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Moral Intensity and Managerial Problem Solving

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Abstract

There is an increasing interest in how managers describe and respond to what they regard as moral versus nonmoral problems in organizations. In this study, forty managers described a moral problem and a nonmoral problem that they had encountered in their organization, each of which had been resolved. Analyses indicated that: (1) the two types of problems could be significantly differentiated using four of Jones' (1991) components of moral intensity; (2) the labels managers used to describe problems varied systematically between the two types of problems and according to the problem's moral intensity; and (3) problem management processes varied according to the problem's type and moral intensity.

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Dukerich, J.M., Waller, M.J., George, E. et al. Moral Intensity and Managerial Problem Solving. Journal of Business Ethics 24, 29–38 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006030109047

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