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Implicit Morality Theories: Employees’ Beliefs About the Malleability of Moral Character Shape Their Workplace Behaviors

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Abstract

Implicit morality theories refer to people’s beliefs about whether individuals’ moral character is fixed or malleable. Drawing on the social cognitive theory of morality, we examine the relationship between employees’ implicit morality theories and their organizational citizenship behaviors toward coworkers (OCBC) and coworker-directed deviance (CDD) through a moral self-regulatory mechanism. A laboratory experiment (Study 1), an online experiment (Study 2), and a multi-wave, multi-source field survey (Study 3) found that the more employees held a fixed belief about morality, the lower their sense of moral control, especially when their moral identity was lower. This perceived lack of moral control, in turn, predicted decreased OCBC, particularly when the workgroup ethical climate was weak. However, this relationship did not hold for CDD. Overall, our research highlights implicit morality theories as a novel antecedent of employees’ workplace behaviors, and identifies the underlying moral self-regulatory process, along with individual and situational boundary conditions.

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Notes

  1. We use the terms implicit morality theories, implicit theories of morality, implicit beliefs about morality, and implicit morality beliefs interchangeably. We also use the terms moral and ethical interchangeably.

  2. We conducted a post hoc power analysis using G*Power, Linear bivariate regression: Two groups, difference between slopes. We input ∆ slope = 0.55 (i.e., the absolute value of the difference between the slope of moral identity at one standard deviation above and below the mean on implicit morality theories),  = 0.05 (one-tailed), group 1’s sample size = 101, group 2’s sample size = 100, and standard deviations of the residual = 0.87, of the independent variable = 0.50, and of the dependent variable (sense of moral control) = 0.95. This analysis yielded a power of 0.88, indicating that our sample size is sufficiently powered.

  3. We conducted a pilot study for Study 2. The details regarding this pilot study are shown in the Supplementary Material.

  4. We conducted a post hoc power analysis using the R package powerMediation developed by Qiu (2021). We input sample size = 305, regression coefficient of the mediator = 0.451, SD of the mediator = 1.12, SD of the random error term = 0.92, correlation between the independent variable and the mediator = − 0.048, and alpha = 0.05. This analysis yielded a power of 1.00.

  5. We conducted a post hoc power analysis using the R package ‘powerMediation’ developed by Qiu (2021). We input sample size = 206, regression coefficient of the mediator = 0.06, SD of the mediator = 1.09, SD of the random error term = 0.55, correlation between the independent variable and the mediator = − 0.22, and  = 0.05. This analysis yielded a power of 0.38.

  6. To ensure that our measure of perceived constraints converges with the measure of personal mastery used in Studies 1 and 2, we collected an independent sample to conduct the convergent validity analyses. Results revealed a significant correlation between the perceived constraints subscale and the personal mastery subscale (r = − 0.37, p < 0.001). Therefore, we reverse-scored the measure of perceived constraints to represent personal mastery (i.e., sense of moral control).

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by fund for building world-class universities (disciplines) of Renmin University of China (Project No. KYGJC2021007) to Zhiyu Feng, a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China to Zhiyu Feng (Project No. 72102225) and Hu Li (Project No. 71572076), and a Nanyang Assistant Professorship grant awarded by Nanyang Technological University to Krishna Savani. We thank Andrea Low, Sylvia Chin, Qianqian Xu, and Xiuxia Huang for assistance with this research, and Kai Chi Yam for feedback on earlier drafts.

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  1. Krishna Savani

    Present address: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Li Ka Shing Tower, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Renmin University of China, 59 Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100872, China

    Zhiyu Feng

  2. Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave Blk S3, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Fong Keng-Highberger & Krishna Savani

  3. School of Business, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, 21000, Jiangsu, China

    Hu Li

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  1. Zhiyu Feng
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  2. Fong Keng-Highberger
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  3. Hu Li
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  4. Krishna Savani
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Correspondence to Hu Li.

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Feng, Z., Keng-Highberger, F., Li, H. et al. Implicit Morality Theories: Employees’ Beliefs About the Malleability of Moral Character Shape Their Workplace Behaviors. J Bus Ethics 184, 193–216 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05113-1

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