Rage Against the Dying of the Light: Employees’ Moral Outrage, Anger Expression, and Generalized Well-Being

Past work demonstrates that ethical ideologies and behaviors are associated with the physical and psychological well-being of employees. Drawing from ethical impact theory and related research, this investigation utilizes two studies of working adults to examine the relationships among employees’ moral outrage, anger expression, and generalized well-being, with the latter construct being operationalized with multi-variable measures of ill-being, positive life outlook, and health consciousness. In the first study, two dimensions of moral outrage were identified, with results indicating that these components variably related to the ill-being/well-being measures and similar health behaviors. In the second study, anger expression was accounted for, thus disentangling it from the moral outrage dimensions, with results demonstrating that such anger changed the nature of some relationships between the moral outrage dimensions and the well-being outcomes. Overall, anger expression was associated more closely with negative outcomes, while the moral outrage dimensions were more closely associated with positive outcomes. These findings suggest that moral outrage may be cathartic, which contributes to further theory development and enhances understanding of the complex relationships among individual moral outrage, anger expression, and well-being. The practical considerations of the results are discussed, and the study’s limitations and suggestions for future research directions are highlighted.