Moral Maturation and Moral Conation: A Capacity Approach to Explaining Moral Thought and Action

By S. Hannah, Bruce J. Avolio, Douglas R. May. 2011

396 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We set out to address a gap in the management literature by proposing a framework specifying the component capacities organizational actors require to think and act morally. We examine how moral maturation (i.e., moral identity, complexity, and metacognitive ability) and moral conation (i.e., moral courage, efficacy, and ownership) enhance an individual's moral cognition and propensity to take ethical action. We offer propositions to guide future research and discuss the implications of the proposed model for management theory and practice.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Information Systems and Management, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/73639e4b505f464650f30a1f52de0958d3b258b2

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Information Systems and Management

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Beyond motivation: job and work design for development, health, ambidexterity, and more. (2014, background): “That is, even if one recognizes a moral concern and is able to identify what should be done, moral temptations require one to have the self-regulatory capacity to resist one action in favor of another action (Hannah et al. 2011).”
Authenticity, employee silence, prohibitive voice, and the moderating effect of organizational identification (2013, background): “…the first stage requires awareness and maturation; that is, an employee needs to develop personal standards of how work should be done and needs to be motivated to acknowledge shortcomings when comparing what is happening in the organization with this personal standard (Hannah et al., 2011).”
Moral Development in Business Ethics: An Examination and Critique (2019, background): “For example, many business and management scholars are heavily influenced by long-held assumptions reflected in the work of Lawrence Kohlberg (1969, 1971a, b), one of the most prominent theorists of ethical decision making (Hannah et al. 2011; Treviño 1986; Treviño et al. 2006; Weber 2017; Zhong 201”
Ethical leadership, moral equity judgments, and discretionary workplace behavior (2013, background): “In turn, ethical cognitions, such as ethical judgments, are thought to guide ethical intentions and behaviors (Hannah et al., 2011; Rest, 1986).”
Egoistic norms, organizational identification, and the perceived ethicality of unethical pro-organizational behavior: A moral maturation perspective (2020, background): “First, Hannah et al. (2011) propose that individuals who possess morally complex knowledge have more information available and are able to make better moral judgments than those who possess less morally complex knowledge.”
To act out, to withdraw, or to constructively resist? Employee reactions to supervisor abuse of customers and the moderating role of employee moral identity (2013, background): “However, Hannah et al. (2011) expanded moral identity theorizing by proposing that moral identity is multifaceted in nature, consisting of self-knowledge (what are my core beliefs?) and evaluative components (do I act upon those beliefs?).”
Relationships between Authentic Leadership, Moral Courage, and Ethical and Pro-Social Behaviors (2011, positive): “Building on earlier definitions of courage (e.g., Hannah, Avolio, et al., 2011; Kidder, 2005; Sekerka et al., 2009), we define moral courage as follows: 1) a mal-leable character strength, that 2) provides the requisite conation needed to commit to personal moral principles, 3) under conditions…”
Embedding Ethical Leadership within and across Organization Levels (2012, background): “Moral efficacy and report intentions are manifestations of moral agency, reflecting orientations to respond in purposeful ways to opportunities to confront unethical behavior (Hannah et al., 2011).”