Perception of What the Ethical Climate is and What it Should be: The Role of Gender, Academic Status, and Ethical Education

parts ( Jones and Gautschi, 1988). Other studies
have shown that men are more concerned with
money and advancement whereas women are
most interested in relationships and helping
people (Betz and O’Connell, 1987; Betz et al.,
1989).
The issue is still a matter of some controversy
as some studies have found little difference in the
ethical attitudes of men and women. For
example, Derry (1989) found no significant
gender difference in the moral reasoning used in
work conflicts, as one would expect from
Gilligan’s theory. The findings described suggest
that whatever gender differences have been found
in other research may be context specific. Other
studies have also found no differences between
male and female ethical attitudes (Fritzsche, 1988;
McNichols and Zimmerer, 1985; and Derry,
1989). Contradicting these results, however,
many recent studies have found that females take
more ethical positions than males (Arlow, 1991;
Betz et al., 1989; Borkowski and Ugras, 1992;
Ruegger and King, 1992). Although the debate
continues in the literature, the preponderance of
empirical evidence suggests that there are differ-
ences between males and females on ethical
perceptions and attitudes.
Age, career stage, academic status and ethical attitudes
The literature suggests that age or career stage is
a factor in determining values, as younger
managers tend to assign less importance to trust
and honor, and more importance to money and
advancement than older executives (England,
1978; Johnson et al., 1986). Barnett and Karson’s
(1989) study of 513 executives analyzed decisions
involving ethics, relationships, and results. Career
stage was viewed as a surrogate for age in this
study. Early career stage respondents acted
significantly less ethically in the “expense fund”
scenario than later career stage respondents who
were generally more ethical in all scenarios. Age
was found to be negatively related to one’s
Machiavellian orientation in a study by Arlow
(1991). The measure used to assess business ethics
of 138 college students was based on the work
of Miesing and Preble (1985). It was found that
those under the age of 24 had significantly higher
Machiavellian scores than those aged 24 or over,
supporting the findings of Meisling and Preble.
Ruegger and King (1992) surveyed 2,196
students enrolled in business courses with the
intent to determine whether or not age played a
role in a person’s perception of proper ethical
conduct. Students were asked to evaluate the
ethical acceptability of 10 hypothetical situations.
This study found that those students falling in the
40-plus years age group were the most ethical,
followed in order by the 31–40 group, the 22–30
group and those 21 years of age and under.
Although only 40 students were tested on the 40-
plus group, age did appear to have a significant
effect upon how people view business ethics.
Again the evidence is mixed as ethical posi-
tions seem to change with age, but no single
factor can be identified as causing this change.
College freshmen and juniors, for example, were
found to be more justice-oriented (fairness and
equality) than MBA’s, who tended to be more
utilitarian (maximize benefits/minimize costs) in
their approach to ethical dilemmas (Borkowski
and Ugras, 1992). The authors concluded that
this difference may be due to idealism on the part
of the former groups, and experience from
employment for the latter. It is possible that as
one matures, there is less emphasis on selfish
interest and an increase in concern for others. It
is not certain, however, whether it is age or the
accumulating work experiences associated with
age which cause individuals to modify their
ethical positions as they move through different
stages of life.
Ethics education and ethical attitudes
Over 500 business ethics courses are currently
taught on American campuses, with over 90%
Perception of Ethical Climate
207

---

of the nation’s business schools now providing
some kind of training in the area (Stark, 1983).
Studies show that these schools utilize a range
of methods and materials (Paine, 1988), but most
courses are considered superficial, inadequately
structured, and not well integrated into the
business curriculum (Murray, 1987). Even with
a high number of business ethics courses being
offered in business schools, Cavanaugh and
Chmielewski (1987) found that less than 5% of
college graduates ever take a course in ethics.
One of the main questions in the literature is:
Can ethics be taught? Those opposed to ethics
education in professional schools promote two
arguments. The first is that a person’s ethical
character is irrevocably determined by the time
one reaches adolescence, so that ethics cannot be
taught at any level of higher education (Rohatyn,
1988). The second argument asserts that even if
students can be taught ethics, it cannot be
properly taught in professional schools because
only professionals trained formally in ethics can
teach it effectively. This mode of reasoning has
been questioned in both business and psychology
research (Rest, 1988). Kohlberg’s (1984) theory
of moral development suggests that reaching a
certain age does not equate with a certain level
of ethical development beyond which a person
cannot advance. The implication is that ethical
education can play an important role in effec-
tively enhancing moral development of individ-
uals at virtually any stage of their life. Similarly,
Erikson’s model of moral development assumes
that ethical orientation is a fluid phenomena and
that the ethical personality can go through
changes in response to specific psychological
crises (Rest, 1988).
The results of studies that have examined the
influence of business ethics instruction on
students’ ethical attitudes are not clear cut
(Arlow, 1991; Boyd, 1981–82; Borkowski and
Ugras, 1992; Stevens, 1984; Mayer, 1988). Some
studies have found that ethics instruction sensi-
tizes business students to ethical issues (Bok,
1976), and affects behavior at the margin
(Salmans, 1987). Other empirical research has
provided evidence that ethical education can
correlate to development in moral perspectives
of students (Rest, 1988), thereby supporting the
fundamental assumptions behind Kohlberg’s and
Erikson’s models. Contrasting studies suggest that
students’ ethical attitudes are influenced more by
exposure to the large socio-cultural norms than
by education in specific disciplines, which may
have implications for business ethics instruction
(Arlow, 1991). Given these mixed results,
researchers continue to recommend that “ethics
be integrated into the spectrum of business
courses” (Borkowski and Ugras, 1992), and that
“it would seem necessary for there to exist
mandatory student exposure to training in
general ethics . . .” (Mayer, 1988).
Summary of the literature and research questions
Although the evidence is sometimes mixed, there
are indications from the literature that differences
in ethical attitudes and perceptions may be
explained by sex of the respondents, their age
or academic status, and their exposure to ethical
education. In this context, the present study
focuses on two separate ethical dimensions. The
first dimension assesses perceptions of current
ethical climate and the second involves an assess-
ment of perceptions of what the ideal ethical
climate should be. The study seeks to determine
whether differences in ethical perceptions exist
simultaneously on both dimensions and whether
such differences can be explained in terms of
academic classification, sex, and exposure to
ethical education in a course. An integrative
multivariate approach for assessing whether
ethical education works, and whether it works in
the same way for men and women is adopted.