The Effects of Religiosity on Ethical Judgments

Abstract

The relationship between religiosity and ethical behavior at work has remained elusive. In fact, inconsistent results in observed magnitudes and direction led Hood et al. (The psychology of religion: An empirical approach, 1996) to describe the relationship between religiosity and ethics as ''something of a roller coaster ride.'' Weaver and Agle (Acad Manage Rev 27(1):77-97, 2002) utilizing social structural versions of symbolic interactionism theory reasoned that we should not expect religion to affect ethical outcomes for all religious individuals; rather, such a relationship likely depends on specific religious attitudes including religious motivation orientation (intrinsic RMO vs. extrinsic RMO), perceived sacred qualities of work (job sanctification), and views of God (VOG, loving vs. punishing). We examined the effects of these three religious attitudes on participants' judgments of 29 ethically questionable vignettes. Consistent with symbolic interactionism theory, intrinsic RMO and having a loving view of God were both negatively related to endorsing ethically questionable vignettes, whereas extrinsic RMO was positively related to endorsing the vignettes. Unexpectedly, job sanctification was positively related to endorsing the vignettes. However, both intrinsic and extrinsic RMO moderated this relationship such that sanctifying one's job was related to ethical judgments only for those who were: (a) low in intrinsic RMO or (b) high in extrinsic RMO. We reasoned based on symbolic interactionism theory that intrinsically motivated participants, in contrast to extrinsically motivated participants, may have utilized their religious beliefs as a guiding framework in making ethical judgments.

Intensidade moral e tomada de decisão: Estudo aplicado a estudantes do ensino superior em Gestão

“…De acordo com Walker et al (2012), indivíduos intrinsecamente motivados para a religião são mais propensos a utilizar as suas crenças e práticas religiosas como modelo ou guia nas decisões e comportamentos do dia-a-dia e quando realizam julgamentos éticos.…”

“…De acordo com a teoria de [89] desenvolvimento moral de Kohlberg (1969), a idade tem uma influência positiva no desenvolvimento moral, baseando-se no facto de que os indivíduos à medida que envelhecem, geralmente passam de estágios inferiores para níveis mais elevados de raciocínio moral (Borkowski & Ugras, 1998). Enquanto algumas pesquisas apontam para uma correlação positiva e significativa entre a idade e a tomada de decisão ética (McMahon & Harvey, 2007;Walker et al, 2012), outros (Craft, 2013;O'Fallon & Butterfield, 2005) mostram resultados inconsistentes e mistos ou não encontram relação significativa (Kuntz, Kuntz, Elenkov & Nabirukhina, 2013).…”

The influence of managers’ spiritual mindfulness on ethical behaviour in organisations

“…Summing up individual responses resulted in scores reflecting a strong spirituality (113-168), a fair, or mixed positive and negative spirituality (84-112), and a weak spirituality (28-56). While there are methodological problems with using such scales, including, for example, social desirability bias and illusionary spiritual health (Moberg, 2002), Walker, Smither & DeBode (2012) note that self-report measurements are useful if adequate reasons for their use are provided. In this instance, the participants themselves were in the best position to evaluate their spirituality.…”

Controversial Advert Perceptions in SNS Advertising: The Role of Ethical Judgement and Religious Commitment

“…In particular, previous research draws attention to the link between religious commitment, mental health and social behaviour (Davidson and Knudsen, 1977;Gartner, 1996), religious orientation and prejudice (Allport and Ross, 1967), awareness (Conroy and Emerson, 2004), ethical beliefs (Vitell, Singh and Paolillo, 2006), moral identity (Vitell et al, 2008) as well as ethical judgement (Walker, Smither and DeBode, 2011;Wong, 2007). In particular, previous research argues that there is a strong link between religious commitment and concern for ethical standards (Hunt and Vitell, 2006), and suggests that those individuals with a high level of religious commitment place greater importance on moral absolutes than those with lower religious commitment (Hunt and Vitell, 1993).…”