Contextual effects on ethical sensitivity and penalty judgments
Date
2003Source Title
Teaching Business Ethics
Print ISSN
1382-6891
Electronic ISSN
1573-1944
Publisher
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Volume
7
Pages
341 - 363
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
187
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Abstract
The aim of the current study is to explore the potential existence of contextual effects on ethical sensitivity and penalty judgments. In so doing, Turkish female and
male business students’ ethical judgments for accounting and general business contexts are
investigated, along with their penalty judgments in these two settings. The results of this
study reveal no significant gender-related differences in ethical judgments on accounting
issues, but significant gender differences are observed in general business scenarios. This
finding supports the proposition that observed differences of ethical judgments between the
genders may be contextual. The results indicate that there is higher ethical awareness for
both genders in general business contexts, with females showing stronger ethical sensitivity
than males for general business vignettes. In general, males are found to prefer harsher
penalties than females for accounting settings and for all penalty choices. Analyses of
penalty judgments between the groups of individuals who are more ethically sensitive and
who are less ethically sensitive reveals that there exist significant differences between these
groups in all penalty choices, with ethically-more-sensitive group participants preferring
stronger penalties.