Transformations  in
Business & Economics

DOES PERCEIVED STRESS AND WORKPLACE BULLYING ALTER EMPLOYEES' MORAL DECISION-MAKING? GENDER-RELATED DIFFERENCES
Jolita Vveinhardt, Daiva Majauskiene, Dovile Valanciene

ABSTRACT. Recent studies in the fields of moral psychology and neuropsychology concerning moral decision-making emphasize the importance of intuitive and emotional processes. There is growing evidence that the brain regions related to moral decision-making are sensitive to stress, which can affect moral decisions. Scientists more commonly focus on the effects of acute rather than chronic stress on moral decision-making. In the current study, we focused on employees' moral decision-making and workplace bullying, which also related to stress. The aim of the paper was to investigate whether employees' moral decision-making was altered by perceived stress and workplace bullying, and whether this depended on gender. Three hundred ninety participants - 186 men and 204 women aged 18-65 years - responded to a questionnaire (online or a paper version). Our results indicate in general that perceived stress and workplace bullying lead to more egoistic and non-utilitarian decisions by employees. We conclude that perceived stress and workplace bullying lead to change completely the decisions of men, it becomes non-utilitarian. Thus, perceived stress and workplace bullying do not change completely the decisions of women, it was more non-utilitarian in all conditions .

KEYWORDS:  decision-making, moral, perceived stress, gender, workplace bullying.

JEL classification:  D70, D91, DI30, J70, J81.