A Taxonomy of Behavior in Organizational Settings: The Implications of Moral Identity Congruence

IntroductionThe notion of identity has shaped the behavior of individuals throughout the course of time, and is "arguably more fundamental to the conception of humanity than any other notion" (Gioia, 1998, p. 17). Theories of identity and social identity suggest that individual behavior is regulated by a sense of who one perceives oneself to be and the memberships in various groups one perceives important. As noted by Ashforth and Mael (1989), a referent organization may provide the answer to an individual's question of "Who am I? " Multiple scholars have offered definitions of organizational identification to explain the association individuals have with their respective organizations. Even though these definitions may differ to some extent, it is broadly agreed that organizational identification demands some sort of deep association between the individual and an organization, in which the individual recognizes him- or herself as sharing communal attributes with a specific group or organization (Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Dutton, Dukerich and Harquail, 1994; Pratt, 1998). Extant research explicates one specific basis for individual identity that is of particular interest here, one's moral identity. Moral identity has been conceptualized as a "set of common moral traits likely to be central to most people's moral self-definition" (Aquino and Reed, 2002, p. 1424). In particular, the importance of one's moral identity to one's self concept has been linked to inter-group relations (Aquino, Ray, and Reed, 2003), charitable giving (Reynolds and Ceranic, 2007) and truth-telling (Aquino, Ray and Reed, 2003), as well as higher levels of moral engagement (Detert, Trevino and Sweitzer, 2008). Research has also shown that the relationship between one's moral identity and behavior in specific circumstances is not fixed and immutable (Appiah, 2008). Behavior contrary to a person's self-concept can be triggered by external factors such as ambient sounds or smells and internal conditions such as fatigue (Appiah, 2008), conditions that threaten safety and security (Narvaez, 2008), the behaviors of others (Haidt, 2007; Haidt and Bjorkland, 2008a, b) and the "frame" or context within which one conceptualizes the circumstances or situation (Tenbrunsel and Messick, 2004; Tennbrunsel and Smith Crowe, 2008). In addition to literature on the concept of individual moral identity, researchers have begun to address the notion of organizational moral identity. Although prior works have investigated congruence in terms of fit and identification in organizations (Haslam, 2001; Hatch and Schultz, 1997, 2000, 2002), organizational research has not explicitly explored congruence in terms of moral identity. Here, we suggest that this congruence or incongruence will affect productive behaviors such as citizenship behaviors as well as counterproductive behaviors such as organizational deviance in organizations. Perhaps more importantly, we argue that specific "types" of congruence and incongruence will likely impact these behaviors in unique ways. Thus, our paper has the potential to advance scholar-practitioners' understanding of: (1) how individual moral identity and organizational moral identity interact to predict important outcomes, and (2) how congruence and incongruence between the individual and the organization will impact behavioral outcomes related to organizational citizenship behavior and deviant behavior in organizations.In the sections that follow, we first review the definition and theoretical background of individual moral identity and extend the concept of moral identity to the organizational level. Then we examine the concepts of moral identity congruence/incongruence and delineate the different types of congruence/incongruence, linking each of these to specific types of productive and counterproductive behaviors through propositions that detail these expected relationships.Moral identityWe define ethics or morality (terms we will use interchangeably) as the values, rules, principles, obligations and concerns that allow individuals and organizations to interact in complicated societies and pursue their individual and common purposes while respecting the purposes of others. …