The Road to Hell: The Impact of Moralized Issues on Identity Conflicts in Organizations

Research Seminar

Management & Human Resources

Speaker: Michael G. Pratt  

Boston College

Bernard Ramanantsoa room

Authors: Michael G. Pratt, Luke N. Hedden, Hamza Khan

Abstract:

When organizations take stands on issues, they can activate identity dynamics within the organization. Indeed, the coupling of issues and identity has been prevalent since the earliest discussions of identity in and of organizations.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the issues that have been explored with regard to identity have largely been those related closely to organizational functioning. Budget cuts, reputational challenges, and decisions about how to deliver services, for example, have been examined and each are central to what organizations do. However, recently, organizations and organizational representatives—such as CEOs—are increasingly taking stands on social issues that do not seem directly connected to their organization’s functioning, such as voting and reproductive rights, issues of systemic racism (e.g., Black Lives Matter), gender (e.g., #Me Too) and sexual orientation (e.g., Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill), climate change, as well as other social issues. Although stances on these issues were once eschewed by organizational leaders, a shift has happened. 

What makes these issues different from those typically addressed in identity research is that they have been moralized. That is, these issues have undergone “increases in the degree to which moral relevance is attached” to them (Rhee, et al. 2019: 6). Research on moral judgments suggest that how individuals process and respond to moral issues differs significantly from how they respond to non-moral issues (Haidt, 2001), with more extreme emotional reactions and shifts in cognitive processing being common. Given that: (a) issues activate identity dynamics in organizations, (b) organizations are increasingly engaged with moralized issues, and (c) such moralization dramatically affects how individuals experience and respond to issues; understanding how organizational engagement with moralized issues might alter identity dynamics is both important and timely. 

The purpose of our paper is three-fold. First, drawing on moralization literature, we explain how the moralization of issues happens, specifically in light of organizational engagement with concerns around social justice. Second, at the group level of analysis, we build new theory that explains how issue moralization alters “typical” ingroup and intergroup dynamics and to what effects in organizations. In particular, we discuss how moralized issues create the potential for ever-widening cycles of intergroup conflict, as well as intense ingroup identity policing. Finally, building from these insights, we offer novel solutions for organizations to counter the negative effects of moralized identity conflicts.