When Aspirational Talk Backfires: The Role of Moral Judgements in Employees’ Hypocrisy Interpretation

Lauriano, Lucas Amaral; Reinecke, Juliane; Etter, Michael

doi:10.1007/s10551-021-04954-6

Cited by 18 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…Recently, research has scrutinized how individuals process inconsistent information (Chen et al, 2020;Effron & Miller, 2015;Effron et al, 2018;Helgason & Effron, 2022;Lauriano et al, 2021). Effron et al (2018) suggest that different aspects (e.g., motivation, chronic vigilance) determine whether individuals detect word-deed misalignment.…”

Section: Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lately, scholars have advanced this view by addressing the subjectivities involved in hypocrisy perceptions (Chen et al, 2020;Effron & Miller, 2015;Effron et al, 2018;Helgason & Effron, 2022;Lauriano et al, 2021). For example, Effron et al (2018) suggested that, among other factors, motivation and chronic vigilance determine whether individuals detect word-deed misalignment, and that individuals interpret misalignment as hypocritical only if they consider it as an unearned moral benefit.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…For example, Effron et al (2018) suggested that, among other factors, motivation and chronic vigilance determine whether individuals detect word-deed misalignment, and that individuals interpret misalignment as hypocritical only if they consider it as an unearned moral benefit. Others focus on individuals' moral judgments (Lauriano et al, 2021), CSR motive attributions (Chen et al, 2020), or the emotional reactions of the transgressor (Effron & Miller, 2015). These insights suggest that hypocrisy perceptions are to a certain extent subjective and vary among individuals.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…We investigate anger as an affective reaction to cognitive dissonance. We do so because it is a morally laden affective state that is likely to be induced in situations that demand moral judgments, such as the CSR context (Chen et al, 2020;Lauriano et al, 2021). Finally, a central premise of CDT is that individuals are motivated to reduce that cognitive dissonance.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Our contribution is threefold. First, the corporate hypocrisy literature has started to acknowledge the subjectivities involved in corporate hypocrisy perceptions (e.g., Effron et al, 2018;Lauriano et al, 2021). We build on this research stream by providing insight into how individual predispositions matter in hypocrisy perceptions and the related individual-level positive or negative reactions to organizations.…”

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confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

When the Private and the Public Self Don’t Align: The Role of Discrepant Moral Identity Dimensions in Processing Inconsistent CSR Information

Demasi

Voegtlin²

2022

J Bus Ethics

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Inconsistent information between an organization’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments and perceived CSR (in-)action is a big challenge for organizations because this is typically associated with perceptions of corporate hypocrisy and related negative stakeholder reactions. However, in contrast to the prevailing corporate hypocrisy literature we argue that inconsistent CSR information does not always correspond to perceptions of corporate hypocrisy; rather, responses depend on individual predispositions in processing CSR-related information. In this study, we investigate how an individual’s moral identity shapes reactions to inconsistent CSR information. The results of our three studies show that individuals who symbolize—i.e., display—their moral identity to the public more than they internalize moral values react less negatively to inconsistent CSR information. We also show that this weakens their anger and willingness to change company behavior. Furthermore, we find that this effect is amplified for extraverted but weakened for neurotic individuals. Our findings underline the importance of individual predispositions in processing CSR information.

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Section: Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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When the Private and the Public Self Don’t Align: The Role of Discrepant Moral Identity Dimensions in Processing Inconsistent CSR Information

Demasi

Voegtlin²

2022

J Bus Ethics

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Examining the link between CSR perceptions and employee advocacy through organizational justice: Can corporate hypocrisy mitigate?

Gupta,

Singh,

Broccardo

et al. 2024

Corp Soc Responsibility Env

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This research aims to understand the relationship between employees' perceptions of corporate social responsibility and employee advocacy behavior through organizational justice. Furthermore, it explores the moderating effect of corporate hypocrisy in the relationship of organizational justice with employee advocacy behavior. Grounded in signaling and cognitive inconsistency theories, the proposed hypotheses were tested on data collected from 360 employees from the hospitality sector. The study followed a time‐lagged approach. In phase 1, the data were collected for demographic variables, corporate social responsibility perceptions, and corporate hypocrisy. In the second phase, data were collected for organizational justice and employee advocacy behavior, using separate survey links. Smart PLS 4.0 was applied to test the relationships proposed in the research model. The study found that employees who positively perceive firms' corporate social responsibility will engage in advocacy behavior. The results suggest a significant mediating effect of procedural justice in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee advocacy behavior. However, the mediating effect of distributive justice in this relationship could not be established. Further, the study found evidence that corporate hypocrisy moderates the indirect relationship between corporate social responsibility perceptions and advocacy behavior via procedural justice. Also, to the best of our knowledge, literature has no empirical evidence of the moderating effect of corporate hypocrisy in the indirect association between the perception of corporate social responsibility and employee advocacy behavior via organizational justice. It provides several important implications for advancing theoretical knowledge and practical insights for hospitality industry practitioners.

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Corporate hypocrisy and ESG rating divergence

He,

Chen,

Zhu

2024

Corp Soc Responsibility Env

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We draw upon impression management theory and cognitive dissonance theory to examine whether or not corporate hypocrisy triggers substantial environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rating divergence and to further investigate the influence channels of cognitive dissonance and impression management. In addition, our study explores the moderating role of media coverage with different emotional biases in shaping the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and ESG rating divergence. By utilizing a comprehensive dataset comprising 3562 Chinese listed companies and 25,898 firm‐year observations from 2010 to 2022, findings reveal that hypocritical firms exhibit significantly large ESG rating divergence. In particular, these firms induce cognitive dissonance among rating agencies, resulting in rating disparities, which are further magnified when using impression management through the selective disclosure of negative information or symbolic promotion of positive information. Furthermore, positive media coverage weakens the positive association between corporate hypocrisy and ESG rating divergence, whereas negative media coverage strengthens this relationship. Lastly, we find that the impact of corporate hypocrisy on ESG rating divergence is more pronounced for companies with higher average ESG scores, lower long‐term charitable involvement, and lower information opacity. These findings withstand various sensitivity tests utilizing alternative measures for rating divergence and corporate hypocrisy, as well as different sample compositions. Our conclusions remain robust even after addressing endogeneity concerns using a two‐stage least squares regression model.

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When Aspirational Talk Backfires: The Role of Moral Judgements in Employees’ Hypocrisy Interpretation

Cited by 18 publications

References 73 publications

When the Private and the Public Self Don’t Align: The Role of Discrepant Moral Identity Dimensions in Processing Inconsistent CSR Information

When the Private and the Public Self Don’t Align: The Role of Discrepant Moral Identity Dimensions in Processing Inconsistent CSR Information

Examining the link between CSR perceptions and employee advocacy through organizational justice: Can corporate hypocrisy mitigate?

Corporate hypocrisy and ESG rating divergence

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