The Morality of Reporting Safety Concerns in Aviation
A previous investigation into the morality of actions suggested that individuals' levels of cognitive moral development strongly influence their decisions regarding what is right or wrong, and focused upon the rights, duties, and obligations involved in a particular ethical situation. Using the cognitive moral development framework, this chapter sought to explore the moral reasoning behind aviation employees' intentions to report wrongdoing in the aviation context. Findings indicated that a significant association between participants' intentions to intervene in a wrongdoing situation and their level of moral reasoning exists. Specifically, the modal level of participants' moral reasoning was consistent with the conventional level of moral theories and was higher for participants who stated that they would intervene than for participants who stated they would not intervene in a wrongdoing situation.