Moral Identity Complexity: Situated Morality Within and Across Work and Social Roles

Abstract

Moral identity, how individuals define themselves relative to various moral attributes, is an important factor in the regulation of moral thought and behavior in organizations. We advance both the conceptualization and operationalization of moral identity through considering the complexity of its content and structure. We do so through integrating self-complexity theory to establish a deeper understanding of how individuals both define themselves as moral beings and structure moral attributes within their self-concepts across various roles (e.g., co-worker, son/daughter, etc.). To date, moral identity has been conceptualized as a global unitary construct. Across five samples, we find that it is dimensional (having dimensions of Benevolence, Justice, Obligation, and Integrity) and that individuals construe themselves relative to each dimension differently across sub-identities/roles. We then assess the effects of this expanded construct across two samples and find that using the complex structure of moral identity, we can predict situated ethical intentions and deviance within and across roles. Further, a within-participants experiment using an additional sample demonstrates that when priming a focal role, the unique moral identity content constituting that role provides predominant influence on corresponding ethical choices.