When Organizational Identification Elicits Moral Decision-Making: A Matter of the Right Climate

Abstract

To advance current knowledge on ethical decision-making in organizations, we integrate two perspectives that have thus far developed independently: the organizational identification perspective and the ethical climate perspective. We illustrate the interaction between these perspectives in two studies (Study 1, N = 144, US sample; and Study 2, N = 356, UK sample), in which we presented participants with moral business dilemmas. Specifically, we found that organizational identification increased moral decision-making only when the organization's climate was perceived to be ethical. In addition, we disentangle this effect in Study 2 from participants' moral identity. We argue that the interactive influence of organizational identification and ethical climate, rather than the independent influence of either of these perspectives, is crucial for understanding moral decision-making in organizations.

The dual face of corporate social responsibility in social businesses: a closer look at the Colombian reality

“…Results obtained from the analysis of the interviews conducted in CSMZ are consistent with previous theoretical postulates, which show that CSR and employee's OID are conclusively linked between them (El Akremi et al, 2018;Farooq et al, 2016;Gils et al, 2017;Hameed et al, 2016;Jones, 2010;Kim et al, 2010;Korschun et al, 2014;Lamm et al, 2015;McShane & Cunningham, 2012). This link was evident since respondents (who were highly identified employees) unanimously manifested acceptance and trust in every organizational CSR action and decision.…”

“…The reason for this lies in the fact that previous research in the field of organizational behavior locates OID, if not as the quintessential antecedent (Farooq et al, 2016;Korschun et al, 2014;Lamm et al, 2015), at least as an essential mediator on the relationships between CSR and such attitudes (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012;Jones & Rupp, 2017;e.g. El Akremi et al, 2018;Gils et al, 2017;Hameed et al, 2016). In that sense, just as the same thing apparently can happen with any given employee who defends a normative orientation of the CSR, employees considering that CSR should respond to an instrumental focus, are also able to reflect an improvement on their OID, which subsequently will be reflected on other behaviors and attitudes.…”

“…• Calling orientation (i.e., how employees see their work contributions) moderates the effects induced by these forms of CSR. Gils, Hogg, Quaquebeke, & Knippenberg (2017) • OID and moral identity increased moral decision-making when the organization's climate was perceived to be ethical.…”

An Identity Perspective on Ethical Leadership to Explain Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Interplay of Follower Moral Identity and Leader Group Prototypicality

“…Specifically, the social identity model of leadership effectiveness (Hogg 2001; (Abrams and Hogg 1990;Turner et al 1987). Research by Mussweiler and Bodenhausen (2002) provides an additional angle by showing that individuals tend to align their self-concepts with those of ingroup members but contrast the same evaluations with those of out-group members.…”

“…Firstly, we exclusively measured followers' reports of OCB rather than actual behavior or third-party reports of follower behavior. While recent meta-analytical results suggest that there are valid reasons to use employees' perceptions of OCB (Carpenter et al 2014), future research may still want to spread the outcomes into other domains, such as followers' ethical decision making when, for example, advising clients (van Gils et al 2015a). …”