{"title":"Does perceived greenwashing promote or inhibit ethical voice? Effects of moral disengagement and perceived competitive pressure","authors":"Yilin Xiang, Lu Chen, Zhenya Zhang, Xinyu Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114793","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Based on the social cognitive theory of morality and considering employees’ perspectives, we build and test a mediated moderation model in which perceived greenwashing interacts with perceived inter-organizational competitive pressure to affect ethical voice through moral disengagement. We conducted a multisource time-lagged organizational field survey (Study 1) and two vignette-based experiments (Study 2 and 3) to test our hypotheses. Results show that perceived greenwashing negatively (positively) affects ethical voice through moral disengagement under high (low) perceptions of competitive pressure. Studies have indicated that when employees feel that their organizations are under greater competitive pressure, stress may cause them to suppress their objections to greenwashing through moral disengagement. These findings have implications for the social cognitive theory of morality and managers who aim to encourage ethical voice and discourage moral disengagement.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":15123,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":10.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Business Research","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296324002972","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Based on the social cognitive theory of morality and considering employees’ perspectives, we build and test a mediated moderation model in which perceived greenwashing interacts with perceived inter-organizational competitive pressure to affect ethical voice through moral disengagement. We conducted a multisource time-lagged organizational field survey (Study 1) and two vignette-based experiments (Study 2 and 3) to test our hypotheses. Results show that perceived greenwashing negatively (positively) affects ethical voice through moral disengagement under high (low) perceptions of competitive pressure. Studies have indicated that when employees feel that their organizations are under greater competitive pressure, stress may cause them to suppress their objections to greenwashing through moral disengagement. These findings have implications for the social cognitive theory of morality and managers who aim to encourage ethical voice and discourage moral disengagement.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Business Research aims to publish research that is rigorous, relevant, and potentially impactful. It examines a wide variety of business decision contexts, processes, and activities, developing insights that are meaningful for theory, practice, and/or society at large. The research is intended to generate meaningful debates in academia and practice, that are thought provoking and have the potential to make a difference to conceptual thinking and/or practice. The Journal is published for a broad range of stakeholders, including scholars, researchers, executives, and policy makers. It aids the application of its research to practical situations and theoretical findings to the reality of the business world as well as to society. The Journal is abstracted and indexed in several databases, including Social Sciences Citation Index, ANBAR, Current Contents, Management Contents, Management Literature in Brief, PsycINFO, Information Service, RePEc, Academic Journal Guide, ABI/Inform, INSPEC, etc.