This paper develops twenty hypotheses concerning the relationships among selected individual differences variables (locus of control, delay of gratification, gender, and race) and five different ethical beliefs. The results of a study of collegians provide support for seventeen out of twenty research hypotheses. As predicted, locus of control, delay of gratification, and race are related to ethical beliefs. Also as predicted, gender is not related to ethical beliefs.

This book describes how the ethical conduct of business has become a topic of major interest in the USA and a subject for serious study in American universities and business schools. In Europe, including Great Britain, public concern is increasing about the moral aspects of business behaviour. Professor Mahoney shows how this growing concern is reflected in the programmes of business studies offered by various European universities and business schools. The results of a survey point to future developments in this (...) area. (shrink)

Despite the fundamental and administrative difficulties associated with cross-cultural research the rewards are significant and, given an increasing trend toward globalisation, the move away from singular location studies to more comparative research is to be encouraged. In order to facilitate this research process it is imperative, however, that considerable attention is given to the methodological issues that can beset cross-cultural research, specifically as these issues relate to the primary domain or discipline of investigation, which in this instance is research on (...) business ethics. Utilising the experience of a four country comparative study of both Asian and Western cultures in the field of business ethics, the following presents a discussion of methodological concerns under the three broad areas of operationalising culture, operationalising business ethics, and data interpretation. (shrink)

Calls for increasing integration of ethical considerations into business education are well documented. Business graduates are perceived to be ethically naive at best, and at worst, constrained in their moral development by the lack of ethical content in their courses. The pedagogic concern is to find effective methods of incorporating ethics into the fabric of business education. The purpose of this paper is to suggest and illustrate role play as an appropriate method for integrating ethical concerns.

The study reported here sought to examine the ethical orientations of business managers and business students in Singapore. Data were obtained using Defining Issue Test. Analysis of Variance revealed that age, education and religious affiliation had influenced cognitive moral development stages of the respondents. Vocation, gender and ethnicity did not seem to have affected moral judgement of the subjects. Contrary to the general view, both business students and business managers demonstrated the same level of sensitivity to ethical dimensions of decision-making. (...) Implications of the findings and limitations of the study are discussed. (shrink)

When business, government, and other professions fail to meet their responsibilities, it is most often not from an inadequacy of tools, techniques, and theory but from an absence of vision and a failure of leadership that saps all sense of individual or organizational purpose and responsibility. To address this concern, management education must be more than the transfer of skills. It should be a moral endeavor, a passing-on from one generation to the next of a kind of wisdom about responsible (...) moral commitment in complex contexts. Faculty at professional schools have an opportunity and a responsibility to help students connect their capacity for high achievement to a sense of purpose and a set of principles. This book is an explanation of how one business school is trying to place leadership, ethics, and corporate responsibility at the center of its mission. It is a call to rebalance the educational trilogy of values, knowledge, and skills. Can Ethics Be Taught? traces the evolution, strategy, and implementation of the pathbreaking Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Responsibility program at the Harvard Business School. It describes in detail the origins of the initiative for this program, the sophisticated research that went into the approach, timing, and appropriate interventions for working with students and faculty, as well as the design of the program strategy itself. The accomplishments of this program have been substantial; and the lessons drawn from the experience of the Harvard Business School can prove instructive to other professional schools-in such fields as management, public administration, and law-and to corporate leaders as they design and implement their own programs on leadership, ethics, and responsibility. (shrink)

Individuals'' moral judgments of certain business practices and their decisions to engage in those practices are influenced by their personal moral philosophies: (a) situationists advocate striving for the best consequences possible irrespective of moral maxims; (b) subjectivists reject moral guidelines and base judgments on personal values and practical concerns; (c) absolutists assume that actions are moral, provided they yield positive consequences and conform to moral rules; (d) exceptionists prefer to follow moral dictates but allow for exceptions for practical reasons. These (...) variations, which are based on two fundamental dimensions (concern for principles and concern for promoting human welfare) influence a variety of moral processes and have implications for ethical debates over business practices. (shrink)

This paper reviews Kohlberg''s (1969) theory of cognitive moral development, highlighting moral reasoning research relevant to the business ethics domain. Implications for future business ethics research, higher education and training, and the management of ethical/unethical behavior are discussed.

This paper reports the results of a questionnaire administered to 1178 undergraduate students and discusses how they responded to ten situations which asked them to assess their personal evaluation of the ethical acceptability, how society would similarly assess the situation and how business persons would respond. Multiple versions of the instrument were developed to investigate if the sex of the person involved in the situation would influence the respondents' perception of the ethical action involved. No differences were identified. Further, the (...) image of business persons as less ethical than society in general seems to have evaporated. (shrink)

This study explores the reactions of 412 business students to a range of ethical marketing dilemmas. Reviewing some of the comparable Australian and U.S. research in the field, the study examines the ethical judgements for potential demographic differences. The findings suggest that a majority of students are prepared to act unethically in order to gain some competitive or personal advantage. Yielding the highest ethical response are situations of potential and significant social impact. The results support some previous research that shows (...) the existence of gender and age differences in ethical response and likely behaviour. This (gender) difference was most divergent on the issue of portrayal of women in advertising. In particular, females and older students respond more ethically in a majority of situations. The research concludes a number of opportunities for new directions in education, public policy making and further research. (shrink)

After years of debate over the importance of ethical conduct in organizations, the federal government has decided to institutionalize ethics as a buffer to prevent legal violations in organizations. The key requirements of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (FSG) are outlined, and suggested actions managers should adopt to improve ethical compliance are presented. An effective compliance program is more a process and commitment than a specific blueprint for conduct. The organization has the responsibility to create an organizational climate to reduce misconduct. (...) The adoption of a FSG compliance program has the potential to substantially lessen organizational penalties if there is due diligence to prevent misconduct. Federal courts determine the effectiveness of an FSG program after a violation occurs. (shrink)

The relationship among age, education, gender, syllogistic reasoning skill, epistemic beliefs, and moral reasoning in adults was examined. It was predicted that five epistemic dimensions would explain unique variance in moral reasoning over and above all other variables. This hypothesis was confirmed. Beliefs corresponding to simple knowledge, certain knowledge, omniscient authority, and quick learning each explained the significant variation in performance on the Defining Issues Test. Results showed that multiple epistemic assumptions play an important role in young adults' moral reasoning (...) over and above other social and personal variables. Implications concerning the development of epistemic beliefs are discussed. (shrink)

The topic of the article is how moral development theory can enlighten the understanding of ethical behaviour in business. It discusses previous research on the subject, and reports an empirical study of academics (engineers and business economists with a master degree) working in the private sector in Norway.Moral development theory is based on a long research tradition, and many researchers within business ethics have assumed the importance of moral reasoning in business environments. However, the truth of these assumptions has not (...) been confirmed by previous empirical research. (shrink)

In a climate of increasing interest and activity within the field of business ethics, as yet there exists no coherent conceptual framework for organizational theory and research. From a review of current thinking and previous writings a framework of concepts is suggested to help set an agenda for empirical research. The elements of this are, first, a taxonomy of ethical domains: the foci of organizations'' and their agents'' ethical concerns and conduct. Second, it is considered how ethical functioning might be (...) analysed in terms of causal relationships between expressive forms, voluntary action and instituted forms. Third is discussed ethical process, the means by which ethical awareness is aroused. Fourth and last, the paper examines how normative evaluations might apply to the ethical condition of organizations and their agents, meaning change or stability in reputation and integrity. At each stage of the argument possible objectives for research are developed. (shrink)

This is a study of ethical and moral behavior, or perhaps unethical behavior, in two different societies. One society, contemporary Australia and in particular the state of Western Australia, is currently undergoing an exhaustive Royal Commission into the shenanigans of a number of well-known business men and former leading politicians who seem to have been playing fast and loose with large amounts of other peoples' money. While this was initially the major focus of the paper, a secondary focus developed based (...) on the interest shown in acquiring an historical background by a group of business policy students. The opportunity to acquire an appreciation of historical events and in particular, the development of a sense of history seems to be lacking in the curricula of modern day business students. The secondary focus of the paper therefore illustrated that malfeasance, misfeasance and other forms of malpractice in business and administration were just as common in Greco-Roman times as today. In this context, reference has been made to a selection of the writings of some of the more well-known writers of this period. The paper ends on a nonpositive note, raising the (rhetorical) question, that if, after two thousand years people are still continuing to engage in sharp business practices whenever the occasion arises is there any point in developing and offering courses in moral behavior and business ethics? (shrink)