Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:30:09.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Extending the Deontic Model of Justice: Moral Self-Regulation in Third-Party Responses to Injustice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Deborah E. Rupp  and
Chris M. Bell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The deontic model of justice and ethical behavior proposes that people care about justice simply for the sake of justice. This is an important consideration for business ethics because it implies that justice and ethical behavior are naturally occurring phenomena independent of system controls or individual self-interest. To date, research on the deontic model and third-party reactions to injustice has focused primarily on individuals’ tendency to punish transgressors. This research has revealed that witnesses to injustice will consider sacrificing their own resources if it is the only way to sanction an observed transgressor. In this paper we seek to extend this model by arguing that punishment may not be the only “deontic” reaction, and that in fact, third-party observers of injustice may engage in moral self-regulation that would lead them to conclude that the most ethical response is to do nothing. We provide preliminary evidence for our propositions using voiced cognitions data collected during a resource allocation task. Results indicate that deonance may be more complex than originally thought, and previous tests of the model conservative in nature.

Type
Special Issue Behavioral Ethics: A New Empirical Perspective on Business Ethics Research
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 89 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allison, S. T., McQueen, L. R., & Schaerfl, L. M. 1992. Social decision-making processes and the equal partitionment of shared resources. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 28: 23–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aquino, K., Reed II, A., Thau, S., & Freeman, D. 2007. A grotesque and dark beauty: How moral identity and mechanisms of moral disengagement influence cognitive and emotional reactions to war. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43: 385–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aquino, K., Skarlicki, D. P., Freeman, D., Nadisic, T., & Fortin, M. 2009. The lives of others: The role of moral identity in third parties’ emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to injustice. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. 1986. Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. 1991. Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In Kurtines, W. M., & Gewirtz, J. L. (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development: Theory, research and applications: vol. 1, pp. 71–129. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. 1999. Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3: 193–209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bell, C., & Hughes-Jones, J. 2008. Power, self construal and the moralization of behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 83: 503–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen-Charash, Y., & Spector, P. 2001. The role of justice in organizations: A meta-analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86: 278–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colquitt, J. 2004. Does the justice of the one interact with the justice of the many? Reactions to procedural justice in teams. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89: 633–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colquitt, J., Conlon, D., Wesson, M., Porter, C., & Ng, K. 2001. Justice at the millennium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86: 425–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cropanzano, R., Byrne, Z., Bobocel, D., & Rupp, D. 2001. Moral virtues, fairness heuristics, social entities, and other denizens of organizational justice. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58: 164–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cropanzano, R., Goldman, B., & Folger, R. 2003. Deontic justice: The role of moral principles in workplace fairness. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24: 1019–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cropanzano, R., Goldman, B., & Folger, R. 2005. Self-interest: Defining and understanding a human motive. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26: 985–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cropanzano, R., & Rupp, D. E. 2002. Some reflections on the morality of organizational justice. In Gilliland, S., Steiner, D., & Skarlicki, D. (Eds.), Theoretical and cultural perspectives on organizational justice: vol. 2, pp. 225–78. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishers.Google Scholar
Cropanzano, R., Rupp, D., Mohler, C., & Schminke, M. 2001. Three roads to organizational justice. Research in personnel and human resources management, 20: 1–123.Google Scholar
Cropanzano, R., Stein, J., & Coldman, B. M. 2007. Individual aesthetics: Self-interest. In Kessler, E. H., & Bailey, J. R. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational and managerial wisdom: 181–221. Los Angeles: Sage.Google Scholar
De Cremer, D., & Van Hiel, A. 2006. Effects of another person’s fair treatment on one’s own emotions and behaviors: The moderating role of how much other cares for you. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 100: 231–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Degoey, P. 2000. Contagious justice: Exploring the social construction of justice in organization behavior. Research in Organizational Behavior, 22: 51–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Detert, J., Treviño, L. K., & Sweitzer, V. L. 2008. Moral disengagement in ethical decision making: A study of antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93: 374–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donaldson, T., & Dunfee, T. W. 1999. Ties that bind: A social contracts approach to business ethics. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Ellard, J. H., & Skarlicki, D. P. 2002. A third-party observer’s reactions to employee mistreatment. In Gilliland, S. W., Steiner, D. D., & Skarlicki, D. P. (Eds.), Emerging perspectives on managing organizational justice: 133–58. Greenwich, CT: IAP.Google Scholar
Fiske, A. P. 1991. Structures of social life: The four elementary forms of human relations. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Folger, R. 1998. Fairness as a moral virtue. In Schminke, M. (Ed.), Managerial ethics: Moral management of people and processes: 13–34. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Folger, R. 2001. Fairness as deonance. In Gilliland, S. W., Steiner, D. D., & Skarlicki, D. P. (Eds.), Research in social issues in management: vol. 1, pp. 3–33. New York: Information Age Publishers.Google Scholar
Folger, R., & Cropanzano, R. 2001. Fairness theory: Justice as accountability. In Greenberg, J. & Folger, R. (Eds.), Advances in organizational justice: 1–55. Lexington, MA: New Lexington Press.Google Scholar
Folger, R., Cropanzano, R., & Goldman, B. 2005. What is the relationship between justice and morality? In Greenberg, J. & Colquitt, J. A. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice: 215–45. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. 1990. Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: The hidden cost of pay cuts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75: 561–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herlocker, C. E., Allison, S. T., Foubert, J. D., & Beggan, J. K. 1997. Intended and unintended overconsumption of physical, spatial, and temporal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73: 992–1104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgins, E. T. 1987. Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review, 94: 319–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higgins, E. T. 1997. Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52: 1280–1300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higgins, E. T. 1998. Promotion and prevention: Regulatory focus as a motivational principle. In Zanna, M. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology: vol. 30, pp. 1–46. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Higgins, E. T. 1999. Promotion and prevention as a motivational duality: Implications for evaluative processes. In Chaiken, S., & Trope, Y. (Eds.), Dual-process theories in social psychology: 503–25. New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Higgins, E. T., Bond, R. N., Klein, R., & Strauman, T. 1986. Self-discrepancies and emotional vulnerability: How magnitude, accessibility, and type of discrepancy influence affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51: 5–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahneman, D., Knetsch, J. L., & Thaler, R. H. 1986. Fairness and the assumptions of economics. Journal of Business, 59: s285–s300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, I. 1999. Practical philosophy, trans. and ed. McGregor, M. J.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kruglanski, A. W., & Webster, D. M. 1996. Motivated closing of the mind: “Seizing” and “freezing.” Psychological Review, 103: 263–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mead, G. H. 1934/1967. Mind, self, and society: From the standpoint of a social behaviorist, ed. Morris, C. W.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Miller, D. T., & Ratner, R. K. 1996. The power of the myth of self-interest. In Montado, L. & Lerner, M. J. (Eds.), Current societal concerns about justice: Critical issues in social justice: 25–48. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, C. 2008. Moral disengagement in processes of organizational corruption. Journal of Business Ethics, 80: 129–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oldmeadow, J., & Fiske, S. 2007. System-justifying ideologies moderate status = competence stereotypes: Roles for belief in a just world and social dominance orientation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37: 1135–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osofsky, M. J., Bandura, A., & Zimbardo, P. G. 2005. The role of moral disengagement in the execution process. Law and Human Behavior, 29: 371–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reb, J., Goldman, B., Kray, L., & Cropanzano, R. 2006. Different wrongs, different remedies? Reactions to organizational remedies after procedural and interactional injustice. Personnel Psychology, 59: 31–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roch, S. G., Lane, J. A. S., Samuelson, C. D., Allison, S. T., & Dent, J. L. 2000. Cognitive load and the equality heuristic: A two-stage model of resource overconsumption in small groups. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 84: 185–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rupp, D. E. 2003. Testing the moral violations component of fairness theory: The moderating role of value preferences. Paper presented at the 18th annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Rupp, D. E., Bashshur, M. R., & Liao, H. 2007. Justice climate past, present, and future: Models of structure and emergence. In Dansereau, F. & Yammarino, F. (Eds.), Research in Multilevel Issues: vol. 6, pp. 357–96. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Skarlicki, D. P., & Kulik, C. 2005. Third party reactions to employee (mis)treatment: A justice perspective. In Staw, B. & Kramer, R. (Eds.) Research in organizational behavior: vol. 26, pp. 183–230. Greenwich, Conn.: Elsevier Science/JAI Press.Google Scholar
Treviño, L., Weaver, G., & Reynolds, S. 2006. Behavioral ethics in organizations: A review. Journal of Management, 32: 951–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turillo, C. J., Folger, R., Lavelle, J. J., Umphress, E., & Gee, J. 2002. Is virtue its own reward? Self-sacrificial decisions for the sake of fairness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decisions Processes, 89: 839–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van den Bos, K., Beudeker, D., Cramwinckel, F., Damen, T., Ham, J., Kumagai, T., Lind, A., Manders, R., Müller, P., Rijpkema, M., Ruben, S., Simonis, M., Smulders, L., ten Oever, T., van de Water, R., & van der Laan, J. 2007. Self-regulation and behavioral disinhibition in justice and morality. Waterloo, ON: The Ontario Symposium.Google Scholar
Webster, D. M., & Kruglanski, A. W., 1994. Individual differences in need for cognitive closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67: 1049–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiss, H., & Cropanzano, R. 1996. Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. Research in organizational behavior: An annual series of analytical essays and critical reviews, 18: 1–74.Google Scholar
Wood, A. W. 1999. Kant’s ethical thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar