Although most research in behavioral ethics has drawn heavily upon cognition, as exemplified by Kohlberg’s seminal work on moral development, recent research has focused on the self-regulatory aspect of moral identity and its relevance to ethical and moral behavior in organizations. Individual moral identity is a potentially important component of one’s self concept and has been shown empirically to have distinct associations with behavioral outcomes related to ethics in organizational settings. In particular, the importance or salience of moral identity to one’s overall sense of identity is thought to be a significant predictor of ethical or unethical behavior. Although less attention has been directed toward the organization member’s perception of the moral identities of the organizations in which they work, this dissertation argues that organizations indeed have moral identities, and that the organization member’s perception of organizational moral identity is likely to have an impact on his or her productive and counterproductive organizational behaviors. The focus of this study is two fold. First, a theoretical framework was developed integrating the congruence of an individual’s and organizations moral identity with various behavioral outcomes. From this framework theoretically justified hypotheses linking moral identity congruence with specific behaviors were established. Secondly, empirical tests were conducted examining the hypothesized impact of different forms of moral identity congruence (incongruence) on organizational citizenship behaviors and specific types of deviant behaviors. Results are supportive that moral identity congruence does impact behavioral outcomes, most specifically organizationally benefiting misbehaviors. A weak-weak moral identity congruence was shown to positively associate with organizationally benefiting misbehaviors in both studies.

The present mixed-methods study examined adolescents’ moral identity development and its relation to their awareness of problems of social justice. Fifty-eight inner-city adolescents in Grades 9 and 12 ranked personal values according to their self-relevance or importance and a sub-sample also provided responses to interview questions that were coded qualitatively for maturity of moral identity. A written questionnaire assessed the adolescents’ awareness of issues of racism, sexism, and classism. It was found that adolescents held moral values at significantly higher levels of importance than non-moral values, with no differences between grades. However, trends suggested that females placed somewhat greater emphasis on moral values in terms of centrality or importance to the self and also expressed slightly more mature explanatory responses than males. Adolescents’ moral identity and social justice awareness were not correlated. These findings highlight the need to foster the development of morally motivated, socially aware individuals.

The present mixed-methods study examined adolescents’ moral identity development and its relation to their awareness of problems of social justice. Fifty-eight inner-city adolescents in Grades 9 and 12 ranked personal values according to their self-relevance or importance and a sub-sample also provided responses to interview questions that were coded qualitatively for maturity of moral identity. A written questionnaire assessed the adolescents’ awareness of issues of racism, sexism, and classism. It was found that adolescents held moral values at significantly higher levels of importance than non-moral values, with no differences between grades. However, trends suggested that females placed somewhat greater emphasis on moral values in terms of centrality or importance to the self and also expressed slightly more mature explanatory responses than males. Adolescents’ moral identity and social justice awareness were not correlated. These findings highlight the need to foster the development of morally motivated, socially aware individuals.

The present study examines differences in political perspectives and moral identity as facilitators of retaliation of workplace incivility. It is proposed that following uncivil treatment, emotional appraisals of uncivil treatment will influence targets' retaliatory behavior; individuals who feel angry or demoralized after being treated uncivilly will be more likely to retaliate than individuals who do not negatively appraise incivility. In addition, political affiliation and moral identity are posited as moderators of the relationship between experiencing incivility and emotionally appraising the experience, as well as the relationship between emotional appraisal and retaliation. This study utilized a sample of 355 participants who completed an online survey regarding their experiences with incivility three weeks before and one week after the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Results indicate that Democrats most frequently retaliated against Republicans at high levels of received incivility from Republicans, yet Republicans engaged in the most retaliatory incivility against Democrats at low levels of incivility from Democrats. Furthermore, internalization buffered the likelihood of retaliation, while symbolization enhanced it. In three-way interactions predicting retaliatory incivility, low internalization and high symbolization Democrats most frequently retaliated against Republicans; unexpectedly, high symbolization Democrats also most frequently retaliated against Democrats. Predicting emotional appraisals from received incivility, symbolization enhanced relationships between incivility and appraisals. High internalization Republicans reported the greatest increase in anger when treated uncivilly by Democrats. Predicting retaliation from appraisals, Republicans retaliated against Democrats most frequently when angered or demoralized, but Democrats did not report retaliating against Republicans. Additionally, high symbolization Republicans reported retaliating against other Republicans when angered or demoralized. Results were not completely aligned with past theory and research, but they generally indicate that morality plays a large role in the prediction of emotional appraisals and retaliation in response to uncivil treatment. Furthermore, morality seems to be a more important predictor of retaliation than social identity processes. Finally, it is clear that emotions relate to the receipt and retaliation of incivility, and future research should clarify these relationships. This study contributes to the literature by examining how social issues that are seemingly unrelated to the workplace can negatively affect interpersonal interactions at work.

Learning emotional responsibility, including emotionally letting go, is an important part of the development of every teacher. When letting go is difficult, it can be helpful to have examples of people who have already matured. This study focuses on the emotional stance, or awareness, of eight effective student-oriented teachers. Sixteen different teachers, from six different middle schools were recommended by their principals as excellent classroom managers. From these, eight were chosen who demonstrated clear authority and a student-centered approach. These eight teachers were interviewed according to the Hilda Taba method for the Interpretation of Data (Maker and Schiever 2005). The questions were structured to help teachers consider their feelings and attitudes as causes of events. When the interviews had been transcribed, they were examined for common emotional dispositions. The dispositions found included those that orient teachers toward perspective taking, considering students to be their own authority, desiring relationships with students, having a positive attitude and being emotionally present. Implications for education include allowing students to determine a portion of their final evaluation.

This research reviews theoretical and operational concepts of integrity. After this review, an alternative theoretical and operational definition of integrity is proposed. This alternative is one that conceives of integrity in terms of high ethical concern and positive ethical consistency among thoughts, feelings, and behavioral intentions, and which conceives of integrity as more attitude-like than trait- or state-like. Utilizing this alternative conceptualization of integrity, a new label was applied (i.e. ethical integrity) and a new psychometric instrument was developed (i.e. the Ethical Integrity Scale). This dissertation reports on the initial development of the Ethical Integrity Scale and two studies aimed at validation of this instrument. Strengths, limitations, and future directions of this approach to integrity research are then discussed.

Moral identity, moral personality, and moral emotion have all been suggested to influence moral behavior individually, however, the results have been mixed and contradictory. Furthermore, they have never been tested together to determine their relative contribution in predicting moral decision-making. An anonymous online survey was administered to undergraduate students (N = 432). Moral Reasoning was assessed by a series of six hypothetical moral dilemmas. Participants were asked which of two choices they would prefer, one being a more deontological choice, in other words, follow a principle such as “tell the truth”, and the other being a more utilitarian choice, such as “lie to spare a person’s feelings”. In addition, participants were asked how confident they felt that they made the right choice in each dilemma. Other measures in the survey battery included Moral Identity which has two subscales, one for Moral Importance, or the degree to which they feel being a moral person is important, and one for Moral Expression, or the degree to which they try to behave consistently with their moral values; a survey of Moral Emotion with subscales for Shame and Guilt; and a measure of Moral Personality variables otherwise known as the dark tetrad: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Sadism, and Psychopathy. Age and moral expression were the only significant predictors of utilitarian choices on hypothetical moral dilemmas. Although guilt was also correlated with utilitarianism, it failed to be a significant factor when all variables were combined into one regression equation. The degree of confidence participants expressed in their decisions on the hypothetical moral dilemmas was correlated with shame and moral importance, however, none of the morality variables was a significant predictor of confidence ratings when entered together into a regression equation. Possible reasons for the lack of significant results are explored and suggestions for future studies are suggested.

This study focuses on the identities of family farm operators and the challenges to maintaining viable farm operations in today’s agricultural economy. Employing a grounded qualitative approach, the author conducted 18 in-depth interviews with principal farm operators from Iowa and Tennessee. Using the insights of farmers from geographically different agricultural regions, this study notes how preserving family histories, socialization processes, and farming as a moral career inform operators’ understandings of themselves and the work they do. The analysis also focuses on how family farm operators contend with a globalized agricultural economy and the moral and ethical concerns of managing a farm. Farm operators implement various tactics and framing mechanisms for resolving and, in some cases, circumventing these challenging issues in order to maintain their farms, identities, and family farm legacies.

The development of a moral identity has been closely linked with parental care. Within the HIV/Aids context, concern about the moral actions of South Africans inspired an investigation into the Gestalt field of Zulu child-headed households, as the lack of adequate parental care threatens the development of moral identity in these households. As substitute parents, the adolescents in the Zulu child-headed households are responsible for enhancing moral identity in their siblings while their own moral identity is still developing. Since moral identity development occurs within their field of living experience, an investigation of the field of Zulu child-headed households was conducted in order to identify the aspects that can be utilised to develop a model that will empower the heads of the Zulu child-headed households to enhance moral identity development within their households. This was based on the Gestalt theoretical paradigm. The Gestalt theory accepts that people are part of their environments or “field”, and that the meaning of existence of the individuals in the Zulu child-headed households has no meaning outside the context of their environments with which they form a unified interactive whole through their mutually interactive forces. A mixed-methods approach was used to investigate the Gestalt field of 60 adolescents in Zulu child-headed households in the Mkhondo municipal area. The exploration of the Gestalt fields of the adolescents was described in four articles and the aspects that can be used to develop the model were identified in the conclusions and recommendations section of the manuscript. The aim of the first article was to investigate the aspects of the field of Zulu child-headed households in the Mkhondo municipal area relating to their subjective reality of the kinship support and associated needs they experienced within their dual roles as members of the Zulu child-headed households and substitute parents. Perceptions of what the adolescent heads in Zulu child-headed households viewed as helping their siblings become „good people‟ were investigated in the second article. The aim of the third article was to explore whether ethnic membership is one of the core constructs in moral identity development of adolescents in Zulu child-headed households, as ethnic identity in the Zulu culture is strongly integrated with a moral identity. The fourth article investigated the figuration of moral identity in the field of these adolescents, by comparing moral variants to various other characteristics of their field. The aspects of the Gestalt field that had been identified as useful for the development of the model revolved around three main themes, namely: associated with the usefulness of the school environment; overlapping Eurocentric and Afrocentric characteristics of identity;, and helper characteristics. Recommendations were made about aspects that could enhance the practical value of policy decisions based on facilitating awareness of various aspects of moral identity development; adjustments in the life orientation curriculum; and expanding the role of support staff in schools. / Thesis (PhD (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The development of a moral identity has been closely linked with parental care. Within the HIV/Aids context, concern about the moral actions of South Africans inspired an investigation into the Gestalt field of Zulu child-headed households, as the lack of adequate parental care threatens the development of moral identity in these households. As substitute parents, the adolescents in the Zulu child-headed households are responsible for enhancing moral identity in their siblings while their own moral identity is still developing. Since moral identity development occurs within their field of living experience, an investigation of the field of Zulu child-headed households was conducted in order to identify the aspects that can be utilised to develop a model that will empower the heads of the Zulu child-headed households to enhance moral identity development within their households. This was based on the Gestalt theoretical paradigm. The Gestalt theory accepts that people are part of their environments or “field”, and that the meaning of existence of the individuals in the Zulu child-headed households has no meaning outside the context of their environments with which they form a unified interactive whole through their mutually interactive forces. A mixed-methods approach was used to investigate the Gestalt field of 60 adolescents in Zulu child-headed households in the Mkhondo municipal area. The exploration of the Gestalt fields of the adolescents was described in four articles and the aspects that can be used to develop the model were identified in the conclusions and recommendations section of the manuscript. The aim of the first article was to investigate the aspects of the field of Zulu child-headed households in the Mkhondo municipal area relating to their subjective reality of the kinship support and associated needs they experienced within their dual roles as members of the Zulu child-headed households and substitute parents. Perceptions of what the adolescent heads in Zulu child-headed households viewed as helping their siblings become „good people‟ were investigated in the second article. The aim of the third article was to explore whether ethnic membership is one of the core constructs in moral identity development of adolescents in Zulu child-headed households, as ethnic identity in the Zulu culture is strongly integrated with a moral identity. The fourth article investigated the figuration of moral identity in the field of these adolescents, by comparing moral variants to various other characteristics of their field. The aspects of the Gestalt field that had been identified as useful for the development of the model revolved around three main themes, namely: associated with the usefulness of the school environment; overlapping Eurocentric and Afrocentric characteristics of identity;, and helper characteristics. Recommendations were made about aspects that could enhance the practical value of policy decisions based on facilitating awareness of various aspects of moral identity development; adjustments in the life orientation curriculum; and expanding the role of support staff in schools. / Thesis (PhD (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.