Individual and Situational Factors That Influence Managers' Ethical Judgments

Abstract

This study is an investigation of potential relationships between ethical judgments and both personal demographic and situational variables among a national sample of 602 managers. A significant positive relationship was found between education and ethical judgments of a scenario about an unethical situation. As formal education increased, managers tended to view unethical situations more favorably. Also, a significant negative relationship between size of a firm and ethical judgments of employees was confirmed in a regression analysis. Conclusions and suggestions for research are presented.

Buyer reactions to ethical beliefs in the retail environment

“…One reason for a lack of research on consumers' ethical beliefs may be that previous attempts to measure the ethical content of business situations have not generally predicted behavioral intentions very well Bass andHebert, 1995, Trevino andYoungblood, 1990. Recently, a multidimensional approach representing ethical/moral judgments (or moral construals) using three related dimensions has demonstrated significant relationships with future intentions across a wide variety of ethically charged settings (Robin et al, 1997).…”

Environmental Ethical Decision Making in the U.S. Metal-Finishing Industry

“…In view of previous research (e.g., Bass & Hebert, 1995), we believed that industry tenure could alter the managers' perceptions of many of the independent and dependent variables. Therefore, we controlled for industry tenure, measuring it in years as reported by respondents.…”

“…When approached holistically, the study of ethical decision making is also cumbersome, because of the simultaneous influence of individual, situational, and issue-contingent forces (Bass & Hebert, 1995;Ford & Richardson, 1994;Jones, 1991;Morris, Rehbein, Hosseini, & Armacost, 1995;Trevifio, 1986). In this research, we sought to understand the diversity of influences shaping managers' environmental ethical decision intentions concerning the specific operational activity of hazardous wastewater treatment and centered our research around two questions: (1) What factors affect a manager's environmental ethical decision intention concerning the treatment of hazardous wastewater?…”

The Impact of the Negotiators’ Personality and Socio-Demographic Factors on Their Perception of Unethical Negotiation Tactics

“…However, studies addressing its relation to ethical judgment and behavior outline mixed findings. Some of these studies reported no significant differences between male and female with respect to their ethical judgment and conduct in negotiations (Bass et al 1995;Robin and Babin 1997;Westbrook et al 2011). Other studies supported the statement that men and women have different opinions about their acceptability of questionable negotiation tactics (Robinson, Lewicki and Donahue 2000).…”