An empirical study of moral reasoning among managers in Singapore

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. Jayantha S. Wimalasiri is Senior Lecturer of Business Policy at the National University of Singapore. His primary professional and research interests are in Human Resource Management and Business Policy/Strategic Management. Francis Pavri is Lecturer of Decision Science at the National University of Singapore. He received his first degree in Engineering and Ph.D. in Business Administration. Prior to joining the university he worked at IBM (Singapore) as a systems engineer and later as a systems consultant in a local consulting firm. Abdul A. K. Jalil graduated with Honours in Business Administration at the National University of Singapore. He is currently working as an executive officer in the public sector.