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<p>Unethical behavior in organizations is often collective rather than merely individual. Moral disengagement theory explains how organizational members reconstrue moral standards to enable themselves to behave unethically. Research has largely treated collective moral disengagement as an <i>ex-post</i> rationalization of wrongdoing or as a static group-level construct. This article introduces an <i>ex-ante</i> pathway that explains how collective moral disengagement emerges before a collective transgression occurs. Integrating moral disengagement theory with multilevel theory, we define collective moral disengagement as an emergent state of socially shared moral reasoning through which members reconstrue morally charged collective norms from “behavior B by the collective is wrong” to “behavior B is not wrong”, “the collective is not responsible,” or both. We explain emergence by specifying a three-phase pathway of individual sensemaking, sensegiving, and collective sensemaking. Drawing on complex adaptive systems perspectives and agent-based modeling research, we theorize nonlinear dynamics and identify three contingencies that shape whether emergence accelerates, stalls, or collapses: the persuasiveness of moral disengagement arguments, the share of members who have privately disengaged before sensegiving, and advocacy by members who are highly relevant for the collective. We further theorize a recursive feedback loop in which established collective moral disengagement shapes individual moral disengagement, especially when social identification is strong and groups shift from an “us” identity to a “we” agentic stance. Illustrations from six prototypical cases, including Volkswagen, Siemens, and Purdue Pharma, highlight how collective rationalizations form and how organizations might detect and disrupt them.</p>

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The Emergence of Collective Moral Disengagement

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月29日

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  • Ulf Schaefer,
  • Urs Mueller,
  • Johannes Habel

摘要

Unethical behavior in organizations is often collective rather than merely individual. Moral disengagement theory explains how organizational members reconstrue moral standards to enable themselves to behave unethically. Research has largely treated collective moral disengagement as an ex-post rationalization of wrongdoing or as a static group-level construct. This article introduces an ex-ante pathway that explains how collective moral disengagement emerges before a collective transgression occurs. Integrating moral disengagement theory with multilevel theory, we define collective moral disengagement as an emergent state of socially shared moral reasoning through which members reconstrue morally charged collective norms from “behavior B by the collective is wrong” to “behavior B is not wrong”, “the collective is not responsible,” or both. We explain emergence by specifying a three-phase pathway of individual sensemaking, sensegiving, and collective sensemaking. Drawing on complex adaptive systems perspectives and agent-based modeling research, we theorize nonlinear dynamics and identify three contingencies that shape whether emergence accelerates, stalls, or collapses: the persuasiveness of moral disengagement arguments, the share of members who have privately disengaged before sensegiving, and advocacy by members who are highly relevant for the collective. We further theorize a recursive feedback loop in which established collective moral disengagement shapes individual moral disengagement, especially when social identification is strong and groups shift from an “us” identity to a “we” agentic stance. Illustrations from six prototypical cases, including Volkswagen, Siemens, and Purdue Pharma, highlight how collective rationalizations form and how organizations might detect and disrupt them.