Moral Advocacy, Emotional expression, and Group Ethical Decision Making

To date, research has primarily focused on reactive voice regarding ethical issues, while scholars have lacked knowledge about proactive forms of voice aimed at preventing unethical decisions and behaviors. We contribute to knowledge in this area by conceptualizing moral advocacy, examining its impact in decision making groups. Further, recognizing that voice regarding challenging and problematic issues is inherently infused with emotions, we also examine the effect of advocate emotional expression on effectiveness of moral advocacy and interpersonal outcomes for the advocate. Using an experimental design, we find that moral advocacy can improve the ethicality of group decisions, perhaps because it triggers group members to consider not only profit, but also stakeholders’ welfare. Finally, results show that compassionate advocates are nearly as likable as non-advocates, whereas angry advocates are significantly more disliked. The results have important implications for research on voice and group ethical ...