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What is Ethical Competence? The Role of Empathy, Personal Values, and the Five-Factor Model of Personality in Ethical Decision-Making

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Abstract

The objective of the present research was two-fold: (1) to provide a new definition of ethical competence, and (2) to clarify the influence of empathy, personal values, and the five-factor model of personality on ethical competence. The present research provides a comprehensive overview about recent approaches and empirically explores the interconnections of these constructs. 366 German undergraduate students were examined in a cross-sectional study that investigated the relationship of empathy, personal values, and the five-factor model of personality with moral judgment competence and counterproductive work behavior as indicators of moral judgment and behavior. We found self-transcendence values to be related to both, high levels of empathy and ethical competence, in contrast to self-enhancement values. Multiple mediation analysis revealed unique effects of empathy on ethical competence through values as mediators. Affective (but not cognitive) empathy transmitted its effect on ethical competence through benevolence, conformity, tradition, power, and hedonism. Most importantly, perspective taking lost its predictive power when investigated alongside affective empathy dimensions. These results converge to an important role of affective empathy, in particular empathic concern, with regard to personal values and ethical competence. Furthermore, the five-factor model of personality explained variance in measures of ethical competence. Our research suggests that organizational decision makers should consider the role of empathy, personal values, and the five-factor model in their human resource management in order to select employees with high ethical competence.

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Notes

  1. The terms “ethical” and “moral” will be used interchangeable in the present article as is common in the ethical decision-making literature (cf. Jones 1991; O’Fallon and Butterfield 2005; Tenbrunsel and Smith-Crowe 2008; Trevino et al. 2006).

  2. This term refers to situations where taking responsibility is a must.

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Acknowledgments

The authors cordially thank Andrea Schöpe for collecting the data of the TU Dresden sample. Further, we sincerely thank Prof. Andrew Hayes for his helpful support in statistical questions and Prof. Georg Lind for his valuable feedback on the conceptual framework of the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Personality Psychology and Assessment, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Technische Universität Chemnitz, 09120, Chemnitz, Germany

    Rico Pohling & Anja Strobel

  2. Neurospin, CEA Saclay, Bat. 145, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    Danilo Bzdok

  3. Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Danilo Bzdok

  4. Department of Industrial Engineering, Hochschule Niederrhein, 47805, Krefeld, Germany

    Monika Eigenstetter

  5. Department for Computer Science and Engineering, University of Applied Sciences Cologne, Campus Gummersbach, 51643, Gummersbach, Germany

    Siegfried Stumpf

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  1. Rico Pohling
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  2. Danilo Bzdok
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  3. Monika Eigenstetter
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  4. Siegfried Stumpf
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Correspondence to Rico Pohling.

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Pohling, R., Bzdok, D., Eigenstetter, M. et al. What is Ethical Competence? The Role of Empathy, Personal Values, and the Five-Factor Model of Personality in Ethical Decision-Making. J Bus Ethics 137, 449–474 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2569-5

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