Linking Management Behavior to Ethical Philosophy—An Empirical Investigation

The study of business ethics may have suffered due to the lack of a theoretical basis for most of the empirical research and much of the nonempirical writings. The discipline of philosophy provides a set of well-developed ethical theories. The 3 basic kinds of moral theories include: 1. utilitarian...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Academy of Management journal 1984-03, Vol.27 (1), p.166-175
Main Authors: Fritzsche, David J, Becker, Helmut
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Decision making
Ethics
Managers
Organizational behavior
Statistical analysis
Studies
Values
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Summary:The study of business ethics may have suffered due to the lack of a theoretical basis for most of the empirical research and much of the nonempirical writings. The discipline of philosophy provides a set of well-developed ethical theories. The 3 basic kinds of moral theories include: 1. utilitarian theories, which may be classified as either act or rule utilitarian, 2. theory of rights, which provides a guide for the decision maker to insure respect for the rights of individuals, and 3. theory of justice, which calls upon the decision maker to act with equity, fairness, and impartiality. Ethical theory is linked to management behavior by classifying responses of managers to a series of vignettes according to the type of ethical theory represented by the response. The rationale provided by the respondents for their vignette decisions was primarily utilitarian; only 3 responses indicated a theory of rights, only one a theory of justice. The strongly utilitarian orientation of the managers could be due to the strong role economics plays in managerial decision making.
ISSN:0001-4273
1948-0989
DOI:10.5465/255964