Search results

This paper aims to present a synthesized conceptual model for ethical decision-making in marketing that accommodates both humanistic and religious aspects.

A religious–humanistic approach is adopted on synthesizing. “Ferrell and Gresham’s (1985) contingency framework for ethical decision-making in marketing” and “Al-Ghazali’s ethical philosophy” are considered to be the theoretical base for the synthesized model.

Al-Ghazali’s ethical philosophy that stands for the religious dimension in this study was found appropriate for incorporating into the Ferrell and Gresham contingency framework for ethical decision-making in marketing. The approach (religious-humanistic) adopted for synthesizing the two aspects into one model was justified accordingly.

A newly synthesized model is only conceptually validated. Statistical validity is required based on the variables included in the conceptual model. Future studies are recommended to attain the model fit.

The scale and model developed in the study should help the marketing-department authorities to assess and evaluate ethical aspects of existing individuals in the organization and potential candidates under the selection stage for employment. The research output derived by way of using the newly synthesized conceptual model should be able to pave the way for more in-depth research on actual ethical practices of “marketing practitioners” in the organization. To some extent, understanding of ethical standing of employees should help in improving efficiency and reduce costs from unethical behaviour. This should be able to improve governance from the top- to the lower-level management.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no literature has conceptualized a model that accommodates both materialistic and religious aspects into a single model to explain ethical decision-making of individuals in organizations. This is an initial and a humble attempt to conceptualize a model that incorporates ethical philosophy in Islam, with special reference to Al-Ghazali’s ethical philosophy.

This paper aims to develop and validate scale for ethical decision-making model in marketing that confirms religious–humanistic approach with special reference to ethical philosophy in Islam. Synthesized model of Ferrell and Gresham contingency framework for ethical decision-making in marketing and Al-Ghazali’s ethical philosophy are considered as theoretical background of this study.

“Content validity test” and “factor analysis” are used to refine measurement items and define as well as validate the scale, respectively. A total of 362 samples were collected from Islamic banking practitioners in the United Arab Emirates.

Item scale of the constructs comprised in the conceptual model defined and validated by using content validity test (CVT). Underlying theoretical dimensions of the constructs were extracted through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and evidence of validation of scale/construct reported through CFA.

The scope of this paper is limited to development and validation of scale. Future studies are suggested to use the newly validated scale/construct in descriptive model, and examine the hypotheses prescribed in the model. Further, explanations on theoretical background of this paper is limited as the main objective of this paper is to statistically validate the conceptual model adopted.

Proper application of validated scale of ethical decision-making model in marketing should enable concerned authorities of marketing department to gauge and understand the ethical aspects of individuals in the organizations. Apparently, apprehension of ethical perception of workforces in organizations should benefit in enhancing competence and minimize the costs from unethical behaviour, and, thus, better governance in whole level of management.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an initial attempt to develop and validate the scale of ethical decision-making model in marketing that accommodates both religious and humanistic aspects into a single model to examine the decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of individuals in organizations.

Lawrence Kohlberg's (1969) concept of cognitive moral development (CMD) has been one of the most investigated constructs in the field of social psychology, with over one thousand studies reported investigating this construct in only two decades of research. However, what is the relationship of this theoretical construct to actual decision making and behavior? Blasi (1980, p. 4) opined for the criticality of moral judgement research to both ethical decision making and ethical inquiry, stating that “without judgement, an action, no matter how beneficial, would not be moral.” Relating Kohlberg's model to business decision making and behavior has been central to the building of theoretical frameworks of the ethical decision making process engaged in by individuals. The models of this process proposed by Trevino and Youngblood (1990), Trevino (1986), Bommer, Gratto, Gravender, and Tuttle (1987), Ferrell and Gresham (1985), Ferrell, Gresham, and Fraedrich (1989), Swinyard, DeLong, and Cheng (1989), and Jones (1991) all contained cognitive moral development as a factor in their respective models of ethical decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to use Ferrell and Gresham (1985) contingency model to examine the impact of situational factors on decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners.

A total of 262 samples are collected from Islamic banking practitioners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and data analysis is conducted using structural equation modelling (SEM) with a confirmatory approach.

The empirical findings indicate that decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners is significantly influenced in the process of interacting with persons who are part of the organisation, and these influences are determined by the intra-organisational distance and legitimate authority between the individuals and the focal person. Further, it is also empirically verified that decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues of Islamic banking practitioners is significantly influenced by the presence and/or absence of the opportunity factors such as corporate policies, professional codes of ethics and rewards/punishment system that prevails in the organisation.

Coverage of respondents in this study limited to single country, and the scope is limited to the model that adopted in the study.

It is recommended that respective authorities should have proper control over situational factors (i.e. significant others and opportunity factors) in organisations by encouraging ethical actions so that individuals are learned and influenced by each other and reviewing and improving existing corporate policies, professional codes of ethics and rewards/punishment system that limit the barrier and provide recompenses to the individuals in the organisation.

While the literature has presented the connection between ethics and Islamic banking, they failed to address ethical decision-making in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs). Hence, the empirical findings provide insights towards understanding organisational decision-making behaviour that to enhance governance.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of ethical decision-making that applies to accountants and the accounting profession.

This model is an integration of five factors that influence ethical decision-making by accountants: professional codes of conduct; philosophical orientation; religious orientation; culturally derived values; and moral maturity.

This model is a synthesis of previous identified factors that influence ethical decision-making and incorporates them into a model that is specific to professional accountants.

The authors develop a set of propositions and explain how this model can be tested and its implications for both the accounting profession and the teaching of business ethics.

This model presents a new way of viewing ethical decision-making by accountants that is predicated on the importance of professional codes of conduct that influence both behaviour and decision-making. The external certification of professional accountants provides a layer of accountability not previously incorporated into ethical decision-making models.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an interdisciplinary review of the existing research on ethical behavior – informed by philosophical theories, social sciences, and applied business research – and identifies the merits and limitations of the extant theories, including the applicability of prescriptive frameworks and models to business practice.

Following the review, the paper advances a descriptive model of ethical decision‐making criteria that elucidates how individual, organizational, and environmental variables interact to influence attitude formation across critical components of an ethical issue.

The model advanced expands upon other existing frameworks and provides a comprehensive and simultaneous assessment of the interplay between individual‐level variables (e.g. demographic variables, position in the organisation), the structure and climate of the organisation in which the decisions are made, and the social and political features of the business environment.

The proposed model can be used as a training tool and it holds several advantages over the extant alternatives, namely versatility (it is adaptable to the specific organizational context in which respondents are required to conceptualize the dilemma and generate courses of action), and scope (the model allows for the simultaneous assessment of a myriad of cross‐level variables).

The paper offers a comprehensive decision‐making model that can be used to examine ethical decisions in business settings, to investigate potential differences in decision‐making accuracy and ethical reasoning between groups and individuals, and to examine the impact of changing ethical climates in organizational strategy.

Managing ethics has come to be considered a management discipline, especially since the birth of business ethics and social responsibility movements in the 1960s. However, there seems to be no comprehensive review and synthesis of ethics management literature in construction. This research aims to address the theory‐practice gap by providing a critical review of the ethics decision‐making literature.

The study examines critically the ethics decision‐making literature from the 1980s to 2008.

Three research focuses, relating to the construction industry in ethical decision making, are identified: empirical studies on examining the associations between variables (individuals, situational/organisational, moral intensity) and employees' ethical behaviour in construction organisational contexts; continuous application of behavioural science theories to develop an appropriate ethical decision‐making model for the industry; and research on group and/or organisational level behaviour ethics.

The study identifies, draws together, and integrates existing theories and research, with a particular emphasis on ethical decision‐making models, to present the key contributions in the realm of ethics decision making.

The paper highlights the role of management (both as an academic discipline and from a practitioner perspective) in bridging this gap.

The research adds value to the literature on ethics management, where limited knowledge exists in the construction industry.

Purpose – To critically examine various ethical decision making models and use them to arrive at five hypotheses to understand the methods used by small and medium enterprise (SME) owner-managers in Australia when faced with ethical issues or dilemmas.Design/methodology/approach – This analysis involves literature reviews of rational decision making process, alternative methods of decision making and various ethical decision making models including Rest’s four-component model to arrive at the five hypotheses.Findings – The five hypotheses contend that SME owner-managers tend to resolve ethical issues using methods similar to Rest’s four-component model. Some may utilise all four components while others may skip one or more components of the model. Others may engage in intuition and heuristic methods of decision making. Ethical decisions by SME managers may be influenced by factors such as organisational factors, moral exemplars and reflection. The final hypothesis contends that SME managers could consider using the Balanced Scorecard as an instrument to monitor and manage business ethical issues.Research limitations – The literature reviews are not exhaustive but provide sufficient information for the purposes of this chapter.Practical implications – The significance of this study is that the hypotheses can be used to conduct interviews with SME managers and findings from the interviews could be developed into a practical tool for practising managers and a standard or guidelines for managing ethical issues in an SME.Originality/value – This chapter fulfils the need to understand the ethical decision making process and methods used by practicing SME managers in Australia.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the understudied antecedents of moral reasoning and cognitive processes that ultimately shape the ethical consumption. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the socio-intuitionist model are integrated. Holistic, inferential, and affective dimensions of intuition are identified as critical antecedents of environmental concerns that then influence the ethical consumption.

Structural equation modeling is used to analyze intuitive judgments and ethical concerns in 256 US undergraduates. The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) is used to measure ethical concerns and the ecologically conscious consumer behavior (ECCB) instrument is used to measure ethical consumption.

The results indicate that inferential intuition, but not affective intuition, significantly predicts the ethical concerns (NEP), which in turn significantly influence all five dimensions of ethical consumption behavior (ECCB).

Managers and marketing strategists should focus on non-rational influences such as moral intuition to effectively promote ethical and responsible consumption.

The TPB and the intuitionist theory are integrated to reveal empirically how intuitive judgments may affect consumer attitudes and to provide new insights regarding the ethical consumption.