Moral Disengagement in the Workplace: Validity and Psychometric Properties of the Polish Work Moral Disengagement Scale

This study aimed to adapt the Work Moral Disengagement Scale (WMDS) to Polish culture and explore its psychometric properties. The Polish version of the WMDS (WMDS-PL) was validated using a sample of 539 employees. The investigation covered the factor structure, internal consistency, measurement invariance, and associations with HEXACO personality traits and counterproductive work behavior.Results confirmed a one-dimensional factor structure of the WMDS-PL, demonstrating strong internal consistency. The scale exhibited good psychometric properties, satisfying classical test and item response theory assumptions. Measurement invariance was upheld across gender, signifying that the WMDS-PL is interpreted similarly by both men and women. Notably, men scored higher on the WMDS-PL than women, implying a gender difference in the propensity for moral disengagement in the workplace. Additionally, moral disengagement showed positive correlations with various forms of counterproductive work behavior as well as negative correlations with honesty-humility and conscientiousness from the HEXACO traits.The successful adaptation of the WMDS to the Polish context provides a reliable and valid measure of moral disengagement in the workplace. This adaptation offers researchers and practitioners a valuable tool for assessing and understanding this phenomenon more effectively.