Personal Value Preferences Research Articles

Personal values of baccalaureate nursing students in Turkey

Value education is aimed at helping students develop a mode of reasoning, enabling them to make decisions and deal with conflicts on a daily basis. For this, it should firstly be assessment personal values of nursing students. The purpose of the study was to determine the personal values of nursing students with respect to certain variables. The population of the study, which had a cross-sectional design, included all undergraduate students (n = 525) attending the nursing school. The sample group comprised 397 nursing students selected from among the nursing students attending a baccalaureate programme in Turkey using the disproportional cluster sampling method. Data were collected utilizing the Personal Information Form and Value Preferences Scale. The personal values of the students were found to be moral, social, financial/economic, aesthetic, political, religious and scientific/theoretical values. The study suggested that the age, year at school and economic level of the family affected the students' values. Values influence behaviours that are an essential component of humanistic nursing care. They are integral to professional socialization, evident in nursing care and fundamental decisions that affect practice.

Ethical reasoning differences between accountants and managers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test whether significant differences in ethical reasoning exist between Chinese accountants and managers when facing an ethical dilemma. Further tests are conducted to identify what professional contextual factors and personal value preferences can be introduced to explain the ethical reasoning differences observed.Design/methodology/approachThree research questions are raised and related hypotheses are developed and tested by the use of a defined issue test (DIT) instrument containing four hypothetical scenarios of different dilemmatic issues, and a Rokeach values survey questionnaire adapted to suit the Chinese business culture.FindingsThe findings and conclusions include: Chinese managers and accountants are not significantly differentiated in terms of ethical reasoning levels measured by the overall DIT instrument, however, the break‐down results of the DIT individual dilemmatic scenarios shows that significant differences exist between the two professional types in three out of four scenarios. Second, gender and frequency of making compromises are two significant contextual determinant of ethical reasoning levels of managers but not those of accountants, and for the accountants, no significant contextual factors are observed in the current study. Third, in determining the impacts of value preferences on ethical reasoning levels, the four‐factor classification approach produces a more contrasting result than the seven‐factor classification approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe selection of the four scenarios in the DIT instrument is subjective according to the designation of the test, and Chinese business profession's ethical ideologies might differ among different regions. However, these research limitations might inspire further ethics research on cross‐regional comparisons in China and other emerging economies.Practical implicationsIn Chinese surging markets, appropriate socio‐economic order can only be maintained by highly ethical reasoning and conduct on the part of business managers and accountants. The current results and findings would help to identify what factors and value preferences weigh more, in order to improve the professional ethicality.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the research literature of business ethics by adding a managers‐accountants comparative study on ethical reasoning differences, especially the ethicality of two different professions in emerging economies; further, it includes contextual factors and value preferences in identifying those determinants of ethical reasoning differences.

Self-construal and cultural orientation as predictors for developmental goals: A comparison between Brazilian and German caregivers

The aim of this study was to investigate caregivers' developmental goals in Brazil and Germany and to explain inter- and intracultural variations in these goals by taking their respective subjective cultural values into account. The main question was whether caregivers' preferences of developmental goals depend on their perception of prevailing norms in the culture or on their personal value preferences. German and Brazilian kindergarten teachers and mothers of 5-year-old children (N = 128) participated in the study. They were asked to select and rank the developmental goals based on importance out of a given list of goals. Furthermore, the caregivers' self-construal (SCS) and their normative and evaluative cultural orientation (COS) were assessed. Results yielded culture-specific differences for self-construal, cultural orientation, and preferences of developmental goals. The caregivers' perception of prevailing cultural norms was the best predictor for goal preferences.

Acculturation Attitudes of Potential Emigrants: Jewish Youths in Russia

The present paper investigates the acculturation attitudes of potential emigrants and their relationship to value priorities, cultural identifications, and psychological well‐being. The results confirm that potential emigrants have a well‐formed system of acculturation attitudes and that integration is the predominant acculturation attitude of the majority of potential emigrants. Preference for acculturation attitudes other than integration is associated with the psychological distress of potential emigrants. The research confirms that personal value preferences underlie acculturation attitudes of potential emigrants, thus indicating that each acculturation attitude allows accomplishment of different motivational goals in the situation of emigration. Cultural identifications of Jewish potential emigrants in Russia are discussed in light of their relationships with value priorities and acculturation attitudes.

Effects of personal values on auditors’ ethical decisions

This study investigates the effects of personal values on auditors’ ethical decision making. Previous accounting research has investigated the value profiles of practicing CPAs and accounting students, and the effects of values on accounting students’ ethical decisions. However, the current study is the first to empirically address the role of values in the ethical decision processes of professional auditors. We surveyed a random sample of AICPA members to assess their value preferences and reactions to an ethical dilemma involving client pressure for aggressive financial reporting. Contrary to our hypothesis, personal value preferences did not influence auditors’ perceptions of the moral intensity of the ethical dilemma. As hypothesized, perceptions of moral intensity influenced both ethical judgments and behavioral intentions.