The Role of Ethical Ideology in Reactions to Injustice

Forsyth (J Pers Soc Psychol 39(1):175–184, 1980) argued that ethical ideology includes the two orthogonal dimensions of relativism and idealism. Relativists determine morality by looking at the complexities of the situation rather than relying on universal moral rules, while idealists believe that positive consequences can always be obtained without harming others. This study examined the role of ethical ideology as a moderator between justice and constructive and deviant reactions to injustice. Students with work experience (N = 200) completed Bennett and Robinson’s (J Appl Psychol 85(3):349–360, 2000) measure of Workplace Deviance, Gill’s (Reactions to injustice: Development and validation of a measure. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Western Ontario, 2005) Reactions to Injustice measure, and the Ethics Position Questionnaire (Forsyth, 1980), and provided ratings of justice in their own workplace. Hierarchical regressions revealed a significant main effect of idealism on deviance and constructive behaviors, and three-way interactions between idealism, relativism, and some types of justice. These findings suggest that ethical ideology plays a significant role in predicting responses to injustice.     

Understanding the Complex Relationship Between Creativity and Ethical Ideologies

The relationship between individuals’ creativity and their ethical ideologies appears to be complex. Applying Forsyth’s (1980, 1992) personal moral philosophy model which consists of two independent ethical ideology dimensions, idealism and relativism, we hypothesized and found support for a positive relationship between creativity and relativism. It appears that creative people are less likely than non-creative people to follow universal rules in their moral decision making. However, contrary to our hypothesis and the general stereotype that creative people are less caring about others, we found a positive relationship between creativity and idealism. These findings indicate that highly creative people are likely to be what Forsyth called “situationists,” individuals with both an ethic of caring and a pragmatic moral decision-making style. The finding that creative individuals tend to be situationists, and particularly that they tend to be high in idealism, appears to refute the line of reasoning that argues for a “creative personality” characterized in part by social insensitivity. Understanding the relationship between creativity and ethical ideologies has important implications for researchers, managers and teachers.     

Measuring Ethical Ideology in Business Ethics: A Critical Analysis of the Ethics Position Questionnaire

Individual differences in ethical ideology are believed to play a key role in ethical decision making. Forsyths (1980) Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) is designed to measure ethical ideology along two dimensions, relativism and idealism. This study extends the work of Forsyth by examining the construct validity of the EPQ. Confirmatory factor analyses conducted with independent samples indicated three factors – idealism, relativism, and veracity – account for the relationships among EPQ items. In order to provide further evidence of the instruments nomological and convergent validity, correlations among the EPQ subscales, dogmatism, empathy, and individual differences in the use of moral rationales were examined. The relationship between EPQ measures of idealism and moral judgments demonstrated modest predictive validity, but the appreciably weaker influence of relativism and the emergence of a veracity factor raise questions about the utility of the EPQ typology.     

‘The Impact of Corporate Ethical Values and Enforcement of Ethical Codes on the Perceived Importance of Ethics in Business: A Comparison of U.S. and Spanish Managers’

This two country study examines the effect of corporate ethical values and enforcement of a code of ethics on perceptions of the role of ethics in the overall success of the firm. Additionally, the impact of organizational commitment and of individual variables such as ethical idealism and relativism was examined. The rationale for examining the perceived importance of the role of ethics in this manner is to determine the extent to which the organization itself can influence employee perceptions regarding ethics and social responsibility. Results indicate that all of the variables tested, except relativism, impacted upon one’s perceptions of the importance of ethics and social responsibility. Perceptions of the importance of ethics and social responsibility also varied depending upon country of residence with the U.S. sample having somewhat higher perceptions concerning the importance of ethics and social responsibility than their counterparts in Spain. Furthermore, when comparing the two samples, the U.S. sample had significantly higher corporate ethical values, greater enforcement of ethical codes, less organizational commitment and both lower idealism and relativism.     

The Effect of Organizational Culture and Ethical Orientation on Accountants' Ethical Judgments

This paper examines the relationship between organizational ethical culture in two large international CPA firms, auditors' personal values and the ethical orientation that those values dictate, and judgments in ethical dilemmas typical of those that accountants face. Using an experimental task consisting of multiple judgments designed to vary in "moral intensity" (Jones, 1991), and unique as well as tried-and-true approaches to variable measurements, this study examined the judgments of more than three hundred participants in our study. ANCOVA and path analysis results indicate that: (1) Ethical judgments in situations of high moral intensity are affected by personal values and by environmental variables, such as the professional code of conduct (direct and indirect effects) and previous ethics instruction (direct effect only). (2) Corporate ethical culture, and a relatively strong firm rules-orientation, affect auditors' idealism but not relativism, and therefore indirectly affect ethical judgments. Jones' (1991) moral intensity argument is supported: differences in the characteristics of specific judgment tasks apparently result in different decision processes.     

Ethical Standards and Ideology Among Korean Public Relations Practitioners

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Korean public relations practitioners' perceptions toward ethical issues, individual practices, and ethical standards in the context of ethical ideology. The survey was conducted with the Korean public relations practitioners. A 2 (Relativism: High/Low) × 2 (Idealism: High/Low) factorial design was devised for the analysis.The MANOVA results showed that ethical ideology (idealism and relativism) had significant effects on ethical decision-making. Idealistic ideology had a main effect on ethical issues, individual practices, and ethical standards. However, relativistic ideology only affected the decision-making process related to ethical issues. No interaction effects were detected. This study indicated that the individual's ethical ideology could be an important variable in explaining the outcomes of the individual's ethical decision-making among Korean public relations practitioners.     

‘An Empirical Investigation of the Relationships among a Consumer’s Personal Values, Ethical Ideology and Ethical Beliefs’

This study provides an additional partial test of the Hunt–Vitell theory [1986, Journal of Macromarketing, 8, 5–16; 1993, ‘The General Theory of Marketing Ethics: A Retrospective and Revision’, in N. C. Smith and J. A. Quelch (eds.), Ethics in Marketing (Irwin Inc., Homewood), pp. 775–784], within the consumer ethics context. Using structural equation modeling, the relationships among an individual’s personal values (conceptualized by the typology of Schwartz [1992, ‘Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries’, in M. P. Zanna (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 25, Academic Press, Orlando), pp. 1–65] ethical ideology and ethical beliefs are investigated. The validity of the model is assessed in a two-step procedure. First, a measurement model of constructs is tested for key validity dimensions. Next, the hypothesized causal relationships are examined in several path models, comparing no mediation, partial and complete mediation of ethical ideology. The empirical results indicate that individual differences in value priorities (resultant conservation and resultant self-enhancement) directly and indirectly (through idealism) influence the judgment of ethically questionable consumer practices. These findings may significantly contribute to the theoretical understanding of ethical decision-making.     

Attitudes About Corporate Social Responsibility: Business Student Predictors

Four predictors were posited to affect business student attitudes about the social responsibilities of business, also known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). Applying Forsyth’s (1980, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39, 175–184, 1992, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 461–470) personal moral philosophy model, we found that ethical idealism had a positive relationship with CSR attitudes, and ethical relativism a negative relationship. We also found materialism to be negatively related to CSR attitudes. Spirituality among business students did not significantly predict CSR attitudes. Understanding the relationship between CSR attitudes and the significant predictors has important implications for researchers and teachers in particular.     

Ethical Decision-Making Differences Between American and Moroccan Managers

Our research’s aim is to assess the effect of cultural factors on business ethical decision-making process in a Western cultural context and in a non-Western cultural context. Specifically, this study investigates ethical perceptions, religiosity, personal moral philosophies, corporate ethical values, gender, and ethical intentions of U.S. and Moroccan business managers. The findings demonstrate that significant differences do exist between the two countries in idealism and relativism. Moroccan managers tend to be more idealistic than the U.S. managers. There is a strong positive relationship between religiosity and idealism. There were mixed findings in examining the correlates of religiosity and various components of ethical intentions. Moroccan managers were more homogenous in their corporate ethical values than were the U.S. managers. The results demonstrate that (in general) idealism is a good predictor of ethical intentions and behaviors. Additionally, managers from the two countries differed in the degree of relationship between perceptions and intentions in three of the four scenarios. This study’s results confirm other research findings that, in general, female business managers have higher ethical sensitivity in terms of their ethical judgment than their male counterparts. Managerial implications are also discussed.     

East Meets West: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of Cultural Variations in Idealism and Relativism

Ethics position theory (EPT) maintains that individuals’ personal moral philosophies influence their judgments, actions, and emotions in ethically intense situations. The theory, when describing these moral viewpoints, stresses two dimensions: idealism (concern for benign outcomes) and relativism (skepticism with regards to inviolate moral principles). Variations in idealism and relativism across countries were examined via a meta-analysis of studies that assessed these two aspects of moral thought using the ethics position questionnaire (EPQ; Forsyth, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39, 175–184, 1980). This review identified 139 samples drawn from 29 different countries, for a total sample of 30,230 respondents, and concluded that (a) levels of idealism and relativism vary across regions of the world in predictable ways; (b) an exceptionist ethic is more common in Western countries, subjectivism and situationism in Eastern countries, and absolutism and situationism in Middle Eastern countries; and (c) a nation’s ethics position predicted that country’s location on previously documented cultural dimensions, such as individualism and avoidance of uncertainty (Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values, 1980). Limitations in these methods and concerns about the validity of these cross-cultural conclusions are noted, as are suggestions for further research using the EPQ.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Perceived Importance of Ethics in Marketing Situations: A Study of Thai Businesspeople

Building on an existing framework concerning ethical intention, this research explores how Thai business people perceive the importance of ethics in various scenarios. This study investigates the relative influences of personal characteristics and the organizational environment underlying the Thai business people’s ethical perception. Corporate ethical values and idealism are shown to positively influence a Thai manager’s perceptions about the importance of ethics. While their ability to perceive the existence of an ethical problem is negatively influenced by relativism, it is positively impacted by their existing perceptions about the importance of ethics. Results also suggest positive relationships between perceived importance of ethics and perceived ethical problems with ethical intention. These results extend research in understanding the relationship between the antecedents and consequences of perceived importance of ethics within an economically growing non-Western culture.     

Issue-Contingent Effects on Ethical Decision Making: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

This experiment examined the effects of three elements comprising Jones' (1991) moral intensity construct, (social consensus, personal proximity, and magnitude of consequences) in a cross-cultural comparison of ethical decision making within a human resource management (HRM) context. Results indicated social consensus had the most potent effect on judgments of moral concern and judgments of immorality. An analysis of American, Eastern European, and Indonesian responses also indicted socio-cultural differences were moderated by the type of HRM ethical issue. In addition, individual differences in personal ethical ideology (relativism and idealism) varied reliably with moral judgments after controlling for issue characteristics and socio-cultural background.     

Consumer Ethics: Determinants of Ethical Beliefs of African Americans

This study explores the ethical ideol-ogies and ethical beliefs of African American consumers using the Forsyth ethical position questionnaire (EPQ) and the Muncy-Vitell consumer ethics questionnaire (MVQ). The two dimensions of the EPQ (i.e., idealism and relativism) were the independent constructs and the four dimensions of the MVQ (i.e., illegal, active, passive and no harm) were the dependent variables. In addition, this paper explores the consumer ethics of African Americans across four demographic factors (i.e., age, education, gender, and marital status). A sample of 315 African American consumers was used to explore these relationships. Results confirmed that consumers who score high on the idealism scale are more likely to reject questionable consumer activities, but there was no relationship between relativism and consumers' rejection of questionable activities. Older, more educated and married consumers rejected questionable activities more than younger, less educated and single consumers. Gender did not have any significant relationship to consumers' ethical orientation.     

Ethical Judgments in Business Ethics Research: Definition,and Research Agenda

Decades of empirical and theoretical research has produced an extensive literature on the ethical judgments construct. Given its importance to understanding people’s ethical choices, future research should explore the psychological processes that produce ethical judgments. In this paper, the authors discuss two steps needed to advance this effort. First, they note that the business ethics literature lacks a single, generally accepted definition of ethical judgments. After reviewing several extant definitions, the authors offer a definition of the construct and discuss its advantages. Second, future ethical judgment research would benefit from greater integration between theories of ethical decision making and theories of social cognition. Drawing upon the Hunt–Vitell (Journal of Macromarketing 6(Spring), 5–15, 1986; In: N. C. Smith and J. A. Quelch (eds.), Ethics in Marketing. Irwin, Homewood, IL, pp. 775–784, 1992) model and the heuristic-systematic model (Chaiken, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39(November), 752–766, 1980), the authors present a brief research agenda intended to stimulate research on the psychological processes behind ethical judgments.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Relationships between Ethical Beliefs, Ethical Ideology, Political Preference and Need for Closure

An analysis is presented of the relationships between consumers ethical beliefs, ethical ideology, Machiavellianism, political preference and the individual difference variable "need for closure". It is based on a representative survey of 286 Belgian respondents. Standard measurement tools of proven reliability and robustness are used to measure ethical beliefs (consumer ethics scale), ethical ideology (ethical positioning), Machiavellianism (Mach IV scale) and need for closure. The analysis finds the following. First, individuals with a high need for closure tend to have beliefs that are more ethical as regards possible consumer actions, and score higher on idealism and lower on Machiavellianism, than those with a low need for closure. Second, a correlation exists between political preference and ethical beliefs. Third, a significant relationship exists between ethical ideology and political preference for the two largest political parties. Fourth, individuals with a high and low need for closure have different political preferences for right-wing and left-wing parties.     

Ethical judgments and intentions: a multinational study of marketing professionals

A multinational study of marketing professionals was conducted in the US, England, Spain and Turkey. Respondents from these countries were compared on various ethics-related constructs such as idealism, relativism, moral intensity and corporate ethical values. Analyses of variance indicated that moral intensity had a signi ?cant impact on both ethical judgments and behavioral intentions. However, corporate ethical values, an idealistic ethical perspective and a relativistic ethical perspective only partially impacted ethical judgments and intentions. Country differences showed that the US was highest in terms of corporate ethical values while being the lowest in terms of relativism and signi?cantly lower than Spain and Turkey in terms of idealism. Turkey was the highest in terms of both idealism and relativism yet lowest in terms of corporate ethical values. Country differences in terms of moral intensity tended to be situation-speci?c. One managerial implication, for ?rms in all four countries, is that a clear set of corporate policies concerning ethics can positively in?uence the behavioral intentions of employees. It is important that employees do not misinterpret the desires of top management where ethical issues are involved.     

Millennials’ ethical ideology effects on responses to alcohol advertisements: The role of strength of ethnic identification and ethical appraisal of the ad

Abstract

In an extension of generational theory, the present research argues that ethical ideology (i.e. idealism vs. relativism) impacts attitude toward the ad (A_ad), attitude toward the brand (A_brand), and purchase intention (PI). Additionally, this research examines how this relationship is mediated by the ethical appraisal of the ad and moderated by the level of ethnic identification (i.e. high vs. low). The results of this experiment provide additional evidence in support of generational theory which states that each generational cohort holds distinct ethical ideologies. Furthermore, this study identifies differences in the participants’ responses to alcohol ads resulting from their personal values (i.e. in this study we focus on strength of ethnic identification).     

Professional Values and Perceptions Underlying Ethical Judgments: A Survey of Marketing Professionals in Thailand

ABSTRACT

Theoretical and empirical works generally suggest that variations in ethical judgments exist between different cultures. This study analyzes the ethical decisions of Thai marketing professionals. In particular, it examines the relative influences of professional values and ethical perceptions on the ethical judgments of Thai marketers. The results based on a survey of members of the Thai Marketing Association indicate that there is a significant relationship between a Thai marketer's ethical perceptions and his/her ethical judgments. The results reveal a weak relationship between professional values and the ethical judgments of Thai marketers.     

The Role of Ethical Ideology in Workplace Deviance

Ethical ideology is predicted to play a role in the occurrence of workplace deviance. Forsyths (1980) Ethics Position Questionnaire measures two dimensions of ethical ideology: idealism and relativism. It is hypothesized that idealism will be negatively correlated with employee deviance while relativism will be positively related. Further, it is predicted that idealism and relativism will interact in such a way that there will only be a relationship between idealism and deviance when relativism is higher. Results supported the hypothesized correlations and idealism and relativism interacted to predict organizational deviance. Idealism was a significant predictor of interpersonal deviance, but no interaction was found.Christine (Chris) A. Henle, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Management at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research interests include counterproductive employee behaviors, employment law, and organizational justice. Her current research focuses on cyberloafing at work, religious discrimination in employment, and the role of supervisor and coworker norms in predicting counterproductive work behaviors. She has provided consulting services in the areas of job analysis, recruiting, selection, and performance management.Robert A. Giacalone, Ph.D. (State Univeristy of New York-Albany) is Professor of Human Resource Management at the Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Giacalone is coeditor of five books, co-author of two books and has authored over 90 articles on ethics, employee sabotage, impression management and exit interviewing, appearing in journals such as Human Relations, Business and Society Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of the Organizational Behavior, and the Journal of Social Psychology. His current research focuses on the impact of materialism/postmaterialism and workplace spirituality on business ethics.Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Ph.D. is the John W. Dupuy Endowed Professor and the Womens Hospital Distinguished Professor of Healthcare Ethics at Louisiana State University. Her publications include a wide array of scholarly articles, books, and the general press. She maintains an active consulting practice in the areas of organizational psychology, ethics, and leadership.     

An Exploratory Comparison of Ethical Perceptions of Mexican and U.S. Marketers

This is a study of the effects of a number of background variables on ethical perceptions of Mexican and U.S. marketers. This research investigates how a marketer’s personal religiousness, relativism, and the ethical values influence in perceptions of the degree of ethical problems in hypothetical marketing scenarios. It also examines differences between Mexican and U.S. marketers on these variables. The results show significant differences in perception between the countries, and we discuss the implications of these differences for cross-cultural business activities. The authors wish to thank Rebecca McLaughlin for her help with data collection in Mexico