- Relevance of moral foundations in business
- Moral foundations are not typically assessed
- Dimensions of moral foundations
- Table 1: Moral foundations dimensions and definitions
Relevance of moral foundations in business
The chief executive of a pharmaceutical firm faced criticism for marketing a heartburn drug thought to contain cancer causing ingredients. The former CEO of a bank disclosed a politician’s financial details to a journalist, violating confidentiality rules. The CEO of a pharmacy chain framed cuts as making business more efficient without, according to critics, acknowledging the impact on safety. The CEO at another bank, one that received a taxpayer bailout and whose predecessor resigned in disgrace, was criticised for awarding executive bonuses while making redundancies. The former CEO of a post firm wrongfully accused postmasters of fraud when the real issue was technology failure, a fact purportedly known by executives. The decisions these executives made were all scrutinized in moral terms.
The Telegraph The heartburn drug giving British pharma giant GSK a $3bn headache
The Guardian NatWest scraps £7.6m of Alison Rose’s payout after Farage scandal
Pharmacy Magazine Up to 350 Boots head office roles at risk in savings drive
BBC News RBS chief Stephen Hester's £963,000 bonus criticised
The Guardian Paula Vennells ‘devastated’ over missing information about faulty Horizon system
Moral foundations are not typically assessed
Assessing a leader’s psychological make-up to reduce the odds of decisions that contravene our moral sensibilities is a common task for psychologists. For insight, psychologists assess traits, values, competencies, and experiences. These constructs miss factors influential in make-or-break decisions.
Traits are distal to the high stakes executive decision-making we’re discussing. Values are often motivational rather than moral, focusing on what keeps executives interested. Competencies focus on narrow interpretations of integrity, missing issues executives consider morally relevant. Reference checks assess experience, but can tend to conceal past transgressions.
Dimensions of moral foundations
We propose assessing moral foundations using the framework of Graham et al. (2011), which measures the dimensions of care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal (over-arched by a general ‘binding’ factor), authority/subversion, sanctity/degradation (over-arched by a general ‘individuating’ factor). In subsequent work, liberty/oppression was added as an additional factor. Table 1 presents definitions of each of the six constructs assessed under Moral Foundations Theory. We found existing construct definitions to be inconsistent in length and phrasing across dimensions, so propose these.
Table 1: Moral foundations dimensions and definitions
Moral Foundation | Executive Behaviour & Outcomes |
Care/Harm | Caring and compassion toward others' suffering contrasted with indifference or acceptance of harm if it is in pursuit of business goals. |
Fairness/Cheating | Commitment to fairness and proportionality in dealings with others; contrasted with comfort with exploitation or uneven application of standards. |
Loyalty/Betrayal | Loyalty, patriotism, and self-sacrifice toward one’s group; contrasted with indifference to group ties or little concern with disloyalty. |
Authority/Subversion | Obedience and deference toward legitimate authority and traditions; contrasted with scepticism of authority or comfort with challenging established norms. |
Sanctity/Degradation | Respect for what is considered pure or noble; contrasted with indifference or disregard toward those standards. |
Liberty/Oppression | Respect for autonomy and aversion toward excessive control; contrasted with willingness to dominate others and restrict their legitimate freedoms. |
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