2/29/2024 0 Comments Moral decision making model![]() Would strength of courage (a person with an unrelenting determination, confidence, and perseverance in confronting difficult situations), supported by other dimensions of character (e.g., justice), result in a different quality of moral awareness, judgment, intention, behavior, and reflection than a person whose courage has never been properly exercised? Would a person with strength of character have a different way of weighing fairness? Be able to follow through on their promises in tough times? We contend that Rest may have envisioned that strengthening the moral decision stages would have resulted in better ethical choices but he did not articulate the character underpinnings that account for differences in the quality of the moral decision-making process. Specifically, rather than focusing on how moral behavior may have broken down at any one EDM component, attention shifts to how the quality of decision making may have been different if the moral agent had strength of character. This paper thus integrates character, into Rest’s ( 1986) EDM model to reveal how shifting attention to the nature of the moral agent unearths implications for both EDM research and practice. It focuses on the character of the moral agent rather than the act itself in order to understand EDM. ![]() Virtue ethics is one of three main branches of normative ethical philosophy that emphasizes the process of personal character development (Whetstone, 2001). While character has been implicated in ethical decision making (EDM) (e.g., Arjoon, 2010 Bright et al., 2014 Crossan et al., 2013 Nonaka et al., 2014 Sosik et al., 2019 Weaver, 2006), current theorizing on how character applies to the EDM process has not been well developed. While there are many explanations for misconduct, including mainstream paradigms that assert the ethical shortcomings of context and/or bad people as underpinnings of misconduct (Kaptein, 2011 Kish-Gephart et al., 2010 Sims & Brinkmann, 2003 Treviño et al., 1998)., we suggest that when bad decisions have been made, where ordinary reasoning should have prevailed, poor individual judgment (i.e., practical wisdom/phronesis) founded in character, is implicated. Perhaps it is choosing to withhold some income during tax reporting and justifying that one has already paid their fair share of taxes feeling tired and needing a little boost in training just to get over a minor training plateau or hiring an admission specialist to handle college admissions and therefore passing on accountability. While these examples highlight how ethical misconduct can be traced back to systems that justify and support its existence and pervasiveness, each one of these examples is reinforced by individuals making a seemingly simple choice. In 2016, 11.5 million files were leaked, linking 140 politicians including top officials, heads of state, and ministers in 50 countries in the biggest fraud and money laundering scheme in history, known as the Panama Papers in 2017, more than 1000 athletes were linked in an operation to manipulate or conceal positive drug tests resulting in the IOC banning all Russian athletes from the 2019 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and in 2019, Operations Varsity Blues was the largest investigation of its kind to connect 53 individuals involved in college admissions fraud at American ivy league universities. We conclude with implications of a character-infused approach to EDM for future research. We thus answer the call by many scholars to integrate character in EDM in order to advance the understanding of the field and suggest propositions for how to move forward. Virtue ethics provides a perspective on EDM that acknowledges and anticipates uncertainties, considers its contextual constraints, and contemplates the development of the moral agent. ![]() We thus integrate character, founded in virtue ethics, into Rest’s (1986) EDM model to reveal how shifting attention to the nature of the moral agent provides critical insights into decision making more broadly and EDM specifically. While character has been offered as a valid perspective in EDM, current theorizing on how it applies to EDM has not been well developed. Scholars have identified character, founded in virtue ethics, as an important perspective that can help to address the gap in organizational misconduct. Despite a growing body of research by management scholars to understand and explain failures in ethical decision making (EDM), misconduct prevails.
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