“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” Alice asked the Cheshire Cat. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don't much care where...” said Alice. “Then it doesn't matter which way you go,” said the Cat. (Carroll, 1983: 72)

Toward A Unified Conception Of Business Ethics: Integrative Social Contracts Theory

This paper compares the ethical decisions and attitudes of business students and practitioners. Recent unpublished data from a national study of over 1600 students are contrasted with information reported previously. Students are found consistently to make less ethical choices than practitioners, and there is some indication that students are making less ethical choices in the 1980s than in the 1960s. In addition, both students and practitioners agree that buyers should beware, view the role of business more narrowly, and find fewer incentives to behave ethically over time. Codes of ethics appear to be less influential than the individual's strong personal value system and one's superiors behaving ethically; support for codes is declining. The paper concludes with observations about the limitations and possibilities for survey research in this area drawing on other studies that used the same instrument utilized for this paper. Some implications for future research are suggested.

Business students' and practitioners' ethical decisions over time

A national survey of CEOs of manufacturing firms was conducted to identify factors explaining CEOs' intentions to engage in two questionable business practices: soliciting a competitor's technological secrets and making payments to foreign government officials to secure business. Drawing on research in corporate misconduct, ethical decision making, and strategic management, the authors analyzed ethical intentions by looking at hostile environmental conditions, opportunity-rich situations, and/or personal characteristics. Based on responses to scenarios, their findings suggest that the ethical intentions of CEOs may be more affected by the decision maker's predisposition than by environmental pressures or organizational/situational characteristics.

A Test of Environmental, Situational, and Personal Influences on the Ethical Intentions of CEOs:

In this study, 191 subjects, 93 male and 98 female undergraduate business students, were asked to respond to a 51 item questionnaire to examine their perception of what constituted a "just society". The subjects agreed on 16 characteristics which a just society would have. Out of 51 there were only 10 statements whereon average responses showed significant differences based on gender.

Bong-Gon P. Shin

Papers

Business ethics — Findings of a survey of America's business leaders

Business ethics in America: A view from the classroom