Why Some Suffer More: Moral Distress in Adverse Work Environments

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Moral distress arises when professionals are constrained from acting in accordance with their moral beliefs due to institutional barriers. This study investigates how individual moral orientations shape the experience of moral distress in response to workplace violence within Lithuanian social services. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, five moral intuitions – Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity – were tested as moderators of the relationship between workplace violence and frequency and intensity of moral distress. A cross-sectional survey of 377 social service professionals was conducted. Results revealed that bullying and threats of violence significantly predicted moral distress. However, only foundations of Care, Fairness, and Purity, significantly moderated the link between bullying and both frequency and intensity, while Loyalty and Authority moderated intensity alone. No moderation effects emerged for threats of violence, suggesting they are experienced as universally harmful, rather than filtered through moral appraisal. Findings reframe bullying as a moral constraint that erodes moral beliefs. Moral distress is shown to be a morally saturated, interpretive experience shaped by the values practitioners bring to their work. Recognizing the role of individual moral orientations in shaping moral suffering may inform more responsive organisational practices and ethical support in social service environments.