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Examining the moral grey zone : the role of moral disengagement, authenticity, and situational strength in predicting unethical managerial behaviour.

Knoll, M. and Lord, R. and Petersen, L.-E. and Weigelt, O. (2016) 'Examining the moral grey zone : the role of moral disengagement, authenticity, and situational strength in predicting unethical managerial behaviour.', Journal of applied social psychology., 46 (1). pp. 65-78.

Abstract

In the business context, there is a broad spectrum of practices that potentially harm others, yet might benefit the organization. We examined the influence of individual and situational differences in predicting (un)ethical behavior in these moral gray zones using an in-basket exercise that included covert moral issues in which managers could give unethical instructions to their followers. Results show that individual differences in moral disengagement directly predicted unethical behavior and functioned as a mediator of the relationship between authenticity and unethical behavior. Furthermore, effects differed in weak compared to strong situations. Study 2, replicated the results from Study 1, developed a direct test of the situational strength hypothesis, and showed that high versus low situation strength moderated the relation of moral disengagement to unethical behavior.

Item Type:Article
Full text:(AM) Accepted Manuscript
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Status:Peer-reviewed
Publisher Web site:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12353
Publisher statement:This is the accepted version of the following article: Knoll, M., Lord, R. G., Petersen, L.-E. and Weigelt, O. (2015), Examining the moral grey zone: The role of moral disengagement, authenticity, and situational strength in predicting unethical managerial behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 46(1): 65-78, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12353. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Date accepted:29 June 2015
Date deposited:20 July 2015
Date of first online publication:06 October 2015
Date first made open access:06 October 2017

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