Role design determines how much moral disengagement a job demands

Evidence

In empirical testing of the differential disengagement of morality, it was predicted that members of the execution team would exhibit the highest level of moral disengagement. The prison guards, who had no involvement in executions, would have little need to disengage moral self-restraints. To be helpful in their role, members of the emotional support team had to humanize their ameliorative services. Additionally, their professional training as psychological and spiritual counselors supported a humane orientation in their work. It was therefore predicted that they would disavow stripping morality from the execution process. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2055

Categorization

• SHARE: For a friend studying institutional design or organizational psychology: role structure itself, not just personality, predicts how conscience gets bypassed.
• XREF: connects to: Employer job design primarily protects class position through profitability — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 890