Leaders and the Punishment of Misconduct: Examining the Roles of Leader Moral Identity and Cognitive Load

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chiang, Jack Ting-Ju; Liu, Haiyang; Fehr, Ryan; Wang, Zheng; Huang, Qianyao
• 署名单位: Peking University; Nanyang Technological University; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; Shandong University; Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University; Shandong University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0001108
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 1022-1038
• 关键词: MORAL IDENTITY; PUNISHMENT; misconduct; Cognitive load; moral anger

摘要

Moral identity, a construct that captures how individuals view themselves relative to moral attributes, has received widespread attention in the organizational sciences. This article builds on the existing moral identity literature by examining the mechanisms and boundary conditions of leader moral identity's impact on the punishment of misconduct. Drawing on multiple literatures, we specifically argue that leader moral identity is positively related to the punishment of misconduct under the condition of higher cognitive load. Furthermore, we identify moral anger as a key mechanism. The theorized model was tested across three studies: a study of civil judges' court rulings (Study 1), a study of managers' tendencies to punish their employees' misconduct (Study 2), and an experiment that manipulated cognitive load while testing the intermediary role of moral anger (Study 3). Results offered convergent support for our model, shedding new light on the impact of moral identity on leaders in the workplace. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.