Moral Equilibrium and Licensing
According to author and professor Nina Seppala, there is a dilemma between self-interest and ethical behavior that is known as "moral licensing." When an individual commits a righteous act, that person feels he/she has earned a license to behave in a selfish and unethical way. In contrast, when people seek to boost their self-concept, they engage in "moral cleansing" by behaving ethically or in virtuous ways. How this plays out in the workplace can depend on a variety of factors, including organizational culture and leadership.
After reading Chapter 8, “Self-reflection and moral balancing make people more ethical” in Seppala's Absolute Essentials of Business Behavioural EthicsActions, write out your answer to the following questions:• Explain the concept of "moral equilibrium" and the two main processes linked to it. • Give an example of "moral licensing" from your current area of work.(I am now working in as a investment banking intern)
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Moral Equilibrium
Moral Equilibrium
Moral equilibrium refers to an individual’s scale of comparing their moral deeds to their immoral or evil deeds. Human beings are subject to moral licensing based on existing standards and moral compensation founded on which side of the scale one’s deeds lie on; this aims to achieve moral equilibrium. A person’s settings and environment determine what is considered moral and what is a vice. For example, eating pig meat in a Muslim family is considered immoral, while pork ribs are fine for most religious families. When an individual engages in immoral behaviors in their setting, they engage in the opposite to compensate for the immoral deeds.
Moral licensing is a term applied in social intelligence sciences showcasing the subliminal peculiarity by which certainty and security is affirmed in one’s mental self-portrait, or self-idea, making the person less stressed over the outcomes of their actions. The person does this by balancing the improper way of behaviour using good deeds. Consequently, bound to settle on less improper decisions and act shamelessly. An enormous subset of this impact is a predisposition that happens when an individual’s history as a decent populist lays out in them a moral certificate, an endorsement, or a permit that improves the probability of less libertarian choices. This impact happens in any event when the group or moral friends know nothing about the impacted individual’s established moral qualification. For instance, White men who...