Polarization, or the tendency of views about controversial issues to become more extreme, undermines organizations. Scholars have discussed ways of reducing polarization and what worsens polarization. A common thread is the role of moral emotions. Scholars have argued that moral emotions both reduce and worsen polarization. To resolve this contradiction, we leverage moralization theory. Moralization theory describes processes by which issues gain moral significance; we contribute that how an issue gains moral significance influences whether it becomes settled or polarizing. Specifically, we distinguish grounded moralization, which identifies morally significant issues by evaluating them via widely accepted moral standards, from surface moralization, which uses moral language, disconnected from moral foundations, to seek amoral objectives. Whereas using commonly accepted principles reduces polarization, disconnecting contentious issues from common foundations worsens it. The problem of organizational polarization is thus exacerbated by the tendency of recent organizational theory to use surface rather than grounded moralization.
