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Moral Values Congruence and Miners’ Policy Following Behavior: The Role of Supervisor Morality

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Abstract

Ethical culture construction is beneficial to maximize policy following behavior (PFB) and avoid accidents of coal miners in an economic downturn. This paper examines the congruence between coal mine ethical culture values (ECVs) and miners’ moral values (MVs) and the relationship with PFB. To shed light on this relationship, supervisor moral values (SMVs) act as a key moderator. We build on the initial structure of values to measure ECVs, MVs, and SMVs. At the same time, available congruence was defined to describe the relationship between the two values. Drawing upon a survey of 267 miners in Chinese large state-owned coal mining enterprises, results revealed that ECVs–MVs congruence had a linear relationship with intrinsic PFB (IPFB) and a non-linear relationship with extrinsic PFB. These findings demonstrate that SMVs had a moderating effect on the relationship between ECVs–MVs congruence and extrinsic PFB. Thus, we continued to calculate the available congruence scope in tested enterprises. Furthermore, this study gives relative management proposals and suggestions to improve miners’ moral standards and to reduce coal mine accidents.

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Abbreviations

ECVs:

Ethical culture values

MVs:

Miners’ moral values

SMVs:

Supervisor moral values

ECVs–MVs:

Ethical culture values—Miners’ moral values

PFB:

Policy following behavior

EPFB:

Extrinsic Policy following behavior

IPFB:

Intrinsic Policy following behavior

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Acknowledgments

This manuscript was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China Project (71473248;71173217), the China Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Project (14YJC630092), Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province (2012), the Education Humanities and Social Science Project of Jiangsu Province (14ZHC002), the China Statistical Scientific Research Project (2013LY078), Philosophy and Social Science Outstanding Innovation Team of Jiangsu Universities (Energy Resources Management Innovation Team 2013), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2014WB11), and the program of innovation team supported by China University of Mining and Technology (No. 2015ZY003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), Room A521, Nanhu Campus, South Sanhuan Road, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Hui Lu

  2. School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), Room A506, Nanhu Campus, South Sanhuan Road, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Hong Chen

  3. School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), Nanhu Campus, South Sanhuan Road, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Wei Du

  4. School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), Room A504, Nanhu Campus, South Sanhuan Road, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Ruyin Long

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  1. Hui Lu
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Correspondence to Hong Chen.

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Lu, H., Chen, H., Du, W. et al. Moral Values Congruence and Miners’ Policy Following Behavior: The Role of Supervisor Morality. Sci Eng Ethics 23, 769–791 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9812-z

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