Who pays attention to the moral aspects? Role of organizational justice and moral attentiveness in leveraging ethical behavior

Purpose Although there have been several studies on corporate justice and employee ethical behavior, little is known about the conditions in which this link develops. The purpose of this study is to investigate the direct effect of organizational justice and moral attentiveness toward employee ethical behavior. Importantly, this study also considers the moderating role of moral attentiveness on the links between organizational justice and employee ethical behavior. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected from 350 employees who were assessed directly to supervisors in 12 manufacturing companies placed in Malaysia, operated full-time, and had regular interaction with their direct supervisors. In particular, using two-wave survey data obtained from 270 employees working in the manufacturing industry in Malaysia. Findings Results showed that organizational justice and moral attentiveness positively impact the employee ethical behavior as predicted. New to the literature, findings disclose that moral attentiveness strengthens this relationship. Importantly, the positive impact of organizational justice is sharply positive under high than low moral attentive employees and ceases to be significant among low morally attentive personnel. Research limitations/implications This research focused on the notion of ethics and how important it is for society. The principles, norms and ideals that guide an individual’s behavior are referred to as ethics. Because the authors need to be treated with dignity as human beings, ethical behavior is essential in society. Practical implications The findings of this study send a clear signal to managers that “failing to ensure that their employees perceive organizational justice” may undermine every effort made by them to improve their organizations’ ethical quality. Importantly, the findings emphasize the role of moral attentiveness in improving the ethical behavior of employees both directly and by strengthening the effectiveness of organizational justice to impact such a behavior positively. So, given the advantages of moral attentiveness in terms of improving employee ethical conduct, businesses should make every effort to hire and choose people who meet this requirement because it is not easy to spot this personality trait. Human resource managers may assess candidates’ moral attentiveness using a range of methods such as group debate, an in-basket exercise, organized interviews and business games that concentrate on specific ethical concerns. Social implications This research focused on the notion of ethics and how important it is for society. The principles, norms and ideals that guide an individual’s behavior are referred to as ethics. Because the authors need to be treated with dignity as human beings, ethical behavior is essential in society. Originality/value The results of this study demonstrate how the eye is put to attain organizational moral excellence; the outcomes have shown that acutely attentive employees to the moral cues offered by the organization is vital.

Investigating the Antecedents of Whistleblowing

Prevalence of corporate frauds is critical, therefore, it is very important to detect and institutionalize the black sheep’s in the organization which are involved in misconduct and must be brought to the light via whistleblowing. Ethical leadership equitably influence ethical climate, which in turn will favorably encourages employees in whistleblowing. This study is intended to examine and overcome the research gap based on the mediating aspect of psychological stress and moral attentiveness in association of ethical leadership, ethics oriented climate on whistleblowing. Twelve hypotheses were developed to examine the conceptual framework of the study. A self-administered questionnaire was devised to acquire cross sectional information from 425 employees from the banks in Gujranwala division, Punjab, Pakistan via convenient sampling. Results showed that in the presence of ethical leadership and ethics oriented environment in an organization’ the psychological stress of employees decreases and moral attentiveness of the employees increases and ultimately have the positive impact on whistleblowing. Hence, this research is one of the few cross-sectional researches that examining the mediation mechanism of psychological stress and moral attentiveness in the banking sector of Pakistan.

Could CSR Practices Increase Employee Affective Commitment via Moral Attentiveness?

The impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on companies’ macroeconomic indicators (financial performance, sustainability) has been the subject of many studies. However, more recently, the effect of CSR activities on individual variables (microeconomic indicators) has begun to attract attention. Although CSR itself is founded on the moral roots of the society in which it operates, it seems that the effect of individuals’ moral attentiveness has been neglected. The CSR effect, which is the focus of this study, is examined using three dimensions to understand how CSR can directly and indirectly affect the organizational commitment of employees. A theoretical model is developed in this paper, the focus of which is on the ethical framework of CSR and the proposition that it may have an effect on employees. The sample comprises individuals working in two of the country’s most important private production facilities in the western capital of Turkey. An online questionnaire form was prepared and shared. The online form was active between 2 March 2020 and 11 May 2020. Out of 472 forms, 465 were usable and, therefore, used in the analyses. We found proof for most of our assertions. Implications and future research suggestions are discussed.

The impact of moral attentiveness on manager’s turnover intent

Purpose With the rise in public awareness of corporate social responsibility, business leaders are increasingly expected to recognize the needs and demands of multiple stakeholders. There may, however, be unintended consequences of this expectation for organizational managers who engage these needs and demands with a high level of moral attentiveness. This study aims to investigate the indirect effect of managerial moral attentiveness on managerial turnover intent, serially mediated by moral dissonance and moral stress. Design/methodology/approach Multi-phase survey data were collected from 130 managers within a large sales organization regarding experiences of moral dissonance and moral stress. The authors analyzed the relation of these experiences to measures of moral attentiveness and turnover intent using structural equation modeling. Findings Results support a serial mediation model, with a positive, indirect effect between moral attentiveness and turnover intent among managers through moral dissonance and moral stress. Overall, the results suggest that expecting business leaders to be morally attentive may result in greater moral dissonance and moral stress, potentially impacting their intentions to stay with the organization. Practical implications Implementing positive practices toward processing moral dissonance and reducing moral stress may be a mechanism toward retaining ethically inclined organizational leaders. Originality/value This study is the first to identify moral attentiveness as an antecedent to turnover intent within managers. It also establishes the serial mechanisms of moral dissonance and moral stress and provides suggestions on how to retain morally attentive managers by actively managing those mechanisms.