Ethical Ideology Research Articles

Why and when employees ostracize their leaders: the effect of leader political act and integrity trustworthiness of the leader

ABSTRACT Every organizational member can be ostracized, including those at the very top. Yet why and when a leader is ostracized by the employees is unknown. Based on the victim precipitation theory and the model of ethical ideology, we investigated the factors that precipitated a leader into workplace ostracism. We found that leader political acts (a leader’s self-serving behaviour aimed at promoting self-interest by influencing another person’s thinking and behaviours) predicted employees’ ostracism of the leader. We further predicted that employees’ principled versus expedient ideologies, indicated by employee integrity and employee political acts would affect an employee’s evaluation of leader political acts. Based on a daily dairy study (Study 1) and a three-wave time-lagged field survey study (Study 2), we found leader political acts were negatively related to integrity trustworthiness of the leader. This negative relationship was stronger for employees high in integrity and weaker for employees who also engaged in political acts. Both studies supported the moderated mediation model in which the mediational relationship among leader political acts, integrity trustworthiness of the leader, and ostracism of the leader were moderated by 1) employee integrity, and 2) employee political acts.

The Role of Mega-events In Promoting Sustainable Behaviour: A Multi-group Analysis Using Micom

ABSTRACT This study investigates the influence of participation in mega events, like Dubai Expo 2020, on factors related to environmentally responsible behavior. Data from 361 UAE respondents were collected, examining environmental concern, social and personal norms, ethical obligations, and perceived behavioral control. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling and Multi-Group Analysis tested the hypotheses. The results showed that environmental concern, ethical ideologies, and perceived behavioral control had stronger impacts on the intention for responsible behavior in event attendees than in non-attendees. Attendees also demonstrated a stronger positive impact on sustainable consumer behavior. These findings offer valuable insights into environmental psychology, sustainability, consumer behavior, and event management, and can inform strategies for promoting sustainable behavior in industries such as travel, tourism, and hospitality.

Ethical ideology and fraud rationalization among future accountants in Nigeria

ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of ethical ideology on fraud rationalization among future accountants in Nigeria. Specifically, it investigates whether being a moral idealist or moral relativist influences the ability of future accountants to rationalize fraud. The study collected data from 225 participants with a scenario-based questionnaire, which was analysed using independent sample t-tests and regression estimation techniques. The results reveal a direct correlation between ethical ideology and fraud rationalization, indicating that future accountants who are high in moral relativism and low in moral idealism have higher tendencies to rationalize fraud than those who are high in moral idealism and low in moral relativism. These findings emphasize the importance of ethical ideology as an intrinsic psychological mechanism that can predict fraud rationalization tendencies in individuals. The study highlights the important implications of its findings and provides suggestions for future research.

Socio-ethical determinants of operational and accounting manipulation. Empirical research results

Purpose: This article assesses the impact of personal moral philosophies, ethics, and ethical judgment on operational and accounting manipulation among accounting students. Methodology/approach: An analysis of the literature on the research subject was used, and a survey on perceptions of accounting manipulations (ACC) and operational manipulations (OM) was conducted among a group of accounting students studying at two universities in Poland. A linear regression model, Mann-Whitney, and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to verify the research hypotheses. Findings: The research results offer insights into how accounting students perceive accounting and operational manipulation, revealing differences in the ethical assessment of these phenomena depending on the respondent’s moral attitude. We found that age significantly influences the assessment of accounting manipulations and that ethical ideologies influence the manipulation of moral judgments in the case of unemployed people. Research limitations/implications: A significant limitation is that the study focused on students, which may bias findings. To draw broader conclusions, it would be necessary to include working people in the study, with further differentiation based on their profession and position in the organisation. Originality/value: The article contributes to behavioural accounting thanks to pioneering insights into students’ perceptions of accounting and operational manipulation in Poland. The results serve as a foundation for future research. They also raise awareness of future accounting specialists on behavioural and ethical issues they may encounter during the educational process. Professional associations may also use the material when working on ethical standards.

Mediating Role of Cultural Values in the Impact of Ethical Ideologies on Chinese Consumers’ Ethical Judgments

AbstractThis paper develops and tests a new conceptual model incorporating the indirect impact of two ethical ideologies (idealism and relativism) on Chinese consumers’ ethical judgments under four ethically problematic consumption situations (active benefit, passive benefit, deceptive practice, and no/indirect harm) through two cultural values (integration and moral discipline). Data from a large-scale online consumer survey in five major Chinese cities (N = 1046) support most hypotheses. The findings are consistent with the postulated global impact of ethical ideology on forming an individual’s beliefs and values and highlight the importance of a thorough understanding of the significant determinants of consumer ethics to promote ethically responsible consumption behaviors. This study also uses an emic approach to conceptualize and measure Chinese cultural values by using cultural constructs and measures that are designed explicitly in the Chinese context.

Religious and Ethical Conception of Xiao-Filiality in Pre-Imperial China

Xiao-filiality is the most fundamental concept in the Chinese intellectual-cultural tradition. It represents not only family values but also religious, political and ethical ideologies. The conception of xiao, which originally denoted the meanings of presenting offerings to deceased ancestors and inheriting their legacy in the Shang dynasty, went through two stages of evolution from the early Zhou dynasty to the Warring States period. In the first stage, xiao was extended to ethical domain with the humanistic turn from human-spirit relationship to human-human relationship. Xiao was not only expanded to the empirical exercise of serving living parents but also established as a ritual-ethical norm that defined people’s familial, social, and hierarchical role duties and regulated their conducts of dealing with interpersonal relationships. As a result, the religious authority of paranormal ancestral spirits was transferred to the social-political authority who enforced the implement of the ritual-ethical norm of xiao. In the second stage, Confucius and his followers on the one hand recognized the importance of compliance with this prescribed ritual-ethical norm, and on the other internalized it to become the individual agent’s moral emotion and free choice. Consequently, the social-political authority was further transferred to the internal authority of moral autonomy.

The Relationships of Ethical Ideology, Moral Disengagement and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior: Conceptual Proposals

The involvement of employees in various unethical conducts in the organizations setting have gained the attention of scholars. In the recent literature, employee’s willingness to commit unethical conduct for the benefit of the organizations and its members which also known as unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) has become a concern to the scholars as it brings various bad consequences to the employees and organizations in the long term. In order to understand what and how employees involve in UPB, this paper provides 3 propositions to explain on how individual differences which is ethical ideology (idealism vs relativism) influence employees’ cognitive process (moral disengagement) that drives them to involve in unethical pro-organizational behaviors.

The Role of Moral Disengagement in the Relationships between Ethical Ideology and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviour

There is growing research by a group of researcher on unethical pro-organisation behaviour (UPB) especially after the misconduct of carbon emission by Volkswagen, the researchers have trying to understand why, how and when employees would conduct UPB by using various theories (Mishra et al., 2021) including moral disengagement theory (Mishra et al., 2021). Drawing from moral disengagement theory (Bandura, 1990) we argue that moral disengagement mechanism mediates the relationships between ethical ideology and UPB. As the literature of moral disengagement in unethical behaviour and UPB heavily tested and rely on moral disengagement as unidimensional construct, so less is known which mechanisms of moral disengagement influence employees behaviour (Ogunfowora et al., 2021). So, this paper will examine how idealist and relativist adopting moral disengagement mechanisms in justifying their immoral act of UPB. The study is a cross sectional study which the data was collected through paper and pencil survey. A total of 387 responses were collected from private sectors employees in Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The respondents received RM10 KFC voucher as a token. The data quality measures were used by including attention check questions and marker variable (Moore et al., 2021). All the responses were measured using 7-likert scale, where 1 – strongly disagree and 7-strongly agree. Employees ethical ideology was measured using 20 items by (Forsyth, 1980), moral disengagement was measured using 32 items by (Bandura, 1990), and UPB was measure using 6 items by (Umphress et al., 2010), The analysis was conducted using SPSS Version 27, and the mediation analysis was tested using PROCESS. Keywords: Unethical pro-organizational behaviour, moral disengagement, ethical ideology

Moral Orientations and Traits of Public Relations Exemplars

ABSTRACT This moral psychology study surveys the College of Fellows of the Public Relations Society of America to examine morally relevant features and motivations. Using the Moral Foundations Theory assessment in conjunction with other moral psychology measures, the results (n = 59) affirm the exemplar status of Fellows, reflected in Global Character Strengths, personality traits and ethical ideology. Fellows reject relativism and rate Honesty and Fairness among their top Character Strengths, reflecting key ethical norms for public relations practice. Results also document links regarding empathy, justice and harm, reflecting the moral intuitionist orientations found to be common among populations in Western developed countries. Overall, the emerging moral psychology profile of PR exemplars embodies the spirit and core meta-ethical elements of both an ethic of care and neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics.

Low-Level Bank Managers: Factors that Affect Ethical Decision-Making (The Indonesian Case)

Purpose: To find out the factors that influence ethical decision-making in low-level bank managers Theoretical framework: Research findings emphasized that the theory of McCosh in 1999 is certainly still relevant to use if the perception of the ethical meaning is not more to the application of ethics in the standard operating procedure is true but more to the fulfillment of a lending activity that really. Design/methodology/approach: The study also took a step with a positivistic epistemological approach in the process of answering research questions by following the deductive logic of parts and phenomena and their relationships; The research strategy used in the completion of this study was to use confirmation data analysis (CFA) of this research conducted with a single cross-sectional. Findings: The results of the research with the use of analysis of confirmatory factor (CFA) indicate that when a lending activity takes place, ethical ideology, financial attitudes, and financial ethics give a guarantee that the manager will be able to make an ethical decision. Research, Practical & Social implications: We suggest a future research agenda and highlight the contribution a low-level bank manager makes in making ethical decisions Originality/value: The results show that ethical ideology, financial attitudes, and financial ethics have a significant influence on ethical decisions in lending activities by low-level bank managers, and financial ethics have a significant role in mediating the effect of ethical ideology and financial attitudes on ethical decisions, in lending activities by lower-level bank managers.

Relationship between nurses' ethical ideology, professional values, and clinical accountability.

Nurses are challenged with many situations that require them to solve ethical dilemmas and make moral decisions based on professional values and a sense of accountability and responsibility. To support their decisions, it is important to know how they perceive and relate their ethical ideology, professional values, and clinical accountability in their workplace. The study's aim was twofold: to investigate the ethical ideology and perceived importance of professional values and accountability among nurses. Further, explore the relationship between each of ethical ideology and professional values with nurses' work accountability. A correlational study was conducted in an Egyptian hospital. All nurses were invited to participate = 192, and 150 nurses (78.3%) completed the study questionnaires. The Ethical Position Questionnaire, the Professional Values Scale, and the Clinical Vignettes Assessment for Clinical Accountability were proven to be reliable study measures. Ethics Committee approval, written informed consent, data privacy and confidentiality, and participants' right to voluntary participation and withdrawal were maintained. Nurses showed good ethical ideology (75 ± 6.2) and are more idealistic while maintaining professional values (108 ± 10.8). Most nurses believed they were accountable for documenting errors, completing incident reports, and calling physicians to discuss or manage the situations. Ethical ideology and the idealism subscale were positively correlated with overall nurses' professional values (r = 0.321, p < 0.004, r =0.464, p 0.000), respectively. On the other hand, work accountability showed a partial correlation in some areas with ethical ideology and professional values. Professional values and nurses' accountability appear to be influenced by ethical positions and ideology. Healthcare organizations should provide a supportive work environment to help nurses develop self-awareness, and knowledge of their ethical ideologies, which improve professional values and clinical accountability in their practice. Ethical ideology and professional values should be emphasized more in nursing curricula.

Ethical decision-making in purchasing channels: A context of developing B2B markets

ABSTRACT The present study analyses the responses of supply chain professionals facing certain ethical situations while performing their strategic tasks. The objective of this empirical investigation is to link the six dimensions of moral intensity (magnitude of consequences, proximity, probability of effect, social consensus, temporal immediacy, and concertation of effect) and two dimensions of ethical ideology (idealism and relativism) with three sequential phases of EDM (Ethical Decision Making), i.e. recognition, judgement, and intention, while purchasers are exposed to ethical dilemmas in B2B context. A mixed experimental research methodology was employed to analyse the responses of 289 purchasing professionals from a developing country. Six dimensions of moral intensity were manipulated into three conditions (Low, High, and Control) using 18 originally constructed purchase scenarios. The study’s findings reveal that idealism, relativism, and moral intensity are associated mainly with ethical decision-making stages. Among four sets of ethical ideologies, absolutists were found to be more ethical. The study concludes by giving future research directions and implications for practitioners.

The Influence of Ethical Ideology on Ethical Judgment with Professional Commitment as Mediator (Study on Public Accountant Firm Auditors in Malang)

This study aims to determine the effect of ethical ideology on ethical judgment with professional commitment as a mediator. The respondents of this study were KAP auditors in Malang City. The distribution of questionnaires used in the study obtained a sample of 77 respondents. This research was tested using path analysis, the results of the study concluded that ethical ideology (idealism) has a positive effect on ethical judgment and can be mediated by professional commitment, while ethical ideology (relativism) hurts ethical judgment and can be mediated by professional commitment. This study shows that the higher the moral idealism of an auditor, the higher the auditor's desire to comply with the rules and principles of accounting ethics compared to auditors who have moral relativism. Relativistic auditors tend to be unprofessional and more lenient when making ethical decisions

How Ethical Ideology Influences Mask-Wearing Intention in a Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Moral Norms and Threat to Freedom

The present study examined how two types of ethical ideologies (idealism, and relativism) influenced behavioral intention to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic through two appraisals (moral norms, and threat to freedom) of a mask-wearing issue. A total of 823 responses were collected through a cross-sectional survey, and 776 responses were used for testing hypotheses. The study found that idealism has a significant indirect effect on behavioral intention through increased moral norms and decreased threat to freedom. Also, the study revealed that relativism has a significant indirect effect on behavioral intention through increased threat to freedom.

Impact of Ethical Ideologies on Students' Attitude toward Animals-A Pakistani Perspective.

Idealism and relativism are components of ethical ideologies which have been explored in relation to animal welfare and attitudes, and potential cultural differences. The present study investigated how ethical ideologies influenced attitude toward animals among undergraduate students. With the help of stratified random sampling, 450 participants were selected from both private and public sector universities in Pakistan. Research instruments consisted of a demographic sheet, the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ), the Animal Attitude Scale-10-Item Version (AAS-10), and Animal Issue Scale (AIS). The study hypotheses were explored by employing various statistical analyses like Pearson Product Moment Correlation, independent sample t-test, ANOVA, and linear regression. Results revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between ethical ideologies (idealism and relativism) and attitude toward animals in students. Results further showed that students who consumed meat less frequently scored higher on relativism as compared to those who consumed meat more frequently (however, the effect size was small). It was also found that senior students held more idealistic ideologies as compared to freshman students. Finally, idealism positively predicted concern for animal welfare among students. The current study shed light on how ethical ideologies can shape and influence animal welfare. It further highlighted the potential cultural differences for the study variables by allowing for comparison with other published studies. By understanding these dynamics better, researchers will be better equipped to help students become informed citizens that may also influence future decision-making processes.

Pengaruh Ideologi Etis Terhadap Penilaian Etis

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of ethical ideology on ethical judgments. This research contributes to the existing literature on student ethical judgment, particularly in the context of a developing country such as Indonesia. There are 193 of accounting students Faculty of Economics Universitas Negeri Padang who have taken/are currently taking courses Ethics on Accounting Profession. This study shows that idealism doesn’t have positive effect on Ethical Judgment, while relativism shows negative results on ethical judgment.

A cross-cultural investigation of the relationship between eco-innovation and customers boycott behaviour

Retailers are under pressure to utilise eco-innovation to improve their operations and reduce customers boycotts as a result of the growing concerns of customers about environmental issues. Thus, this paper examines the effect of eco-innovation (i.e., reactive eco-innovation, proactive eco-innovation) on customers boycotts behaviours across various cultural environments. It also explores the role of ethical ideology (i.e., idealism, relativism) on this relationship. Based on psychological contract violation theory was used to develop our study model. We collected data from 3392 consumers from four different countries to test the study model. The results indicated that company's reactive eco-innovation is positively related to customers boycotts behaviour and this relationship is stronger in the developed societies (i.e., UK, USA) than in the developing societies (i.e., Saudi Arabia, Egypt). Furthermore, proactive eco-innovation has a negative effect on boycotts. This link is stronger in the in the developing societies (i.e., Saudi Arabia, Egypt) than in the developed societies (i.e., UK, USA). Psychological contract violation and environmental concerns were found to mediate this relationship. Moreover, our study found that idealism has a negative influence on boycotts while relativism has a positive effect on boycotts. Our study offers meaningful theoretical and managerial implications for retailers in different cultural contexts.

Examining the impact of marketing techniques on the prescription behavior of physicians with ethical ideology as a moderator

PurposeThis research paper aims to investigate the impact of pharmaceutical marketing on the prescription behavior of physicians. It further examines whether the use of various promotional techniques including advertisements, sales promotions, personal selling and direct marketing by pharmaceutical companies influences the prescription behavior of doctors. Based on the increasing ethical concerns regarding the promotion of specific drugs for personal gains, the research also investigated the moderating role of ethical ideology in the above relationship.Design/methodology/approachTo accomplish the research goals, quantitative research methods were used. Using the online questionnaire, data were collected from 93 doctors working in government and private hospitals in Pakistan, and structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze the impact of pharmaceutical marketing techniques on the prescription decisions of physicians.FindingsThe findings suggested that marketing strategies of pharmaceutical companies positively influences the prescription behavior of doctors. Further, physicians having weak ethical standards are likely to be strongly influenced by the marketing and promotional practices of companies.Practical implicationsThe research is pivotal in understanding the perspective of doctors and the ethical considerations that need to be addressed while devising the marketing campaigns by pharmaceutical companies. Further, these findings provide important implications regarding the essential linkage between ethical values and the development of right marketing tools.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first few to empirically develop and test the role of moral values followed by physicians when they take prescription decisions. Based on the findings, future researchers are encouraged to further investigate the need of setting boundaries for pharmaceutical companies and restricting their usage regarding the promotional tactics.

Friends, food or worth fighting for? A proposed stereotype content model for nonhuman animals

Abstract The human perception of nonhuman animals is a burgeoning area of anthrozoology, with the past decade seeing an increase in work within the field. This study attempted to assess people’s social perceptions about various nonhuman animals. Food animals, for example, have often been classified as being less sentient and have been historically devoid of rights and moral concern due to their nature as a consumable commodity. Advancements in social psychology have allowed the general hypothesis that some key theories might be transferrable toward understanding how people perceive animals. This study borrows from work on the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) and attempts to replicate the social perceptions of animals along the warmth-competence dimensions among a Singaporean sample (N = 325) of vegetarians, animal activists, and those who regarded themselves as neither. Ratings on the scales of warmth and competence for 16 animals were subjected to multidimensional scaling analysis. Results indicate people hold different social perceptions congruent to the various animal species. Four main clusters were identified, and these were named, ‘Love’, ‘Save’, ‘Indifferent’, and ‘Dislike’ based on the expectancy of how participants might feel toward the animals. The ethical ideology of participants was also measured, with vegetarians and animal activists holding more ‘absolutist’ beliefs. When factored into the scaling process, ethical ideology had little impact on participants’ social perceptions of nonhuman animals.

Unethical pro-organizational behavior: how employee ethical ideology and unethical organizational culture contribute

PurposeThe corporate atmosphere in recent times speaks volumes about the crises of confidence and credibility brewing among professionals due to the rising incidences of unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB). The study developed a model to demonstrate the underlying mechanisms through which unethical organizational culture (UOC) influences UPB through the mediating roles of idealism and relativism.Design/methodology/approachUsing a cross-sectional approach, data were collected through questionnaires that were distributed to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the Plateau state in Nigeria. A total of 269 responses were obtained and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique via Smart-PLS software.FindingsThe results revealed that the relationship between UOC and UPB was significant. The indirect predictive role of UOC on UPB was established via relativism but not through idealism. The results indicate that the preponderance of UPB among SMEs is a product of UOC which breeds a relativist ideology that ultimately promotes UPB. Finally, implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.Originality/valueThis study contributes to UPB in two unique ways. First, the authors bring to the fore the critical role of UOC in the debate on UPB which has been under-explored. Second, the study also established the mediating role of relativism in the relationship between UOC and UPB.