Moral Disengagement in Processes of Organizational Corruption: The Effect of Moral Disengagement on Unethical Decision Making, Moral Awareness, and Organizational...

ISBN-10
0494398728
ISBN-13
9780494398722
Category
Dissertations, Academic
Pages
446
Language
English
Published
2008
Author
Celia Moore

Description

This dissertation explores Albert Bandura's concept of moral disengagement (Bandura, 1990a, 1990b, 1999a, 2002) in the context of organizational corruption. First, the construct of moral disengagement is defined and elaborated upon. Moral disengagement is then hypothesized to play a role in the initiation of organizational corruption by both easing and expediting individual unethical decision making that advances self and organizational interests. Moral disengagement is hypothesized to be a factor in the facilitation of organizational corruption through dampening individuals' awareness of the ethical content of the decisions they make. Finally, it is hypothesized to contribute to the perpetuation of organizational corruption in organizations, because if individuals who have a greater propensity to morally disengage are more likely to make decisions that advance organizational interests, regardless of the ethicality of those decisions, they may be rewarded for those decisions in terms of organizational advancement. Three studies empirically investigate these hypotheses. Study 1a develops and conducts preliminary validation efforts on the first general scale of moral disengagement for adult samples. Study 1b finds that moral disengagement, by dampening moral awareness, increases the likelihood that individuals will make unethical decisions; this finding is particularly robust for women. Study 2 find that individuals who have a greater propensity to morally disengage achieve more promotions and have a greater number of subordinates than individuals with middle range levels of moral disengagement, but that low levels of moral disengagement also predict these advancement outcomes. Together, these studies form an argument that moral disengagement---the propensity of individuals to suspend the self-regulatory processes that typically compel us to behave morally---plays an important role in processes of organizational corruption.

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