If behavioral ethics research from the past two decades has taught us nothing else, it has made it abundantly clear that humans are morally fallible. Indeed, there are everyday examples—in the workplace and beyond—of people who unwittingly violate their personal moral values, finding numerous ways to rationalize and justify otherwise morally objectionable behavior. In this article, we argue that acknowledging one’s own moral fallibility and developing moral humility can be an influential step in helping bridge the gap between a person’s values and behaviors. Specifically, we define and make the case for moral humility as a fundamental virtue that can help people better avoid unethical behavior and enable virtuous behavior. Specifically, we explore the potential effects of having low (insufficient), high (optimal), and extremely high (excessive) levels of moral humility on multiple outcomes at the individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels. Our hope is to encourage future research on this important but underexamined construct.

如果过去二十年来的行为伦理学研究没有给我们带来任何其他好处，那么它已经非常清楚地表明人类在道德上是容易犯错误的。的确，在工作场所内外，每天都有一些人在不经意间违反个人道德价值观，找到许多方法来合理化和证明在道德上令人反感的行为的理由。在本文中，我们认为承认自己的道德失误和发展道德谦卑可以帮助弥合一个人的价值观和行为之间的鸿沟。具体来说，我们将道德谦卑定义为一种基本美德，并将其作为一种基本美德，可以帮助人们更好地避免不道德行为并促成道德行为。具体而言，我们探讨了道德谦卑的低（不足），高（最优）和极高（过度）水平对个人，人际和组织水平上的多种结果的潜在影响。我们的希望是鼓励对这一重要但尚未深入研究的结构进行进一步的研究。