Improving Moral Competence: Balancing Emotions in a Group of Mexican Workers

Abstract

Various authors point out the need for research on ethical behavioral complications from the perspective of emotional health, suffering and moral competence of workers. The objective of this study was to carry out an intervention using a deliberative, individual and collective method, on semi-real dilemmas to increase moral competence in a group of Mexican workers and evaluate its impact. The methodology applied in the intervention was based on the MDDME Emotional Moral Dilemmas Discussion Method. The participants were 30 workers from a hospital in southeastern Mexico who had a career marked by a moral emotional experience, which implied an alteration in their life, moral suffering, presupposing an impact on their moral competence. The instrument used was the CME Moral Emotional Questionnaire, applied to workers before and after the intervention. To evaluate the effect of the intervention on the difference in ICME, factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed. The results of this study are relevant to the improvement of moral competence based on deliberation about dilemmas and life path. It was shown that deliberation is important, as well as the argumentation of dilemmas, it was also observed that the life trajectory, the inflection, although passed, still observed suffering in the workers. Jointly, the applied intervention serves as a tool to develop and raise low levels of moral competence, allowing the prevention of immoral impulses and behaviors.