“It was just a joke!” – Raising Awareness to Reduce Moral Disengagement in the Workplace
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2022-07-01
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en
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Abstract
Moral disengagement (Bandura, 1986) has been used to explain unethical behaviour in the workplace.
Present study aimed to investigate contextual antecedents of moral disengagement (preliminary study)
and to design an intervention to reduce moral disengagement in the workplace (intervention study).
Preliminary study used an online questionnaire (N = 30). Regression analyses found that moral
disengagement predicted unethical behaviour. It was in turn predicted by the fear of negative evaluation,
level of organisational identification, awareness of moral disengagement, and social norms regarding
moral disengagement. Based on that result, an intervention was designed to reduce moral disengagement
by increasing employees’ awareness of moral disengagement. The intervention was done through a pre existing e-learning platform in an organisation in The Netherlands. Participants were divided into two
groups, intervention and control group. The intervention group received brief information about moral
disengagement while the control group did not. Both groups got the same four items to measure their
knowledge to identify moral disengagement and its risks, intention to use moral disengagement, and
confidence to recognise moral disengagement. Results found that the brief information about moral
disengagement increased participants’ knowledge about moral disengagement but did not increase
participants’ confidence to recognise moral disengagement. There was evidence that the intervention
reduced the intention to morally disengage but the result should be treated with caution. Present study
suggests that e-learning is suitable to increase knowledge but more thorough and interactive activities
were needed to reduce moral disengagement and increase confidence to recognise moral disengagement.
Keywords: workplace unethical behaviour, moral disengagement, awareness.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen