Abstract: Trends of organizational flattening and decentralization are challenging traditional theories and practices of organizational ethics and have given rise to employee-based moral authority as a new topic in organizational management. As an informal form of authority, moral authority transcends the limitations of formal authority in terms of hierarchy, direction, and scope, achieving an ethical reshaping effect that spans across hierarchies, directions, and boundaries. However, moral authority has not yet received sufficient attention in management studies. In response, this project constructs and tests a theory of moral authority based on the research framework of “concept construction-formation mechanisms-cross-level evolution-multi-level impacts.” First, it defines the concepts of “moral authority” and “moral authority team norming,” and develops corresponding measurement tools. Second, it examines the formation mechanisms of moral authority and reveals how it influences team collectives through the path of “social judgment—social identity—social influence,” thus realizing team-level norming (i.e., the cross-level evolution of moral authority). Finally, the project empirically investigates the multi-level impacts of moral authority team norming on individual psychology, team efficiency, and organizational systems, as well as its underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions. This project theoretically expands the field of organizational ethics research and, in practice, provides businesses with a new approach to ethical governance that can drive large-scale change through small, localized interventions.

Key words: moral authority, moral authority team norming, employee-centric, cross-level evolution, multilevel influence