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Exemplars play a central role in business ethics and ethical decision-making. In general terms, an exemplar is defined as ‘a person or thing to be copied’ and can include persons who have their sense of moral commitment as a core part of their sense of self, take a principled personal stand or a role model or an organisation committed to certain moral standards or other things such as case studies, anecdotes, and even fables and myths. Researchers have used different approaches to explain the role of exemplars in decision-making in general and ethical decision-making in particular. This paper presents evidence of SME managers acknowledging the role of exemplars in the management of their businesses and in their ethical decision-making processes.

Semi-structured, open-ended interviews were conducted in an exploratory manner with 20 owners/senior managers of SMEs in Australia. Two types of exemplars were identified in the analysis – individual and organisational, and indicated the prominence of individual exemplars over organisational exemplars. Analysis also suggests the use of multiple exemplars, learning moral behaviours, getting inspired, learning ethical decision-making skills and the ability to retrieve exemplar representations from memory to influence judgements and decisions.

This study provides an insight into one of the methods employed by SME managers in ethical decision-making. Findings could be useful in making SME managers aware of their penchant of using exemplars. The paper contributes to the knowledge in the area of one of the many methods that SME managers use in ethical decision-making.

This paper aims to examine the influence of ethical judgement on decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The study adopted a confirmatory approach in which validated/established “normative ethical standards” are taken into the consideration as theoretical underpinning. In total, 262 samples are collected from Islamic banking practitioners in the UAE and data analysis is conducted using structural equation modelling.

The empirical findings indicate that the decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners in UAE does not adhere to any set of normative ethical standards and respondents are pragmatic in nature when it comes to the decision-making behaviour related to ethical matters.

The study elucidates to what extent Islamic banking practitioners have encountered themselves with situations that demand the proper attention to the ethical aspects, which affecting decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues. According to the findings, those situations considerably demand the attention of ethical judgement in the decision-making behaviour of Islamic banking practitioners. Hence, it is recommended for Islamic banks in UAE to contain or intensify the training on the importance of ethics, Islamic thought and worldview to enhance corporate decision-making and banking profitability within the purview of Islamic principles.

While ample emphasis has been given to the juristic (fiqh) aspects of Sharīʿah-compliant in Islamic banking and finance, relatively little has been attempted to explore its ethical dimensions (akhlaq) in the compliance parameters. Further, Sharīʿah-compliant has been product-centric rather than people-centric. While there is numerous literature documented that links ethics and Islamic banking and finance, ethical framework and practice in Islamic finance institutions, studies focusing on the “people” and their “ethical decision-making behaviour” in Islamic financial institutions found missing in the literature. These gaps serve as justification for undertaking this research.

Using survey results compiled from an extensive study into the ethical decision making of school principals this article analyses the nature and consistency of principals' ethical decision‐making processes. Based on the findings, the article argues that even though principals on the whole have well‐meaning intentions, by and large, they do not display consistent conceptual knowledge of major ethical theories; they exhibit certain contradictions in their ethical reasoning and they suffer regular conflicts with their own personal and professional values. The article concludes by offering some suggestions for future professional development strategies that may serve to better educate principals on the concepts and processes required for consistent, confident and well‐reasoned ethical decision making.

Ethical decisions determine which individuals and/or groups benefit, and which suffer. Such decisions by executives impact front-line providers directly and customers indirectly; they are important because repercussions in service interactions feel personal. The purpose of this paper is to fill an important gap in the service literature by exploring how high-level executives make ethical decisions, creating values and culture within an organization; the results include testable propositions.

The research used a grounded theory approach, wherein high-level executives in successful service organizations responded through in-depth interviews. Complete interview transcripts were analyzed using standard qualitative methodology, including open coding to better understand and categorize the data, axial coding to seek out crucial relationships between concepts, and selective coding to develop research propositions.

Data analysis revealed two groups of interviewees, one more outcome-oriented in decision making and the other more process-oriented. The organizations led by more outcome-oriented executives have strong family-like (or paternalistic) cultures, whereas the organizations led by more process-oriented executives value adaptability and diversity.

The executives interviewed are quite successful; therefore, it is not possible to make inferences about unsuccessful executives or those leading poorly performing organizations. Propositions developed relate that process-oriented executives use both analytical measures and intuition in decision making, whereas outcome-oriented respondents rely more heavily on analytical measures.

Service executives apparently make ethical decisions while focusing either on processes or on outcomes; members of these two groups use different evaluative criteria to identify a successful decision. Decisions relating to people within the organization are perceived by the executives to be especially salient, apparently owing to interpersonal interaction in services.

There are inherent social implications when ethical decisions are made, because these decisions determine which individuals or groups benefit, and which suffer.

This research is among the first to interview high-level service executives about their ethical decision making when their choices define culture and values within their organizations. Findings offer a new look at how differences between executives that focus on processes and those that focus on outcomes may shape organizational cultures and lead to consideration of different criteria in making and evaluating decisions.

This chapter aims to provide an overview of the ethical framework and decision-making in clinical dementia research, and to analyze and discuss the ethical challenges and issues that can arise when conducting clinical dementia research.

Informed consent is the most scrutinized and controversial aspect of clinical research ethics. In clinical dementia research, assessing decision-making capacity may be challenging as the nature and progress of each disease influences decision-making capacity in diverse ways. Persons with dementia represent a vulnerable population deserving special attention when developing, implementing, and evaluating the informed consent process. In this chapter, particular attention will be given to vulnerability categories and how these influence decision-making capacity. Ethical frameworks with a pragmatic contour and implication are needed to protect vulnerable patients from potential harms and ensure their optimal participation in clinical dementia research.

In addition, this chapter analyses important ethical challenges and issues in clinical dementia research. If handled thoughtfully, they would not pose insuperable barriers to research. But if they are ignored, they could slow the research process, alienate potential study subjects and cause harm to research participants. Ethical considerations in research involving persons with dementia primarily concern the representation of the interests of the participants with dementia and protection of their vulnerabilities and rights.

A core set of ethical questions and recommendations are drawn to aid researchers, institutional review boards and potential research participants in the process of participating in clinical dementia research.

In this chapter, we explore the ethical dilemmas commonly faced in community development projects, providing guidance for practitioners and policy makers. We delve into various challenges, from resource allocation to managing diverse stakeholder needs, using ethical theories and real-world case studies, including examples from the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, Haiti Earthquake relief, and an Indigenous education program in Australia. We emphasize the importance of ethical decision-making, showcasing the potential impacts of choices on communities and individuals. Practical strategies are presented to maintain ethical integrity, such as transparent communication and accountability mechanisms, enabling stakeholders to navigate dilemmas with sensitivity and uphold ethical standards. This chapter serves as a valuable guide for those involved in community development, fostering sustainable and equitable initiatives that empower communities and drive positive transformation.

In the context of cultural diversity and democratization in Nepal, ethical decision making with the central focus on the paradigms of care, justice, and critique is perceived as highly imperative in the life of school principals. However, the way each principal decides to remain ethical differs in practice as his or her own individual and school constructs vary from the other. The difference is much visible in the decision-making process of men and women principals. Considering this, a case study of men and women principals was carried out and the result showed that sociocultural constructs of the principals is primarily responsible to create the differences between them in terms of their ethical decision-making process. Sociocultural context of principals is not in the favor of the women’s decisive role, and thus women principals in their workplace make decisions after having several rounds of consultations. This serves to make their decision constructive as compared to the men principals who hardly consult in the decision-making process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how experience and gender relate to the auditors’ moral awareness.

Hypotheses are informed by a neurocognitive approach to ethical decision-making and tested using survey data from 191 auditors of a Big Four audit firm in The Netherlands.

The main findings indicate that more experienced auditors (i.e. those with more years of work experience, a higher rank and a higher age) show higher levels of moral awareness. This positive relationship is stronger for morally questionable situations related to accounting and auditing, compared to general business moral dilemmas. In addition, the results support the expectation that on average, female auditors have higher moral awareness than their male counterparts.

To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study that considers a neurocognitive approach to inform hypotheses about the antecedents of auditors’ moral awareness. The findings suggest that the involvement of experienced auditors in ethical decision-making processes may be beneficial given their enhanced ability to identify ethically disputable situations as such. Furthermore, increasing the number of women in senior positions may positively affect ethical decision-making in audit firms. Finally, this paper presents directions for future research.

The theory of planned behavior was used as a guiding framework to explore how undergraduate business students, employed full-time, perceived the influence of their first class in business ethics on ethical awareness and ethical behavior in the workplace.

In this qualitative study, the perceived influence of ethics education on ethical awareness and ethical behavior in the workplace was explored. The sample consisted of eight concurrently employed undergraduate business students at a university in the Southwestern US.

Inductive analysis of primary data collected in the study suggests that ethics education increased ethical awareness. The increased desire to correct unethical behavior is another step toward ethical behavior. However, the participants in the current study did not report an increase in actual ethical behavior despite their increased ethical awareness and intent. Ethical awareness is only one component in the multidimensional process of ethical decision-making, and the increase in ethical awareness alone may not increase ethical behavior. Instead, attitude toward ethical behavior and perceived behavioral control needs to be considered as well.

The literature indicates that ethics education increases awareness of ethical norms and cognitive moral development. However, the question remains about how ethics education transfers to ethical behavior at the workplace. This study sought to investigate this question.