Forgetting Morals, Focusing on Performance: The Role of Moral Decoupling in Explaining Admiration of High-Performing/Amoral Managers

Abstract We examine the workplace effects of amoral management. Specifically, we suggest amoral managers who are also high performers instill a moral decoupling view within employees such that employees separate evaluations of morality and performance. Drawing from social learning theory (Bandura, 1986, 2001), we explicate that managers who abstain from moral issues and exhibit high performance emphasize that performance is separate from and a more desired ideal than morals in the workplace. Subsequently, a moral decoupled reasoning process prompts admiration of the high-performing, amoral manager as the manager is viewed by the employee as embodying the organizational ideal. Firstly, we test our theoretical model using an experimental study design to establish internal validity. Then, in a second study, we test our theoretical model via working employees to establish external validity. Both studies provide support for our theoretical model in that moral decoupling mediates the positive, conditional indirect relationship between amoral management and manager admiration when manager performance is higher versus lower. Theoretical and practical implications of our study are discussed.