Breaking the Rules: Examining the Facilitation Effects of Moral Intensity Characteristics on the Recognition of Rule Violations

This research project seeks to discover whether certain characteristics of a moral issue facilitate individuals’ abilities to detect violators of a conditional rule. In business, conditional rules are often framed in terms of a social contract between employer and employee. Of significant concern to business ethicists is the fact that these social contracts are frequently breached. Some researchers in the field of evolutionary psychology argue that there is a biological basis to social contract formation and dissolution in business. However, although it is inescapable that biological forces shaped a fixed neural structure that guides and limits humans’ abilities, we argue that characteristics of the situation in which the person finds himself or herself moderate the activation of these neural circuits in ordinary business social contract situations. Specifically, the moral intensity associated with the social contract conditional rule is likely to influence peoples’ abilities to detect violators of the rule. This study utilizes adapted versions of the Wason selection task and manipulates the issue-contingent moral intensity characteristics of magnitude of consequences, proximity, and social consensus to assess if moral intensity facilitates detection of rule violators. Results from this empirical study indicate no relationship between moral intensity characteristics and issue recognition but do provide insights into the evolutionary psychology approach. David M. Wasieleski is an Assistant Professor in the Leadership and Change Management Division of the A.J. Palumbo School of Business Administration and the John F. Donahue Graduate School of Business at Duquesne University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. David’s recent research focuses on individuals’ biological propensity for ethical behavior and its effect on workplace relationships. His other research interests include moral intensity, cognitive moral development, stakeholder agenda-building, and policy learning. Sefa Hayibor is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University (Canada). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include business ethics and ethical decision-making, stakeholder motivation and management, charismatic leadership, and cognitive heuristics and biases.     

The Effect of Moral Intensity on Ethical Judgment

Following an extensive review of the moral intensity literature, this article reports the findings of two studies (one between-subjects, the other within-subject) that examined the effect of manipulated and perceived moral intensity on ethical judgment. In the between-subjects study participants judged actions taken in manipulated high moral intensity scenarios to be more unethical than the same actions taken in manipulated low moral intensity scenarios. Findings were mixed for the effect of perceived moral intensity. Both probable magnitude of consequences (a factor consisting of magnitude of consequences, probability of effect, and temporal immediacy) and social consensus had a significant effect; proximity did not. In the within-subject study manipulated moral intensity had a significant effect on ethical judgment, but perceived moral intensity did not. Regression of ethical judgment on age, gender, major, and the three perceived moral intensity factors was significant between-subjects, but not within-subject. Ethical judgment was found to be a more robust predictor of intention than perceived moral intensity using a within-subject design. Joan M. McMahon is an Assistant Professor of Management in the Luter School of Business at Christopher Newport University, teaching courses in Organizational Behavior, Leadership, and Human Resources. She has a B.A. in Speech from the State University of New York, College at Oneonta; an M. Ed. in Early Childhood Education from James Madison University; and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Robert J. Harvey is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Ohio State University. Dr. Harvey has authored a number of articles in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Personality Assessment, Personnel Psychology, and others. He is the author of the chapter on job analysis in the Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology.     

Moral Issues and Gender Differences in Ethical Judgment using Reidenbach and Robin’s (1990) Multidimensional Ethics Scale: Implications in Teaching of Business Ethics

In this study, we examined moral issues and gender differences in ethical judgment using Reidenbach and Robin’s [Journal of Business Ethics 9 (1990) 639) multidimensional ethics scale (MES). A total of 340 undergraduate students were asked to provide ethical judgment by rating three moral issues in the MES labeled: ‚sales’, ‚auto’, and ‚retail’ using three ethics theories: moral equity, relativism, and contractualism. We found that female students’ ratings of ethical judgment were consistently higher than that of male students across two out of three moral issues examined (i.e., sales and retails) and ethics theories; providing support for Eagly’s [1987, Sex Differences in Social Behavior: A Social-role Interpretation. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Hillsdale, NJ, England)] social role theory. After controlling for moral issues, women’s higher ratings of ethical judgment over men’s became statistically non-significant. Theoretical and practical implications based on the study’s findings are provided. Nhung T. Nguyen, assistant professor of human resource management at Towson University, received her Ph.D. in management from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001. Her research focuses on the use of situational judgement and personality tests in personnel selection, ethics in management education, and the application of meta-analysis and structural equations modeling in organizational research. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the International Journal of Selection and Assessment, Applied H.R.M. Research, and Journal of Applied Social Psychology among others. M. Tom Basuray, Professor of Management at Towson University, received his Ph.D. in Business Administration in 1974 from University of Oklahoma. His research interests are in areas of organizational effectiveness, leadership and development. His articles have appeared in Journal of Organizational Change Management, Education & Psychological Measurement, International Journal of Management, Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, and Journal of Experiential Learning and Simulation. He has consulted with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Public Broadcasting Corporation, and various state and municipal government agencies both in Maryland and North Dakota. William P.Smith, Associate Professor of Management in the College of Business and Economics at Towson University, received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Arizona State University in 1982. His research interests include business ethics, privacy in the workplace and the role of social activism in corporate governance. Donald Kopka, an Assistant Professor at Towson University, received his Ph.D., in International Business from George Washington University in 1995. He teaches Business Strategy, Management Principles, and Entrepreneurship and Small Business, and was Director of the Cornerstone-Professional Experience Program in the College of Business and Economics from 1999–2003. In 2004 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam where he taught entrepreneurship and business strategy, worked on curriculum development, and conducted ongoing research on supporting industries. Information on his Fulbright experience can be found at his website . His research interests include entrepreneurship, business development, and teaching pedagogy. He formerly ran a property management business, was a program manager at the U.S. Small Business Administration, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines. Donald N. McCulloh, Lecturer in Management at Towson University, received his M.S. degree in Financial Management from The George Washington Unversity in 1968. He teaches Management Principles and has also taught Leadership. He served as Vice President for Administration and Finance at Towson University until his retirement in 1997, since then he has been a full-time member of the Management faculty. He has also served in the United States Air Force, and worked in several manufacturing industries and the automotive industry. He was Executive Director of a non-profit community development corporation.     

Normative Self-Interest or Moral Hypocrisy?: The Importance of Context

We re-examine the construct of Moral Hypocrisy from the perspective of normative self-interest. Arguing that some degree of self-interest is culturally acceptable and indeed expected, we postulate that a pattern of behavior is more indicative of moral hypocrisy than a single action. Contrary to previous findings, our results indicate that a significant majority of subjects (N = 136) exhibited fair behavior, and that ideals of caring and fairness, when measured in context of the scenario, were predictive of those behaviors. Moreover, measures of Individualism/Collectivism appear more predictive of self-interested behavior than out-of-context responses to moral ideals. Implications for research and practice are discussed. George W. Watson received his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, his M.B.A. from California State at Fullerton, an M.S. in Systems Management from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, an a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Washington, Seattle. His teaching focus is on corporate social responsibility and ethics. Dr.Watson’s current research interests include moral psychology,ethical decision making, and ideology. He has published in Business Ethics Quarterly, Business and Society, and the Journal of Business Ethics. Farooq Sheikh received his BS in Physics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and his Ph.D. from Smeal College of Business, Penn State University. He is currently Assistant Professor of Operations Management, School of Business at the State University of New York at Geneseo. Dr. Sheik’s research interests include rational and behavioral models in business operations, bounded-rational behavioral models in population games, social norms, game theory and cross-disciplinary research involving behavioral models.     

Linking Linear/Nonlinear Thinking Style Balance and Managerial Ethical Decision-Making

This study presents the results of an empirical analysis of the relationship between managerial thinking style and ethical decision-making. Data from 200 managers across multiple organizations and industries demonstrated that managers predominantly adopt a utilitarian perspective when forming ethical intent across a series of business ethics vignettes. Consistent with expectations, managers utilizing a balanced linear/nonlinear thinking style demonstrated a greater overall willingness to provide ethical decisions across ethics vignettes compared to managers with a predominantly linear thinking style. However, results comparing the ethical decision-making of balanced thinking managers and nonlinear thinking managers were generally inconsistent across the ethics vignettes. Unexpectedly, managers utilizing a balanced linear/nonlinear thinking style were least likely to adopt an act utilitarian rationale for ethical decision-making across the vignettes, suggesting that balanced thinkers may be more likely to produce ethical decisions by considering a wider range of alternatives and ruling out those that are justified solely on the basis of their outcomes. Implications are discussed for future research and practice related to management education and development, and ethical decision-making theory. Kevin S. Groves is an Assistant Professor of Management and Director of the PepsiCo Leadership Center at California State University, Los Angles. His research interests include managerial thinking styles, ethical decision-making, executive leadership development and succession planning systems, charismatic leadership, and leader emotional intelligence. He teaches undergraduate, MBA, and doctoral-level classes across a range of management and leadership subjects, including management competency development, organizational behavior, business ethics, and organization development and change. Dr. Groves’ recent research has been published in such journals as the Journal of Management, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Journal of Management Development, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, Journal of Management Education, and the Academy of Management Learning & Education. He received a Ph.D. in Organizational Behaviour from Claremont Graduate University. Charles Vance teaches in the area of human resource management at Loyola Marymount University. He recently completed Senior Specialist and regular Fulbright appointments in Austria and China respectively. He is the author with Yongsun Paik of the new text, Managing a Global Workforce, (M.E. Sharpe, 2006). His nonlinear penchant is expressed quarterly in cartoons and other attempts at humor in the ending “Out of Whack” section of the Journal of Management Inquiry. Dr. Yongsun Paik is a professor of international business and management in the College of Business Administration, Loyola Marmount University. He holds a Ph. D. degree in International Business from University Washington. His primary research interests focus on international human resource management, global strategic alliances, and Asia Pacific business studies. He has recently published articles in such journals as Journal of World Business, Management International Review, Journal of International Managemtn, Business Horizons, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Management Inquiry, Human Resource Management Journal, among others.     

A Review of The Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: 1996–2003

This review summarizes and critiques the empirical ethical decision-making literature from 1996–2003. One hundred and seventy-four articles were published in top business journals during this period. Tables are included that summarize the findings by dependent variable – awareness, judgment, intent, and behavior. We compare this review with past reviews in order to draw conclusions regarding trends in the ethical decision-making literature and to surface directions for future research.Michael J. O’Fallon is a graduate student in the Department of Management and Operations at Washington State University. His primary research interest is individual ethical decision-making and behavior in organizations. Recently, he has explored issues in organizational behavior, human resource management, and consumer behavior toward genetically modified foods.Kenneth D. Butterfield is an associate professor of management at Washington State University. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from The Pennsylvania State University. His research has been published in a variety of academic journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Business and Society, Business Ethics Quarterly, Human Relations, Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Managerial Issues, and Research in Higher Education. His current research interests involve organizational behavior issues such as managing ethical decision-making and behavior in organizations, examining why people fail to recognize moral issues, understanding academic dishonesty and promoting academic integrity, and examining organizational punishment from the manager’s perspective.     

Ethical Stewardship – Implications for Leadership and Trust

Great leaders are ethical stewards who generate high levels of commitment from followers. In this paper, we propose that perceptions about the trustworthiness of leader behaviors enable those leaders to be perceived as ethical stewards. We define ethical stewardship as the honoring of duties owed to employees, stakeholders, and society in the pursuit of long-term wealth creation. Our model of relationship between leadership behaviors, perceptions of trustworthiness, and the nature of ethical stewardship reinforces the importance of ethical governance in dealing with employees and in creating organizational systems that are congruent with espoused organizational values. Cam Caldwell is Assistant Professor of Management in the School of Business at Weber State University. His research is primarily in the areas of organizational governance, ethical leadership and trust. He received his Ph.D from Washington State University where he was Thomas S. Foley Graduate Fellow. He has worked as a City manager, Human Resource Director, and Management Consultants for 30 years. Linda A. Hayes is Assistant Professor and Director of Program Assessment in the School of Business Administration of the University of Houston – Victoria. She received a B.S.M.E. from Clarkson University, an M.B.A from the University of Houston, and a Ph.D from University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Hayes has 15 years of industry experience. Her research interests include decision-making, stakeholder behavior, business strategy. Dr. Hayes was a 1996 NASA Faculty Fellow. Recently, she has published in the Journal of Management Development, Journal of International Marketing, Business Horizons and International Journal of Mobile Communications. Ranjan Karri is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He received his Ph.D from Washington State University. His research interests are in the areas of entrepreneurship, ethics and strategy. Patricia Martinez is a cum laude graduate of the University of Houston – Victoria School of Business and works for the Learning Education Achieve Dreams program at that University to help young people in the Victoria, Texas Community set and achieve personal and educational goals.     

Observers’ Impressions of Unethical Persons and Whistleblowers

Since there have been many recent occurrences of alleged wrongdoing by business persons and other professionals, it seems additional ethics research is needed to obtain knowledge that will impact real-world behavior. An empirical study assessed business students’ impressions of hypothetical wrongdoers and whistleblowers. To some extent, impressions of an unethical executive and a whistleblower were influenced by the same variables and in opposite directions. Female respondents judged the unethical executive less favorably and the whistleblower more favorably than did males. The executive was rated less favorably and the whistleblower more favorably when the executive sought a small gain than when the goal was a large gain or prevention of a loss of either magnitude. Some manipulations, however, impacted impressions of one actor, but not the other. Perhaps ethics training can make students aware that issue␣framing and moral intensity components may bias decisions. Wayne H. Decker, Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh) is a Professor of Management and former Chair of the Management and Marketing Department in the Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University. His publications include articles in the Journal of Managerial Issues, Journal of Applied Business Research, Journal of Business and Enterpreneurship, Review of Business Research, Journal of Retail Banking, and Real Estate Finance. His current research interests are ethics, managerial humor, leadership, and career development. Thomas J. Calo, Ed.D. (George Washington University) is a Lecturer in Management in the Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University. He is a former corporate and public sector human resources executive who is now teaching full-time. He is a Certified Professional of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources. His reseearch interests are in the areas of business ethics, leadership, and the psychosocial aspects of mid-career professionals.     

Moral reasoning and business ethics: Implications for research,education, and management

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.Linda Klebe Trevino is Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Mary Jean and Frank B. Smeal College of Business Administration, The Pennsylvania State University. She received her Ph.D. in management from Texas A&M University. Her current research focuses on ethical decision-making behavior in organizations, justice perceptions in disciplinary situations, and new information technologies in managerial communication.     

Measuring moral judgment: The Moral Judgment Interview or the Defining Issues Test?

This paper compares and contrasts two distinct techniques for measuring moral judgment: The Moral Judgment Interview and the Defining Issues Test. The theoretical foundations, accompanying advantages and limitations, as well as appropriate usage of these methodologies are discussed. Adaptation and use of the instruments for business ethics research is given special attention.Dawn Elm is currently an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Elm has written and published articles on ethical decision-making, moral reasoning, defining and measuring honesty, and women's studies and ethics. She also has research interests in socialization to work, gender bias imagery in teaching business, and parental leave policies.James Weber is currently an Assistant Professor of Management at Marquette University. He has published articles focusing on managerial values and moral reasoning, teaching of ethics, and methodological issues in business ethics research inResearch in Corporate Social Performance and Policy, Human Relations, Business Ethics Quarterly, and Journal of Business Ethics.     

Managerial Authority as Political Authority: A Retrospective Examination of Christopher McMahon’s Authority and Democracy

An introduction to the March, 2005 symposium “The Political Theory of Organizations: A Retrospective Examination of Christopher McMahon’s Authority and Democracy” held in San Francisco as part of the Society for Business Ethics Group Meeting at the Pacific Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association. Jeffery Smith is an Assistant Professor and founding Director of the Banta Center for Business, Ethics and Society at the University of Redlands. His current research focuses on communicative ethics and the moral foundations of collaborative decision-making within economic organizations. He is also interested in the role of principles in moral decision-making and the extent to which principled decisions can be made in organizational contexts. Professor Smith’s writings have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics: A European Review, Southern Journal of Philosophy and in other journals. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2000.     

Exposure to Ethics Education and the Perception of Linkage between Organizational Ethical Behavior and Business Outcomes

This study focused on the effects of individual characteristics and exposure to ethics education on perceptions of the linkage between organizational ethical practices and business outcomes. Using a stratified sampling approach, 817 students were randomly selected from a population of approximately 1310 business students in an AACSB accredited college of business. Three hundred and twenty eight of the subjects were freshmen, 380 were seniors, and 109 were working managers and professionals enrolled in a night-time MBA program. Overall, the respondents included 438 male students and 379 female students. Exposure to ethics in the curriculum had a significant impact on student perceptions of what should be the ideal linkages between organizational ethical practices and business outcomes. Gender based differences were found with female students having a higher expectation regarding what should be the “ethics practices and business outcomes” link. Exposure to ethics in the curriculum had a positive moderating influence on the gender-based effects on perceptions of ideal ethical climate. The interaction effect showed that exposure to ethical education may have a positive impact on males and allow them to catch up with females in their ethical sensitivities concerning the ideal linkage between organizational ethical behavior and business outcomes. Further, consistent with the literature, the study found that gender differences in ethical attitudes regarding the ideal ethical climate, while significant for undergraduates, appeared to narrow considerably for the working professionals who were part-time MBA students. Harsh Luthar is an Associate Professor of Management at Bryant University. He received his Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic University, Pamplin College of Business, in the Department of Management. His research interests include international differences and cross-cultural issues impacting global human resource practices, ethical attitudes of students, and the nature of spiritual leadership. Ranjan Karri is an Assistant Professor of Management at Bryant University. He received his Ph.D. in strategic management from Washington State University. His research interests include corporate and business strategies, enterpreneurship, ethical leadership and corporate governance.     

Ethical Commitment,Financial Performance,and Valuation: An Empirical Investigation of Korean Companies

A variety of stakeholders including investors, corporate managers, customers, suppliers, employees, researchers, and government policy makers have long been interested in the relationship between the financial performance of a corporation and its commitment to business ethics. As a subject of research, the relations between business ethics and corporate valuation has yet to be thoroughly quantified and investigated. This article is an effort to amend this inadequacy by demonstrating a statistically significant association between ethical commitment and corporate valuation measures. Consistent with anecdotal evidence, we have found a significant association between the ethical commitment of Korean companies and their valuation on the Korean stock market. However, the result reveals that the association between ethical commitment and financial performance is not significantly supported. Tae Hee Choi received Ph.D. from the Ohio State University, Ohio, USA. Presently working as Assistant Professor in accounting at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management. Research interests are business ethics, capital market, financial accounting, managerial accounting, and valuation. Jinchul Jung received Ph.D. from Kent State University, Ohio, USA. Presently working as Assistant Professor of Business Administration Department in the College of Business at Chosun University. Research interests are business ethics, family-supportive program, and organizational commitment.     

Principal Theory and Principle Theory: Ethical Governance from the Follower’s Perspective

Organizational governance has historically focused around the perspective of principals and managers and has traditionally pursued the goal of maximizing owner wealth. This paper suggests that organizational governance can profitably be viewed from the ethical perspective of organizational followers – employees of the organization to whom important ethical duties are also owed. We present two perspectives of organizational governance: Principal Theory that suggests that organizational owners and managers can often be ethically opportunistic and take advantage of employees who serve them and Principle Theory that focuses on guiding principles that are sometimes taken too far in organizations. In introducing these two new organizational governance perspectives, we offer insights into the value of rethinking ethical duties owed to organizational followers. Cam Caldwell received his Ph.D. from Washington State University where he was a Thomas S. Foley Graduate Fellow. Dr. Caldwell is Editor of the Academy of Management Ethics website and a member of the Academy’s Ethics Committee. His research is primarily in the areas of ethical leadership, organizational governance, and developing organizational trust. Prior to obtaining his Ph.D., Caldwell worked for 25 years as a city manager, human resource director, and management consultant. Ranjan Karri is Assistant Professor of Management at Bryant College. He received his Ph.D. in strategic management from Washington State University. His research interests include corporate and business strategies, ethical leadership and corporate governance. Pamela Vollmar is an undergraduate student at the University of Houston – Victoria majoring in Business Management. She has worked for 25 years as an electrical specialist for a major engineering firm.     

Factors that Influence the Intention to Pirate Software and Media

This study focuses on one of the newer forms of software piracy, known as digital piracy, and uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a framework to attempt to determine factors that influence digital piracy (the illegal copying/downloading of copyrighted software and media files). This study examines factors, which could determine an individual’s intention to pirate digital material (software, media, etc.). Past piracy behavior and moral obligation, in addition to the prevailing theories of behavior (Theory of Planned Behavior), were studied to determine the influence on digital piracy intention. Based on the results of this study, planned behavioral factors in addition to past piracy behavior and moral obligation were found to influence an individual’s intention to pirate digital material. Attitude, past piracy behavior, perceived behavior control, and moral obligation explained 71 percent of the intention to pirate variance. Using these results, a better understanding of why individuals pirate is presented and can be used to help combat digital piracy. Timothy Paul Cronan is Professor and M. D. Matthews Chair in Information Systems at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Dr. Cronan received the D. B. A. from Louisiana Tech University and is an active member of the Decision Sciences Institute and The Association for Computing Machinery. He has served as Regional Vice President and on the Board of Directors of the Decision Sciences Institute and as President of the Southwest Region of the Institute. In addition, he has served as Associate Editor for MIS Quarterly. His research interests include information systems ethical behavior, piracy and privacy, work groups, change management, data warehouse development, performance analysis and effectiveness, and end-user computing Publications have appeared in MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Ethics, Information and Management, OMEGA The International Journal of Management Science, The Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, Database, Journal of Research on Computing in Education, Journal of Financial Research, as well as in other journals and proceedings of various Conferences. Sulaiman Al-Rafee received his Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Arkansas 9n the USA in May, 2002. He is Assistant Professor of Information Systems at the Department of Quantitative Methods and Information Systems at the College of Business Administration, Kuwait University. He is the MIS coordinator of the department and has taught a variety of MIS courses within the department. His research interests include: ethics, behavioral psychology, software and digital piracy, user acceptance of information technology, and cross-cultural studies.     

Ethical Leadership for the Professions: Fostering a Moral Community

This paper examines the professions as examples of “moral community” and explores how professional leaders possessed of moral intelligence can make a contribution to enhance the ethical fabric of their communities. The paper offers a model of ethical leadership in the professional business sector that will improve our understanding of how ethical behavior in the professions confers legitimacy and sustainability necessary to achieving the professions’ goals, and how a leadership approach to ethics can serve as an effective tool for the dissemination of moral values in the organization. Dr. Linda M. Sama is Director of the Center for International Business Development and Associate Professor of Management at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business. She earned her Ph.D. in Strategic management from the City University of New York and her MBA in International Finance from McGill University. She was awarded the 1999 Lasdon Dissertation Award for her doctoral dissertation on corporate social response strategies and the Abraham Briloff Award of Best Paper in Business Ethics at the City University of New York in 1998. Dr. Sama made a transition to academe after a lengthy career in industry, where she acted as Director of Market Planning and Logistics for a major international subsidiary of Transamerica Corporation. She teaches primarily in the areas of International Business, Strategic Managements and Business Ethics, and has taught at Baruch College and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) prior to coming to Pace in the fall of 2001. At UTEP, she was designated as the Skno International Business Ethics Scholar from 1999–2001. She has published numerous articles and book chapters that address issues of corporate social responsibility, business and the natural environment, integrative social contracts theory, and business ethics dilemmas in the new economy. Her research appears in journals such as The Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business and Society Review, The Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, and the International Journal of Value-Based Management. She has also published research for the U.S. Department of Transportation related to the effects of NAFTA on U.S. – Mexico border logistics and has consulted to business clients on Strategic Planning, Global Leadership and Business Ethics. Dr. Victoria Shoaf is an Associate Professor and Assistant Chair of the Department of Accounting and Taxation at St. John’s University. She received her Ph.D. in Business, with a specialization in Accounting, from Baruch College of the City University of New York in 1997; she was awarded the 1997 Lasdon Dissertation Award. Prior to joining St. John’s University on a full-time basis, Dr.Shoaf worked for over fifteen years in the retail industry with merchandising firms. Her expertise is in establishing effective accounting systems and controls, including operational functions such as order entry and fulfillment, inventory control, point-of-sale data transfers and sales audit, as well as financial accounting functions. She has held controllership positions at Laura Ashley, Inc., Greeff Fabrics, Inc., and Tie Rack, Inc. While working in industry and while completing her doctoral degree, Dr. Shoaf taught accounting courses as an adjunct instructor at Pace University and at Baruch College. She received a commendation from the dean at Pace University for teaching excellence, and she was awarded a Graduate Teaching Fellowship at Baruch College. She currently serves on several professional committees, and she has provided consulting services in accounting education and training programs for several large employers.     

Professional Ethical Standards,Corporate Social Responsibility,and the Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility

This study explored several proposed relationships among professional ethical standards, corporate social responsibility, and the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility. Data were collected from 313 business managers registered with a large professional research association with a mailed self-report questionnaire. Mediated regression analysis indicated that perceptions of corporate social responsibility partially mediated the positive relationship between perceived professional ethical standards and the believed importance of ethics and social responsibility. Perceptions of corporate social responsibility also fully mediated the negative relationship between perceived professional ethical standards and the subordination of ethics and social responsibility. The results suggested that professions should develop ethical standards to encourage social responsibility, since these actions are associated with enhanced employee ethical attitudes. Sean Valentine (D.B.A., Louisiana Tech University) is an Associate Professor of Management in the College of Business at the University of Wyoming. His research interests include ethical decision making, organizational culture, and job attitudes. His research has appeared in journals such as Human Relations, Behavioral Research in Accounting, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Journal of Business Research. Gary Fleischman (Ph.D., Texas Tech University) is an Associate Professor of Accounting and the McGee Hearne and Paiz Faculty Scholar in Accounting at the University of Wyoming. His teaching expertise is in accounting and entrepreneurship, and his research interests are in business ethics and behavioral business research. He has published in journals such as Behavioral Research in Accounting, The International Journal of Accounting, and Journal of Business Ethics.     

Cross-cultural business ethics: Ethical beliefs difference between blacks and whites

This study investigates the differences in ethical beliefs between blacks and whites in the United States. Two hundred and thirty four white students and two hundred and fifty five black students were presented with two scenarios and given the Reidenbach-Robin instrument measuring their ethical reactions to the scenarios.Contrary to previous research, the results indicate that the two groups, which belong to different subcultures, have similar ethical beliefs.John Tsalikis, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Virginia State University. His doctorate is from the University of Mississippi. His research interests include international marketing and causal modeling.Osita Nwachukwu, Ph.D., received his doctorate from the University of Mississippi. Currently he is Assistant Professor of Management at Western Illinois University. His interests include organizational behavior and international business ethics.     

Ethical beliefs' differences of males and females

This study investigates the differences in ethical beliefs between males and females. One hundred and seventy five business students were presented with four scenarios and given the Reidenbach-Robin instrument measuring their ethical reactions to these scenarios. Contrary to previous research, the results indicate that the two groups have similar ethical beliefs, and they process ethical information similarly. John Tsalikis, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Florida International University. His research interests include marketing ethics, international marketing, and direct marketing. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, and Psychology and Marketing. Marta Ortiz-Buonafina, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Florida International University. She is the author of several books on exporting, as well as the author of several articles on international marketing issues. Dr. Ortiz-Buonafina was included in The World's Who's Who of Women and Who's Who and Why of Successful Florida Women.