Moral Intensity and Individual State Constructs: Maturing Safety Culture through an Ethical Lens

Abstract

After decades of workplace safety evolution, organisations are looking for new insights in order to prevent harm. However, there has been little focus on the role of ethical decision-making. This study analysed 376 survey responses from workers in the Australian telecommunications and broadcast industry to examine the influence of moral intensity, individual moral potency and philosophy and safety culture on forming ethical intentions in response to safety and health dilemmas. Respondents answered questions related to three vignettes designed to reflect health and safety dilemmas that participants might experience at work. A quantitative research model was developed to test twelve hypotheses and bivariate analysis was used to analyse the results. The findings suggest that perceptions of moral intensity are stronger for safety dilemmas than workplace health dilemmas. Moral intensity and forming moral intentions vary significantly between safety and health dilemmas. Individuals with strong moral potency perceive higher levels of moral intensity and are more likely to form moral intent in response to health and safety dilemmas. The findings also suggest it is also more likely for an idealistic person to form moral intent for safety dilemmas but not health concerns. Individuals with strong levels of relativism were less likely to form moral intent. Safety culture had almost insignificant positive associations with perceptions of moral intensity and forming moral intent. This study may assist businesses to understand what influences worker perceptions of moral intensity and how they form moral intentions that lead to safe behaviour, enhancing behaviour-based safety programs and compliance.