From passive observers to ethical voices: a social intuitionist model of bystander responses to coworker social loafing

Abstract

While prior research focused on antecedents of unfair events like social loafing, less attention examined consequence mechanisms or bystander perspectives. Drawing on the social intuitionist model (SIM), we develop a process model of when and how bystanders respond to coworker social loafing. This research utilized the time-lagged design of three-wave in one large enterprise and three small and medium enterprises in eastern China. The findings indicate that coworker social loafing evokes moral anger and norm-based moral reasoning, prompting ethical voice. Social consensus and cooperative goal interdependence influence norm-based moral reasoning through moral anger. This research employs the SIM to explain the critical mechanism of moral anger linking observed social loafing to ethical voice via norm-based reasoning, highlighting the roles of social consensus and goal interdependence. It expands the research perspective of social loafing, demonstrates the dual-system model of moral behaviour and suggests that norm-based moral reasoning matters for coworkers' immorality in teams.