The generation and function of moral emotions in teams: An integrative review

Abstract

By considering moral emotions in light of a team context, we offer a new way of thinking about the socially embedded nature of moral emotions and how they influence various types of ethical behaviors in teams. To achieve this goal, we review the key literature on moral emotions within teams. We integrate this literature with Bandura’s (1991, 2002, 2008) theory of moral thought and action, coupled with the social functional account of emotions (Keltner & Haidt, 1999) to examine how team norms are connected, through their influence on individual team members’ moral emotions, to ethical behavior within team contexts. This review and integration highlights how team norms regarding moral approbation and moral perspective taking influence members’ proscriptive (e.g., fear, guilt, shame, embarrassment) and prescriptive (e.g., sympathy/compassion, pride) moral emotions. In turn, each of these moral emotions has unique action tendencies linked to 1 or more of 3 different types of ethical behaviors witnessed in teams: compliance behaviors, humanistic behaviors, and supererogatory behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)