An Exploratory Study Among HRM Professionals of Moral Recognition in Off-Shoring Decisions: The Roles of Perceived Magnitude of Consequences, Time Pressure, Cognitive and Affective Empathy, and Prior Knowledge

Off-shoring is a business decision increasingly being considered as a strategic option to effect expected cost savings. This exploratory study focuses on the moral recognition of off-shoring using ethical decision making (EDM) embedded within affective events theory (AET). Perceived magnitude of consequences and time pressure are hypothesized as affective event characteristics that lead to decision makers’ empathy responses. Subsequently, cognitive and affective empathy influence the decision makers’ moral recognition. Decision makers’ prior knowledge of off-shoring was also predicted to interact with perceptions of the affective event characteristics to influence cognitive and affective empathy. Findings from a limited sample of human resource management (HRM) professionals suggest that perceptions of magnitude of consequences and cognitive empathy directly relate to moral recognition and that affective empathy partially mediates the relationship between perceptions of the magnitude of consequences and moral recognition. The three-way interaction of the perceptions of magnitude of consequences, time pressure, and prior knowledge of off-shoring was marginally related to cognitive empathy. Interpretations of the findings, validity issues, limitations, future research directions, and management implications are provided.