Moral Character Development: The “Moral Moments” Model

Despite a burgeoning literature on morality and ethics in the workplace, a useful model of how workplace experiences help adults develop moral character over time has remained elusive. Adopting a social-cognitive perspective, we propose that the workplace is full of moral moments, and we present a three-layer theoretical model that describes how people’s responses to workplace events can make their moral character improve (i.e., development), stay the same (i.e., maintenance), or get worse (i.e., degeneration). Layer 1 of our model presents the basic building blocks of a dynamic moral character change cycle composed of moral standards, behavioral intentions, behaviors, and behavioral evaluations. Layer 2 introduces and describes moral moments, the agentic processes they entail (forethought, self-regulation, and self-reflection), and the motivating mechanisms involved (ethical dissonance and ethical resonance). Layer 3 situates our model in the context of organizational life, and outlines important individual and organizational moderating factors that influence when moral moments and elements of the change cycle will be more, or less, likely to lead to moral character development. Finally, we discuss the theoretical implications of our model and how it can be leveraged to design organizational interventions that better facilitate the process of moral character development at work.