Ethical Reasoning and Machiavellianism among Business Students in Hong Kong

Ethical development among business students is a perplexing issue when they behave even less ethically than business professionals. A prior study shows that business students in Hong Kong are more reluctant to behave ethically than those in other countries in some occasions. Based on an integrated m...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Cheung, Chau-Kiu (Author) ; Scherling, Steven Arvid (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 1997
In: Teaching business ethics
Year: 1997, Volume: 1, Issue: 3, Pages: 283-302
Further subjects:B Ethical Reasoning
B Moral Development
B Acquiescence
B Structural equation modeling with the latent growth model
B Business Ethics
B Business students in Hong Kong
B Machiavellianism
B Marketing students
B Length of college study
B Ethical Predisposition
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Description
Summary:Ethical development among business students is a perplexing issue when they behave even less ethically than business professionals. A prior study shows that business students in Hong Kong are more reluctant to behave ethically than those in other countries in some occasions. Based on an integrated model of ethical philosophy and cognitive development, the present study attempts to assess the ethical reasoning and Machiavellianism of 470 business students in Hong Kong. It measured ethical reasoning by means of two ethical dilemmas and the result indicated the deficiency of ethical reasoning among the students. With structural equation modeling, the analysis first discerned a factor of ethical reasoning. It then verified that ethical reasoning and Machiavellianism reflected a superordinate factor, termed as ethical predisposition. The modeling further revealed that having studied in college longer contributed to the student's ethical predisposition. However, majoring in marketing was associated with the student's lower ethical predisposition. These results were not susceptible to the confounding of the student's tendency toward acquiescence and social desirability.
ISSN:1573-1944
Contains:Enthalten in: Teaching business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1023/A:1009748015777