Understanding the Effect of Moral Efficacy and Moral Identity on Moral Imagination

Exploring how and when ethical conflict impairs employee organizational commitment: A stress perspective investigation

“…In line with Jennings et al. 's (2015) contention and Roberts et al 's (2017) evidence that different aspects of the moral self may have joint effects above and beyond their independent effects, our results found joint moderating effects of moral identity and moral efficacy in the relationship between ethical conflict and psychological strain as well as organizational commitment. This finding showcases how the “having” and the “doing” sides of the moral self, which are captured by moral identity and moral efficacy, respectively, operate together in determining employees' responses to ethics‐related stimuli.…”

“…Second, by explicating how employees with different levels of moral identity and moral efficacy respond differentially to ethical conflict, we illustrate the boundary conditions that shape the influence of ethical conflict and challenge the predominant view that all employees are vulnerable to the harm caused by ethical conflict (Thorne, 2010). Third, by examining how moral identity and moral efficacy separately and jointly determine employees' reactions to ethical conflict, our study also contributes to the growing literature on the moral self (Jennings et al, 2015;Roberts et al, 2017). In particular, this study provides a more integrated understanding of how different aspects of the moral self function together in influencing individuals' responses to ethical issues.…”

“…Specifically, employees with high moral efficacy are more likely to resolve ethical discrepancies in a proactive and constructive way (Arnaud & Schminke, 2012; Priesemuth & Schminke, 2019). For example, previous studies found that employees with higher moral efficacy are more likely to voice their opinion on ethical issues (Afsar & Shahjehan, 2018; Lee et al., 2017) and have a stronger ability to generate multiple alternative ethical courses of action in the face of complex ethical dilemmas (Roberts et al., 2017).…”