study

Ethical conduct is the hallmark of excellence in engineering and scientific research, design, and practice. While undergraduate and graduate programs in these areas routinely emphasize ethical conduct, few receive formal ethics training as part of their curricula. The first purpose of this research study was to assess the relative effectiveness of ethics education in enhancing individuals’ general knowledge of the responsible conduct of research practices and their level of moral reasoning. Secondly, we examined the effects of ethics education on the positive psychological outcomes of perspective-taking, moral efficacy, moral courage, and moral meaningfulness. To examine our research hypotheses, we utilized a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design consisting of three ethics education groups (control, embedded modules, and stand-alone courses). Findings revealed that both embedded and stand alone courses were effective in enhancing participants’ perspective-taking, moral efficacy, and moral courage. Moral meaningfulness was marginally enhanced for the embedded module condition. Moral judgment and knowledge of responsible conduct of research practices were not influenced by either ethics education condition. Contrary to expectations, stand alone courses were not superior to embedded modules in influencing the positive psychological outcomes investigated. Implications of these findings for future research and practice are discussed.

Nurse moral distress: A survey identifying predictors and potential interventions

BACKGROUNDnEthical dilemmas and conflicts are inherent in todays health care organizations and may lead to moral distress, which is often associated with physical and psychological symptoms. Although the existence of moral distress has been observed by scholars for decades, most of the research has been descriptive and has examined what types of health care conflicts lead to distress.nnnOBJECTIVEnThis study tested a comprehensive model, underpinned by Social Cognitive Theory, that examined work environment and intrapersonal variables that may influence moral distress.nnnDESIGN/SETTING/PARTICIPANTSnWe surveyed nursing staff employed in a U.S. acute care hospital (response rate=45%; n=290).nnnRESULTSnMore than half of the respondents reported they experience ethical dilemmas and conflicts from several times a month to daily, and nearly half reported they experience moral distress at least several times a month. Structural equation modeling analysis simultaneously examined the effects of five independent variables on moral distress and moral voice: (a) frequency of ethical dilemmas and conflicts; (b) moral efficacy; (c) ethics communication; (d) ethical environment; and (e) organizational ethics support. Results revealed significant independent effects of the frequency of ethics issues and organizational ethics support on moral distress. Bootstrapping analysis indicated that voice fully mediated the relationship between moral efficacy and moral distress, and partially mediated the relationship between organizational ethics support and distress. Supplemental analysis revealed that organizational ethics support moderated the moral efficacy-voice-moral distress relationship such that when organizational support was low, moral efficacy was negatively related to moral distress via voice.nnnCONCLUSIONSnAlthough it may be impossible to eliminate all ethical dilemmas and conflicts, leaders and organizations may wish to help improve nurses moral efficacy, which appears to give rise to voice, and reduced moral distress. Increasing organizational ethics support may be a key approach.

Student Well-Being Interventions: The Effects of Stress Management Techniques and Gratitude Journaling in the Management Education Classroom

Student well-being in the management classroom is of concern to both educators and managers. Well-being is conceptualized here as students’ reduction in stress, enhanced experienced meaning and engagement in the classroom, and, ultimately, heightened satisfaction with life. The authors investigated whether purposeful semester-long classroom interventions could influence these dimensions of student well-being. Specifically, the authors examined the impact of stress management techniques, gratitude journaling, a combination of stress management and journaling, and a control condition on students in four different sections of a required management course. At the end of the semester, students in the both the combined intervention and gratitude journaling treatment conditions showed a heightened level of meaningfulness and engagement in the classroom. The implications of these findings for management education research and practice as well as strengths and limitations of the research are discussed.

Organizational characteristics and HRM policies on rights: Exploring the patterns of connections

The protection of employee rights in the workplace is one of the fundamental ethical questions facing organizations today. Organizations differ in the extent to which they protect the rights of both employees and themselves as employers, yet little research has examined the types of organizations that have rights protection policies. Instead of the classic normative approach to ethical issues, this study took a contextual approach to the management of rights in the workplace through human resource policies. Associations were found between the organizational characteristics of size, industry, unionization, business condition, and the existence of employee and employer rights policies. Additional analyses revealed underlying dimensions in right policies and the relationship of organizational characteristics to these aspects of rights management were examined. The results are discussed in terms of understanding human resource rights management within an organizational context.

Does ethical membership matter? Moral identification and its organizational implications.

This research meaningfully connects the literatures on identification and business ethics by proposing the new construct of moral identification. Moral identification is defined here as the perception of oneness or belongingness associated with an organization that exhibits ethical traits (e.g., care, kindness, and compassion), which also involves a deliberate concern of the membership with an ethical organization. Integrating social identity theory with theory on the moral self, this research examines an overall theoretical model where moral identification plays a significant role in explaining employee attraction, motivation, and retention (i.e., 3 components of the overall theoretical framework). These components were examined separately in 3 empirical studies and findings from these studies first revealed that moral identification explained why job seekers with strong (vs. weak) moral identities were more attracted to a socially responsible organization (Study 1). Second, moral identification was associated with lower employee unethical proorganizational behavior (Study 2). Finally, moral identification was negatively related to employees turnover intentions. Organizations legal compliance moderated this relation such that it was stronger when organizations have higher (vs. lower) levels of legal compliance (Study 3). Taken together, these studies suggest that moral identification offers new insights in explaining both potential and current employees behaviors when morality is contextually relevant and subjectively meaningful. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

Exploring the Boundaries of Career Calling The Moderating Roles of Procedural Justice and Psychological Safety

The purpose of this research was to examine how the relation between an individual’s calling and his or her job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and career success is affected by two dimensions of organizational context, procedural justice and psychological safety. Data were obtained from 526 employees of a law enforcement agency in the Midwest United States. Our results indicate that calling is important to both employees and employers since individuals with higher sense of calling are more satisfied with their jobs, less likely to turn over, and are more content with their careers. Moreover, this study provides evidence that under poor contextual conditions, the relation between calling and job satisfaction is stronger than in good contextual conditions (i.e., procedurally just or psychologically safe contexts). Our findings also suggest that a psychologically safe organizational environment is of some importance to experiencing a feeling of career success for those with a higher sense of calling.

An Exploratory Study Among HRM Professionals of Moral Recognition in Off-Shoring Decisions: The Roles of Perceived Magnitude of Consequences, Time Pressure, Cognitive and Affective Empathy, and Prior Knowledge

Off-shoring is a business decision increasingly being considered as a strategic option to effect expected cost savings. This exploratory study focuses on the moral recognition of off-shoring using ethical decision making (EDM) embedded within affective events theory (AET). Perceived magnitude of consequences and time pressure are hypothesized as affective event characteristics that lead to decision makers’ empathy responses. Subsequently, cognitive and affective empathy influence the decision makers’ moral recognition. Decision makers’ prior knowledge of off-shoring was also predicted to interact with perceptions of the affective event characteristics to influence cognitive and affective empathy. Findings from a limited sample of human resource management (HRM) professionals suggest that perceptions of magnitude of consequences and cognitive empathy directly relate to moral recognition and that affective empathy partially mediates the relationship between perceptions of the magnitude of consequences and moral recognition. The three-way interaction of the perceptions of magnitude of consequences, time pressure, and prior knowledge of off-shoring was marginally related to cognitive empathy. Interpretations of the findings, validity issues, limitations, future research directions, and management implications are provided.

Helping Yourself to Help Others: How Cognitive Change Strategies Improve Employee Reconciliation with Service Clients and Positive Work Outcomes

ABSTRACT This qualitative study examined the paradox of difficult, yet meaningful, helping as part of employees’ jobs in a social services organization. Incorporating an emergent design using employee interviews the study identified how employees alter their understanding of workplace challenges, such as emotional distress and unsafe client behaviours, in order to find new meaning in the other-oriented value of their work. The resulting framework of employees’ experiences through challenging, yet meaningful, helping extends the research in customer service by proposing the reconciliation process, achieved through cognitive change strategies (i.e. visualization techniques, cognitive reframing and mindfulness of experience) serves as a conceptual bridge that helps the management of this apparent paradox. We first describe the workplace challenges and then outline the distinct cognitive change strategies that engendered the reconciliation process. Implications for practice and future researchers are then discussed.