Question

1.  Can you think of a time when you have heard others use morally disengaged thinking?

The following examples may help to guide your thinking to determine why one might or might not do such things (matching them to the moral disengagement mechanisms on pp.86-88). Note: "you" refers to an undergraduate student:  

• You work in a fast-food restaurant. It's against policy to eat food without paying for it. You came straight from classes and are therefore hungry. Your supervisor isn't around, so you make something for yourself and eat it without paying.
• Your accounting course requires you to purchase a software package that sells for $50. Your friend, who is also in the class, has already bought the software and offers to lend it to you. You take it and load it onto your computer.
• You’re preparing for the final $exam$ in a class where the professor uses the same $exam in both sections. Some of your friends somehow get a copy of the $exam after the first section. They are now trying to memorize the right answers. You don’t look at the $exam, but just ask them what topics you should focus your studying on.

2. Why do you believe locus of control might be important when you are hiring someone to do a specific job. Hint:  locus of control has implications for how people behave on the job.

Answer 1

1.Moral disengaged thinking and its example.

• Moral disengagement is the psychological phenomenon that describes how people rationalize behavior that is at odds with their own moral principles.
• For example, suppose a teenager who has a principled framework that forbids theft. If he takes a newspaper without paying for it from a Starbucks store, he may rationalize his actions by telling himself that Starbucks warranted some harm because it overcharges its consumers and, until recently, purchased not all its coffee beans from certified fair trade sources.
• People engaging in wrongdoing often see that the rules are uncalled-for and unjustifiable. In their judgment, even though they may be breaking the rules and flouting conventions, they’re persuaded that they’re really not doing anything wrong because the rules deserve to be violated.

2. Locus of control importance while hiring someone for a specific job

• Locus control is a crucial variable.it has a relationship with the effort, motivation, satisfaction, performance, compliance, the perception of the job, supervisory style and the compliance with authority. Locus of control may also moderate the relationship between motivation and incentives.
• People attribute the control of events or the cause of events either to the external environment or themselves. People who ascribe the control of events to themselves possess an internal locus of control. Such peoples are referred to as internals. On the other hand, individuals who attribute the control of events to outside causes possess an external locus of control. Such people are known as externals.
• A locus of control is a belief about whether the results or outcomes of our actions are related to what we do or things that other people do. If you possess an external locus of control then you believe that fate, deities, karma, randomness or other external forces determine your success and what is going to happen in your life. If your locus of control is internal then you believe that your fate is dependent on your actions. In short, people who possess an internal locus of control are go-getters. This orientation has numerous benefits.
• People with an internal locus of control perform well in school, are less vulnerable to depression; they deal better with stress, are more satisfied with their jobs and actively find solutions to their problems. People with an internal locus of control are more determined towards achieving their goals. This doesn’t mean that an internal locus of control is only associated with a nice time. When it is taken to the extreme, it can become problematic.
• Extreme internal locus of control can be psychologically unstable and unhealthy. It is always important to match the internal locus of control with self-efficacy, competence and opportunity. This will make it possible for you to experience a sense of personal responsibility and control. People who are overly internal but lack competence, opportunity and efficacy can become anxious, neurotic and depressed. In short, internals should have a realistic sense of influence in order to be successful.

The Impact of locus of control on Employee Performance

• External or internal locus of control plays a very important role for people to sustain usefulness and learning performance. The experiences and knowledge gained by an individual through organizational learning are crucial in increasing the performance of that individual. It is, therefore, necessary for businesses to fulfill learning in an arrangement and use it to improve employee performance.
• There is very little in an individual’s life that your locus of control does not impact. According to numerous studies, internal locus of control is associated with success in sports, school, business and psychological and physical health. An internal locus of control is associated with achievement and success because of the tendency to attribute both your successes and failures to your actions. It gives employees a reason to study their actions and find out where they went wrong and take the necessary actions to improve. Locus of control has effects on a lot of areas of life and this makes it a subject of discussion and debate outside the realms of psychology.