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The key to preventing employees from engaging in deceptive knowledge hiding is fostering a responsible environment. Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study aims to explore the factors that inhibit deceptive knowledge hiding and to construct potential pathways for enhancing individual moral cognition. This study further analyzes the moderating effect of leader–follower value congruence on these relationships.

Using data from 341 full-time employees in various service industries in China, this study conducted path analysis, the product-of-coefficients method and bootstrapping to test the hypotheses through a three-stage, time-lagged survey.

The empirical results show that responsible leadership is negatively associated with employees’ deceptive knowledge hiding. Employee moral reflectiveness mediates this relationship, whereas leader–follower value congruence moderates the indirect effect of responsible leadership on deceptive knowledge hiding through moral reflectiveness.

First, this study extends field research by introducing positive leadership factors to reduce deceptive knowledge hiding, whereas prior studies focused mainly on negative leadership antecedents. Second, this study sheds light on the underlying moral cognitive mechanisms and explains how responsible leadership can prevent implicit unethical behavior. Third, it reveals how leader–follower value congruence can enhance the impact of responsible leadership on moral reflectiveness, offering novel insights into the role of value-based fit in reducing deceptive knowledge hiding.

There is a dearth of research in the field of social marketing that attempts to understand why consumers prefer to use plastic packages when using online food delivery services. In addressing this issue, this study aims to investigate the role of moral disengagement, myopia and environmental apathy in the young generations' intentions to use plastic bags while ordering food online. It also examines the mediating role of moral disengagement and the moderating role of guilt in the context of the online food delivery service industry in China.

An online survey was designed to collect data, which yielded 256 usable responses. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique (SmartPLS 4.0) was used to test the study hypotheses.

The results indicate that environmental apathy, myopia and moral disengagement exert significant negative effects on consumer intention to use plastic. In addition, moral disengagement was able to mediate the links between “environmental apathy”, “myopia” and “plastic usage intention”. Lastly, consumers’ guilt was found to be a significant moderator in the link between moral disengagement and plastic usage intention.

This research holds significant importance for social marketers in the online food delivery service industry. Particularly, by understanding consumers' negative behavioural aspects, social marketers can implement marketing strategies that emphasise green practices for environmental well-being.

This is a pioneer study that focuses on the negative aspects of consumer behaviour, such as myopia, environmental apathy and moral disengagement, to understand what drives young consumers to use plastic. Additionally, this study investigates several new relationships in the social marketing field, such as the mediating effect of moral disengagement between myopia, environmental apathy and plastic usage intention. It also tests the moderating effect of guilt on the link between moral disengagement and use intention.

The pervasive issue of employee exploitation has surfaced as a salient ethical quandary within the context of modern-day workplaces, thereby demanding expeditious and imperative deliberation and redressal. This research endeavor aims to meticulously investigate the ramifications of employee exploitation on the proclivity to partake in the act of cutting corners within the workplace. This analysis encompasses the sequential mediating variables of negative emotions, namely resentment, anger, and frustration, as well as moral disengagement.

A purposive sampling technique and self-administered questionnaires were utilized in this study of 132 SME sector personnel. The current study is time-lagged in nature and uses the Amos software, the data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as structural equation modeling.

According to the results, employee exploitation has a strong positive impact on cutting corners. This effect is mediated progressively by negative emotions (resentment, anguish, frustration), as well as moral disengagement. According to the findings, organizations should prioritize addressing employee exploitation to build a healthy work environment that promotes employee well-being and encourages employee voice.

This study’s novelty comes from its analysis of the sequential mediation of negative emotions, as well as moral disengagement, in the relationship between employee exploitation and cutting corners. The study’s findings add to the body of literature concerning management development, conflict handling, and employees’ attitudes and behaviors by offering a thorough grasp of the detrimental effects of employee exploitation on cutting corners as well as useful recommendations for businesses looking to promote productive workplaces.

The present study seeks to examine the impact of ethical leadership on employees’ voice behavior and internal whistleblowing in organizations. Specifically, the study investigates the mediating role of moral emotions in the link between ethical leadership and employees’ reporting behaviors such as voice behavior and internal whistleblowing.

This research utilized a sample of 200 employees from various private companies in Pakistan, gathering data via questionnaires to validate the hypotheses. We employed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to evaluate the model and conducted a mediation analysis using 5,000 bootstrap samples.

This research found that ethical leadership positively impacts employees' moral emotions, encouraging them to voice concerns and report misdeeds. Additionally, the study affirms a direct and positive connection between ethical leadership and employees' reporting behaviors, including voice behavior and internal whistleblowing.

The findings of the study emphasized the development of ethical leadership in organizations by highlighting the critical role of ethical leadership in enhancing moral emotions, voice behavior, and whistleblowing in organizations. It highlights the necessity of promoting moral behavior to enhance organizational effectiveness and the need for ethical leaders to foster an open environment in organizations that encourages whistle bellowing and reporting of unethical practices in organizations.

The current paper extends knowledge of ethical leadership based on the social cognitive theory of morality by considering that moral emotions serve as a strong motivational cognition between ethical leadership and reporting behaviors. Particularly, by examining the mediating role of moral emotion, this study provides a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanism through which ethical leadership influences reporting behaviors of employees at workplace.

Facilitated by social media, employee activism is on the rise, often in response to organizations' own socially irresponsible behavior. Given that digital employee activism is a vital yet underexplored research arena, the purpose of this study is to propose and test a theoretical model for understanding this phenomenon.

A survey was launched on Dynata, a US-based consumer panel company. A total of 657 representative full-time employees working at different levels of positions participated the survey to indicate their perceptual and behavioral responses to organizational social irresponsibility.

Moral obligation was a significant factor in mediating the relationship between organizational social irresponsibility and digital employee activism. Ideological psychological contract adds supplemental weights moderating the mediation effect on digital employee activism.

This study, based on social regulation theory, explores the rise of employee activism in response to organizations’ socially irresponsible behavior. The study identifies moral obligation and ideological psychological contract as the driving forces behind digital employee activism. This study advances digital employee activism scholarship by incorporating the normative lens of moral obligation and ideological psychological contract.

This research seeks to examine the mitigating effect of religiosity on the relationship between abusive supervision and unethical behavior in employees, with moral disengagement serving as a mediating factor. Drawing on social cognitive theory, the study proposes an overarching moderated mediation framework to analyze this complex dynamic.

The testing of the model was based on hierarchical data obtained from 70 work units in services sector. Within this framework, 70 supervisors evaluated the unethical conduct of employees, while 700 employees assessed the abusive supervision they experienced and reported on their own moral disengagement and religiosity. For the analysis of both the measurement and the hypothesized models, multilevel modeling techniques in the Mplus software were utilized.

The study's findings indicate a direct positive link between abusive supervision and employees' unethical behavior, with moral disengagement mediating this relationship. Furthermore, the research discovered that abusive supervision leads to unethical behavior in employees through moral disengagement only in instances where their religiosity is low.

This research delves deeper by elucidating the role of moral disengagement in the dynamic between abusive supervision and unethical behavior. Diverging from prior research, this study uniquely highlights the moderating role of religiosity, showing its potential to weaken the impact of abusive supervision on unethical behavior in employees through moral disengagement.

This paper’s purpose is to challenge the traditional assumption in leadership studies that leaders’ traits and capabilities impact effectiveness irrespective of the environment in which they operate. We identify the cognitive capabilities (CCs) of moral leaders that increase their efficacy in turbulent environments. To identify these capabilities, we integrate the strategic management literature on dynamic managerial capabilities (DMCs) into the field of moral leadership. We explore the micro-foundations of DMCs—that is, the CCs of moral leaders that underpin their abilities to sense and seize opportunities and reconfigure organizations—and show that CCs are effective in environmental turbulence.

We review 74 articles on moral leaders—including ethical, authentic, and servant leaders—and analyze their CCs that enable effectiveness in turbulent environments.

Moral leaders sense opportunities by drawing on their CCs for attention and perception. They seize opportunities with intuitive moral judgment and conscious moral reasoning, and by considering diverse perspectives and followers’ needs when problem solving. They reconfigure with vision-inspired storytelling, collaboration, and trust-building among stakeholders.

Organizations should use coaching, mentoring, and training to develop the CCs of moral leaders, and institutionalize these skills in their organizations.

We illustrate that the environment is an important determinant of the effectiveness of moral leaders’ capabilities. By integrating the DMC literature into the moral leadership field, we identify the distinctive CCs of ethical, authentic, and servant leaders that make them effective in turbulent environments.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of moral intensity on the ethical decision-making process of professional accountants based on a combined importance-performance map analysis (cIPMA).

Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on data from 309 accountants, the study examined the relationships between four moral intensity dimensions: magnitude of consequences, social consensus, probability of effect and concentration of effect, and the ethical decision-making process. The study also methodologically complemented by a combined importance-performance map analysis and necessary condition analysis.

The findings reveal that moral recognition and moral judgment are necessary conditions for predicting accountants’ moral intent. However, in terms of importance and performance, moral recognition plays a less significant role compared to moral judgment. Furthermore, the influence of moral intensity dimensions is pronounced on moral recognition, while their influence on moral judgment and moral intent is more context dependent. This is also exhibited in the combined importance-performance map analysis results.

The study highlights the importance of considering specific ethical dilemmas and the differential influence of moral intensity when developing strategies to strengthen ethical decision-making in the accounting profession. Future research is encouraged to explore how cultural backgrounds and diverse settings influence accountants’ ethical decision-making with tailored measurement tools for a more comprehensive understanding.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is among the first to complement the results of PLS-SEM with importance-performance map analysis and necessary condition analysis to examine the relationship between moral intensity and ethical decision-making of accountants.

This study aims to fill the gap between academia and reality by empirically confirming the effect of moral preferences on consumer responses (purchase intention) to fashion companies’ unethical activities. This study also explores the moderating effect of collectivism and individualism on the paths from moral preferences to purchase intention.

Respondents read a stimulus passage describing unethical activities of imaginary fashion brand A and the economic benefits of purchasing/using the brand's products. Then, they were asked to answer questions about homo moralis, homo economicus, individualism, collectivism and purchase intention.

Homo moralis significantly and negatively influenced respondents’ purchase intention. Homo economicus significantly and positively affected purchase intention. Collectivism further increased the negative influence of homo moralis on purchase intention. In contrast, individualism increased the positive effect of homo economicus on purchase intention.

The scope of future research should include various products and explore variables that help consumers perceive that the ethical issues of the industry are deeply related to themselves. Studies should also examine the intention not to purchase products from unethical companies as an outcome variable. The economic aspect that responds to incentives affects purchase intention more strongly than the moral aspect of consumers, which helps explain the behavior of consumers who think of themselves as ethical but purchase products from unethical companies.

This study can help fashion companies establish strategies such as corporate social responsibility that will lead to a positive effect on consumers’ purchase intention.

Based on social cognitive theory, this study aims to investigate the influence of perceived overqualification (POQ) on employees’ cyberloafing behavior. The mediating role of moral disengagement and the moderating roles of organizational identification (OID) and organizational decline are further examined.

The authors collected 740 valid questionnaires from participants across multiple organizations. To minimize common method bias (CMB) and enhance the reliability of the findings, data were gathered at two different time points, with a 30-day interval.

POQ positively impacts cyberloafing through the mechanism of moral disengagement. Additionally, the indirect relationship between POQ and cyberloafing via moral disengagement is moderated by OID and organizational decline. Specifically, a higher degree of OID weakens the indirect effect of POQ on cyberloafing, while a higher level of perceived organizational decline strengthens this effect.

While most existing studies on cyberloafing focus on insufficient resources, such as role conflict and workload, the authors propose that surplus personal resources, exemplified by POQ, can also lead to cyberloafing. This research contributes to a broader understanding of antecedents of cyberloafing, highlighting the mechanism of ethical considerations and the interplay between personal qualifications, organizational identification and organizational decline.