The Emotion-Evoked Collective Corruption Model: The Role of Emotion in the Spread of Corruption Within Organizations

We draw from research on emotions and moral reasoning to develop a process model of collective corruption that centers on the role of moral emotions in the spread of corruption within organizations. Our focus on a well-intentioned and deliberative path to corruption is a departure from previous theory, which has focused on mindless and ill-intentioned paths. In our model, moral emotions play a critical role in both the initial recruitment of a target individual the direct process, as well as the spread of corruption to a broader group of nontargeted individuals through emotional contagion the vicarious process. For both processes we explain how self-directed moral emotions guilt, shame, embarrassment, and pride facilitate the spread of corruption and how other-directed moral emotions anger and contempt do not. We conclude by discussing the implications of our theory and directions for future research.