Moral Choice and the Declining Influence of Traditional Value Orientations Within the Financial Sector of a Rapidly Developing Region of the People’s Republic of China

This paper describes the results of a field experiment involving 400 employees from ten financial institutions operating within the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone of the People’s Republic of China. It was found that, when faced with an agency-based problem, employees indicated they would be less inc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Woodbine, Gordon Francis (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: 2004
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2004, Volume: 55, Issue: 1, Pages: 43-60
Further subjects:B personal value orientations
B Agency Theory
B Moral Choice
B People’s Republic of China
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Summary:This paper describes the results of a field experiment involving 400 employees from ten financial institutions operating within the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone of the People’s Republic of China. It was found that, when faced with an agency-based problem, employees indicated they would be less inclined to advise management of the existence of unethical work practices. Younger employees without supervisory experience displayed significant risk aversion. Traditional Chinese values associated with Confucian work dynamism, were shown to be poor predictors of moral choice response. A parsimonious regression model was developed that provides evidence that the universal trait Masculinity/Femininity (Human-heartedness) acted to offset the negative influence of the agency problem. On the other hand, an operative’s level of education attainment exerted a negative influence on moral response scores.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-004-5592-5