Does perceived greenwashing promote or inhibit ethical voice? Effects of moral disengagement and perceived competitive pressure

Abstract

Based on the social cognitive theory of morality and considering employees’ perspectives, we build and test a mediated moderation model in which perceived greenwashing interacts with perceived inter-organizational competitive pressure to affect ethical voice through moral disengagement. We conducted a multisource time-lagged organizational field survey (Study 1) and two vignette-based experiments (Study 2 and 3) to test our hypotheses. Results show that perceived greenwashing negatively (positively) affects ethical voice through moral disengagement under high (low) perceptions of competitive pressure. Studies have indicated that when employees feel that their organizations are under greater competitive pressure, stress may cause them to suppress their objections to greenwashing through moral disengagement. These findings have implications for the social cognitive theory of morality and managers who aim to encourage ethical voice and discourage moral disengagement.