INSTITUTO COPPEAD DE ADMINISTRAÇÃO
PEDRO DELDUQUE KROPF
ETHICS POSITIONS IN BRAZIL: MEASURING, COMPARING, AND EVALUATING IMPLICATIONS
Rio de Janeiro 2021
ETHICS POSITIONS IN BRAZIL: MEASURING, COMPARING, AND EVALUATING IMPLICATIONS
A thesis presented to the Coppead Business School, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, as part of the mandatory requirements for the degree of Doctor of Sciences in Business Administration (D.Sc.)
ADVISOR: Otavio Henrique dos Santos Figueiredo, D.
Sc
Rio de Janeiro 2021
ETHICS POSITIONS IN BRAZIL: MEASURING, COMPARING, AND EVALUATING IMPLICATIONS
A thesis presented to the Coppead Business School, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, as part of the mandatory requirements for the degree of Doctor of Sciences in Business Administration (D.Sc.).
Rio de Janeiro 2021
Quero agradecer em primeiro lugar ao Criador, que me deu a oportunidade de chegar ao final desse longo percurso, acumulando nele mais alguns aprendizados de vida, de pesquisador e de profissional.
Quero agradecer de um modo especial ao professor Renato Cotta de Mello, o primeiro a me estimular e a me apoiar no ingresso ao doutorado. Agradeço também ao professor pelas contribuições que deu ao trabalho e por sua disponibilidade em nos orientar e ajudar academicamente desde o mestrado.
Agradeço também ao professor Otavio Henrique dos Santos Figueiredo pela orientação atenta e exaustiva, que me permitiu trilhar esse caminho até aqui, sabendo que tudo tem valido a pena.
Agradeço aos professores Cecília Mattoso, Leandro Chevitarese e Raphael Moses Roquette pela dedicação do próprio tempo na conclusão desse projeto e no avanço de um campo de estudo tão caro ao nosso Brasil.
Por fim, agradeço a minha esposa Letícia e aos meus filhos Larissa, Clara, Gabriel e Mateus, que sempre me mostraram amor, paciência e apoio, sem os quais eu não teria conseguido avançar e chegar ao final desse projeto. Além deles, agradeço aos meus pais Thereza e Guilherme pelo exemplo de estudiosos que me deram e por todas as oportunidades educacionais que me proporcionaram, além de amor, carinho, integridade e confiança.
KROPF, Pedro Delduque. Ethics positions in Brazil: measuring, comparing, and evaluating implications. Thesis (Doctorate Degree in Business Administration) - COPPEAD Institute of Administration, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2021.
Regarding business ethics (BE), Brazil has been in evidence on the world stage. A nation with a position in the group of the twenty strongest world economies that, at the same time, occupies the 106th place in the Transparency International integrity index ranking, and raises attention because of its unethical outputs. In this context, the thesis sought to penetrate the BE field to favor the necessary diagnosis for a country that intends to move toward lower corruption levels in business environments. The research is developed in four papers. The first investigates the field of moral philosophies, as it is the main academic way to refer to ethics positions. A bibliometric study is presented, revealing the most relevant methods and guidelines to fill Brazilian gaps. The second paper applies one of those methods and surveys 410 workers from a Brazilian organization, allowing the comparison between Brazilians' ethics positions and other nations' data. The result shows that Brazilians present, in a comparative way, a high ethical standard, despite the latent corruption disguised in the society. The third paper scrutinizes the applied scale results to test the resilience of the psychometric instruments and to find the relation between the constructs and six demographic variables. Thus, the measurement invariance of idealism and relativism concerning the demographic variables was investigated.
The results show that several demographic variables affect the measurement of the idealism and relativism scales. Finally, in the fourth paper, tests with two new scales were performed to provide a comparative analysis between the ethics positions (idealism and relativism), ethical climate, and worker behavior, through production deviance dimension (PD). The results show that a lower PD mean is positively related to higher idealism and to a stronger perception of ethical climate, whereas no meaningful relation was found between PD means and relativism levels.
Keywords: moral philosophy; business ethics; idealism; relativism; ethics position;
measurement invariance; production deviance, ethical climate.
KROPF, Pedro Delduque. Posições éticas no Brasil: medindo, comparando e avaliando implicações. Tese (Doutorado em Administração) - Instituto COPPEAD de Administração, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 2021.
Em relação à ética empresarial (EE), o Brasil tem se destacado no cenário mundial.
Dado que é um país que se posiciona no grupo das vinte economias mundiais mais fortes do mundo, ao mesmo tempo em que ocupa o 106º lugar no ranking do índice de integridade da Transparência Internacional. Nesse contexto, a tese buscou penetrar no campo da EE para favorecer o diagnóstico necessário para um país que pretende avançar rumo a índices mais baixos de corrupção nos ambientes de negócios. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida em quatro artigos.
O primeiro investiga o campo das filosofias morais, dado ser este o principal termo acadêmico a se referir as posições éticas. No artigo é apresentado um estudo bibliométrico, revelando os métodos e diretrizes mais relevantes para a cobertura dos gaps de pesquisa presentes no Brasil.
O segundo artigo aplica um desses métodos e realiza uma survey com 410 trabalhadores de uma organização brasileira, permitindo a comparação entre as posições éticas de brasileiros e dados de outras nações. O resultado mostra que os brasileiros apresentam, de forma comparativa, um alto padrão ético, apesar de haver um estímulo à corrupção latente na sociedade. O terceiro artigo examina os resultados das escalas aplicadas na survey para testar a resiliência dos instrumentos psicométricos e para encontrar a relação entre os construtos e seis variáveis demográficas. Assim, foi investigada a invariância de medida do idealismo e relativismo em relação às variáveis demográficas. Os resultados mostram que diversas variáveis demográficas afetam a mensuração das escalas de idealismo e relativismo. Por fim, no quarto artigo, foram realizados testes com duas novas escalas com o objetivo de fornecer uma análise comparativa entre as posições éticas (idealismo e relativismo), clima ético e desvios laborais (production deviance - PD). Os resultados mostram que uma média de PD mais baixa está positivamente relacionada a um idealismo mais elevado e a uma percepção mais forte de clima ético, ao passo que nenhuma relação significativa foi encontrada entre as médias de PD e os níveis de relativismo.
Palavras-chave: filosofia moral; ética empresarial; idealismo; relativismo; posições éticas;
invariância de media; desvios laborais, clima ético.
Figure 1.1 Histogram of terms with more than 600 citations in the sample 28
Figure 1.2 Word cloud 30
Figure 1.3 Frequency of moral philosophies 31
Figure 1.4 Histogram of the number of publications by year 32 Figure 1.5 Histogram with the number of quantitative surveys by year 33
Figure 2.1 Ethical positions of respondents 62
Figure 2.2 Ethical positions by country 63
Table 1.1 Quantitative studies based on deontological and teleological approaches 33 Table 1.2 Quantitative studies that used Forsyth's (1992) method 34
Table 2.1 Ethics positions 50
Table 2.2 EPQ score means in descending order of idealism 55 Table 2.3 Fit indices of the models resulting from the AFC 60
Table 2.4 Sample data 61
Table 3.1 Summary of the MGCFA tests applied 83
Table 3.2 Results of CFA 86
Table 3.3 Results of the MGCFA tests 97
Table 3.4 Summary of main results 98
Table 4.1 Production Deviance scale 115
Table 4.2 Steps of MGCFA 117
Table 4.3 Division of groups for MGCFA 118
Table 4.4 CFA fit indices 119
Table 4.5 PD means per group 120
Table 4.6 MGCFA main results 120
ADF ASYMPTOTICALLY DISTRIBUTION-FREE AGFI ADJUSTED GOODNESS-OF-FIT INDEX
BE BUSINESS ETHICS
CFA CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS
CFI COMPARATIVE FIT INDEX
C.R. CRITICAL RATIO
CSR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CWB COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIOR
EC ETHICAL CLIMATE
EFA EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS EPQ ETHICS POSITION QUESTIONNAIRE
GFI GOODNESS-OF-FIT INDEX
MGCFA MULTI-GROUP CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS
MI MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE
MLE MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION
PD PRODUCTION DEVIANCE
RMSEA ROOT-MEAN-SQUARE ERROR OF APPROXIMATION
SD STANDARD DEVIATION
WD WORKPLACE DEVIANCE
χ2/df CHI SQUARE TO DF RATIO
1 Introduction ... 14
1.1 Idealism and relativism scales ... 15
1.2 Ethical climate and production deviance scales... 16
2 First Paper: "Moral Philosophies in Business Ethics: a Bibliometric Analysis" ... 18
2.1 Introduction ... 18
2.2 Literature Review ... 19
2.2.1 Moral and ethical concepts ... 20
2.2.2 Individual ethical system ... 21
2.2.3 Moral philosophies ... 22
2.3 Methodology ... 25
2.3.1 Bibliometrics ... 25
2.3.2 Sample ... 26
2.3.3 Procedures ... 27
2.4 Results ... 28
2.4.1 Content analysis: word frequency ... 28
2.4.2 Word cloud ... 29
2.4.3 Frequency of moral philosophy categories ... 30
2.4.4 Publications per year ... 31
2.4.5 Quantitative research ... 32
2.5 Conclusions ... 35
2.6 Limitations ... 37
2.7 References ... 37
3 Second Paper: Ethics Position of Brazilians Workers: An International Comparative Study ... 46
3.1 Introduction ... 46
3.2 Literature Review ... 47
3.2.1 Individual ethical system ... 47
3.2.2 Moral philosophies ... 48
3.2.3 Ethical ideology ... 48
3.2.4 Theory of Ethical Positions ... 49
3.2.4.1 Absolutists ... 50
3.2.4.2 Subjectivists ... 51
3.2.5 EPQ studies ... 52
3.2.6 Results of studies with EPQ ... 52
3.2.7 Meta-analysis ... 54
3.2.7.1 Participation of Brazil ... 54
3.3 Research Hypotheses ... 55
3.4 Methodology ... 57
3.4.1 Ethics Position Questionnaire ... 57
3.4.2 Translation of EPQ ... 57
3.4.3 The validation of the scales ... 58
3.4.4 Sample ... 59
3.5 Results ... 59
3.5.1 Scales validation ... 59
3.5.2 Applied results ... 60
3.5.2.1 Results of respondents surveyed ... 61
3.5.2.2 The comparative result among countries ... 62
3.6 Conclusions ... 63
3.7 Limitations ... 65
3.8 References ... 66
4 Third Paper: Idealism and relativism: measurement invariance across demographic groups ... 72
4.1 Introduction ... 72
4.2 Literature Review ... 74
4.2.1 Personal moral philosophies ... 74
4.2.2 Forsyth's (1980) method and scale ... 74
4.2.3 The relevance of studying idealism and relativism ... 75
4.3 Hypotheses ... 77
4.3.1 Differences in ethical profile by age... 77
4.3.2 Differences in ethical profile by gender ... 77
4.3.3 Differences in ethical profile by education... 77
4.3.4 Differences in ethical profile by ethics training ... 78
4.3.5 Differences in ethical profile by career type ... 79
4.3.6 Differences in ethical profile by leadership position ... 79
4.4 Methodology ... 80
4.4.3 Testing for latent mean differences ... 81
4.4.4 Testing the hypotheses ... 83
4.5 Results ... 84
4.5.1 Validations of the scales ... 85
4.5.2 Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA) ... 86
4.5.2.1 Analyses in age groups ... 86
4.5.2.2 Analyses in gender groups ... 87
4.5.2.3 Analyses in education groups ... 87
4.5.2.4 Analyses in ethics training groups ... 88
4.5.2.5 Analyses in the career type groups ... 89
4.5.2.6 Analyses in leadership position groups ... 89
4.6 Conclusions ... 90
4.6.1 Age ... 90
4.6.2 Gender ... 91
4.6.3 Education ... 91
4.6.4 Ethics training ... 92
4.6.5 Career type ... 93
4.6.6 Leadership position ... 93
4.7 Implications ... 95
4.8 Limitations ... 96
4.9 References ... 99
5 Fourth Paper: The Impact of Idealism, Relativism, and Ethical Climate on Production Deviance ... 107
5.1 Introduction ... 107
5.2 Literature Review and Hypotheses ... 108
5.2.1 Workplace deviance ... 108
5.2.2 Production deviance ... 109
5.2.3 Idealism and Relativism ... 110
5.2.4 Ethical Climate ... 111
5.3 Methodology ... 112
5.3.1 Measuring idealism and relativism ... 113
5.3.2 Measuring ethical climate ... 113
5.3.3 Measuring Production Deviance ... 113
5.3.5.1 Division of groups ... 118
5.4 Results ... 118
5.4.1 Validation of scales ... 119
5.4.2 Statistical Analyses ... 119
5.5 Conclusion ... 121
5.5.1 Idealism and Production Deviance ... 121
5.5.2 Relativism and Production Deviance ... 122
5.5.3 Ethical Climate and Production Deviance ... 122
5.6 Limitations and futures research ... 123
5.7 References ... 123
6 Conclusion ... 134
6.1 Discovering the field and studying Brazil ... 134
6.2 Improving the knowledge and the use of the scales ... 136
6.3 Summary of contributions ... 138
6.4 Limitations ... 139
6.5 Suggestions for future research ... 139
7 Thesis references ... 141
8 Appendix: Research Questionnaire ... 161
1 Introduction
Debate over ethical issues has grown in Brazil. The advent of globalization and virtual communication allows quick comparisons between nations. Regarding ethics, Brazil has been in evidence on the world stage. It occupies a position in the group of the twenty strongest world economies (Barbier, 2020). At the same time, however, Brazil is the 106th nation in the integrity index ranking (Transparency International, 2020).
In addition, in 2015, several police investigations were launched, revealing corruption schemes between public and private business sectors. Those investigations provoked a considerable impact on Brazilian politics. Several prominent politicians have been arrested since then, among them a former president, senators, congressmen, former governors, etc.
Those circumstances favored a president's impeachment, as well as the rise of new groups to the highest positions of the federal government.
In this context, the theme of business ethics (BE) plays a central role. The major corruption scandals involved Petrobras, one of the largest companies in Brazil (Oliveira, 2020).
Thus, since then, the population's demand for ethical behavior in politics and institutions has grown enormously (Garcia & Teodósio, 2020). However, before 2015, Brazil was already known to have a negative reputation in business ethics (Halter, Arruda & Halter, 2009; Forte, Domingues & Oliveira, 2015). Brazilians' negative reputation is not restricted to the business field, the national culture itself favors unethical behavior at some level (Filgueiras, 2009).
Evidence shows that Brazil and most of its neighboring countries have never given BE proper attention (Robertson, Olson, Gilley & Bao, 2008), reinforcing a culture of neglect on the subject. However, the new global conjuncture furthers BE's topics. Therefore, the moment is favorable for ethics studies, and there is an effort in favor of filling in the established historical gaps.
This research is part of this effort. It aims to meet the demand for answers, information, and tools to facilitate the diagnosis of Brazil and Brazilians' ethical questions. Thus, the main focus of this study was the measurement of the individual ethical system. The research started identifying the main tools available for this purpose and applying one of them in a Brazilian organization. We also looked for other instruments that could help the ethical diagnosis in organizations at the institutional level. As a result, two other international measurement scales were identified, translated, and applied to achieve this objective.
1.1 Idealism and relativism scales
These scales are part of the method developed by Donelson Forsyth (1980) for measuring and identifying people's ethical positions. The author developed a methodology to identify a person's ethical profile by measuring idealism and relativism dimensions. These scales have been widely validated and used in international research, especially in the field of BE.
Many researchers sought to identify behavioral patterns through idealism or relativism levels. The number of international surveys allowed Forsyth, O'Boyle, and McDaniel (2008) to perform a meta-analysis on 139 published surveys. Their article compared the idealism and relativism means of 29 nations, identifying each one's predominant ethical profile. However, these scales have never been translated to be used in Portuguese by Brazilians. As a result, the authors did not include Brazil in the meta-analysis, and its ethical profile position compared to the other 29 nations was still unknown.
Thus, our research aimed to correct these gaps. We attested the potential of these scales against other methods (first paper). We translated, adapted, validated, and applied them effectively comparing Brazil to the other 29 nations present in the meta-analysis (second paper).
Furthermore, deepening into the literature, we found another gap. It was the cross of demographic variables with idealism and relativism scores. Many researchers have looked for it. However, as we have checked, they did not use the most recommended methodology. They have compared groups of analysis without checking the psychometric instrument measurement invariance (MI), as suggested by specialists (Damásio, 2013). Thus, our third paper analyzed six demographic variables (age, gender, education, ethics training, career type, and leadership position), checking MI before comparing idealism and relativism latent means between groups.
This study revealed relevant information about variables that could not be compared, as the scales did not prove they could equivalently measure the constructs among the analyzed groups. However, regarding the variables with proved MI, we were able to make more robust crossed analyses of the groups' latent means.
1.2 Ethical climate and production deviance scales
Our research also looked for a behavioral test of idealism and relativism dimensions.
Besides that, we looked to further expand the Brazilian BE studies in a Brazilian public company. Thus, in the fourth paper, we brought the production deviance (PD) scale to review them together with idealism and relativism and the organizations' perceived ethical climate (EC).
PD aims to measure the extent to which organizations are affected by the diversion of human resources (working time, the commitment of workers, procrastination, among other things). It has been a problem that affects organizations due to its direct impact on productivity (Guay et al., 2016). PD is estimated to cost organizations worldwide billions of dollars (Bennett, Marasi, & Locklear, 2019).
Another new measure, the EC scale, aims to assess the perception of ethics in an institution by its workers. Thus, in the fourth study, these two new scales were selected, adequately treated, and applied in Brazil. As a result, we analyzed idealism and relativism together with PD and EC, achieving the evaluation of persons and institutions, as well as their synergy points in order to develop an ethical approach.
This survey made it possible to measure PD in a federal organization in the Brazilian public sector. It shows relevance since PD affects an organization's production (Guay et al., 2016), and Brazilian public organizations offer below-average productivity (Laurinho, Dias &
Mattos, 2017; Neto, Silva & Silva; 2017).
Moreover, a high PD incidence is against the ethical conduct expected from public workers. Thus, our fourth study also aimed to cross idealism and relativism levels with PD means. The analysis aimed to test conclusions that were widely reported in the previous literature: high idealism foments more ethical postures, and high relativism leads to the opposite.
Finally, we also crossed ethical climate levels with PD means. Thus, this study aimed to assess the impact of individual ethical systems and ethical climate on PD means. We used MI to validate the possibility of comparing PD latent means between different groups (high idealism and low idealism, for example). The results revealed that high idealism and a strong perceived ethical climate are related to lower PD means. However, relativism did not show a clear relationship with PD.
2 First Paper: "Moral Philosophies in Business Ethics: a Bibliometric Analysis"
Abstract
This study aims to understand the field of moral philosophies in business ethics, its most relevant subthemes, and its main metrics. In addition to the literature review, a bibliometric study is performed using the R® software, aiming to offer information and quantitative analysis on the publications through content analysis. The field of research in moral philosophies is revealed, presenting its metrics and its main subthemes. Results show that research in moral philosophies addresses social issues with a collective bias, giving relevance to values, virtues, and behaviors. The rate of publications has been consistent in recent years, with a slight increase in quantitative research. Most papers have investigated the relationships between individual ethical system and behavioral elements. The information helps improve national research to facilitate the comprehension of the ethical context in the national business environment.
Keywords: Moral philosophy; business ethics; idealism; relativism; bibliometric.
2.1 Introduction
Interest in business ethics studies is relatively recent in relation to other academic management themes. Such interest began to gain strength in the 1970s; indeed, the first journals focused on the theme only appeared in the 1980s, when it became part of the curriculum of American business schools (George, 1987). Since then, a theoretical-academic field has developed, albeit mainly in the United States of America (Meira, 2010).
Brazil and indeed Latin America as a whole have very few business ethics studies (Robertson, Olson, Gilley & Bao, 2008). However, the ethical inconsistency of managers (Moraes, Castro, Moritz & Lima, 2012) and demand for ethics in companies have been reported
(Brito & Leone, 2012). Historically speaking, Brazil has a negative reputation concerning business ethics (Arruda, 1997; Halter, Arruda & Halter, 2009; Forte, Domingues & Oliveira, 2015), which has grown with the advent of the recent corruption scandals triggered by operation Lava Jato (Cioccari, 2015).
Undoubtedly, the context confirms the relevance of business ethics research in Brazil.
Thus, we must study Brazil's ethical context from its foundations: Brazilian individuals. One of the main objectives should be the expansion of studies on this topic. Without such expansion, it will be very difficult to build a robust diagnosis of the ethical problem that has been exposed with operation Lava Jato. Therefore, this article aims to prepare the field for filling this academic gap, increasing the volume of applied business ethics studies in Brazil.
Following these ideas, the research is a review of the individual ethical system field, a relevant business ethics theme that is represented academically by moral philosophies.
According to Monga (2005), moral philosophies are the ethical categories present in each individual, whose role is to guide individual ethical decisions. Hence, this study aims to form a comprehensive review capable of presenting the topic on various aspects, providing elements that allow a generic understanding of the field, its central concepts, metrics, and variables most studied internationally.
As a result, the article has three main parts: first, a literature review presents the theme of moral philosophies from its foundations, so that it can be appropriately understood and contextualized; second, an international bibliometric survey highlights the most relevant subjects, relationships, and concepts on the theme; and third, we map the quantitative researches on the topic, listing the studies based on the scales studied, to expose the main methodological paths for future national research.
2.2 Literature Review
2.2.1 Moral and ethical concepts
It is common to encounter the inaccurate use of the terms “ethics” and “morals” outside the academic environment. Pedro (2014) points out that the origin of the terminological flaws lies in the ignorance of each term's conceptual details or in the option of using them similarly.
Based on Greek and Latin translations, the author also states that these terms' etymological origin favored an unclear understanding.
The term “moral” originally comes from the Latin term “mores,” which means customs, in the sense of norms or rules acquired by habit. Therefore, it became a reference to indicate the rules of conduct admitted in a society (Figueiredo, 2008). From this origin, we understand that an accepted moral fact reflects society's tradition or cultural reality.
Vázquez (2014) points out that morality refers to a system of norms, principles, and values responsible for regulating individuals' relationships in a social group. In this way, moral issues are present when relationships between individuals occur, with a human conscience capable of choosing behavior consistent with the prescriptions of a social group. The author points out that morality is always located in time and space, varying over the years, also in the same society. Thus, a prevailing morality exists in every group. The prescriptions may change, but the fact that there is an existing moral does not change. No constituted social group can exist without the presence of a moral that guides it (Vázquez, 2014).
However, unlike moral problems, which are more of a practical nature, applied in everyday life, ethical issues are distinguished by their generalities (Vázquez, 2014). The term
“ethics,” as we know it today, has its origin in the Greek term ethos and denotes “property of character” (Tugendhat, 2012). Despite the ambiguous historical use of the terms “ethics” and
“morals” (Pedro, 2014), there is a reasonable consensus on the differences of each one. “Ethics”
assumes the role of a theoretical discipline (Srour, 2003), science, and theory of moral behavior in society (Vásquez, 2014). “Morals” assumes the role of reproducing the correct action for each community (Vásquez, 2014).
As theory, ethics has the function of explaining, clarifying, or investigating a given reality, elucidating the human moral experience and behavior (Vázquez, 2014). As science, ethics involves the historical social-moral background. Ethics seeks to determine the essence of morality, its origin, the conditions of the moral act, the sources of moral assessment, the nature and function of moral judgments, and the criteria for justifying these judgments and principles (Vázquez, 2014).
As a consequence, the object of ethical theory or science would be the “moral world,”
which must be studied and understood from an objective, scientific approach (Vásquez, 2014).
In this sense, ethics examines the nature of moral values and the authenticity of their use as a reference for individual or institutional actions (Figueiredo, 2008). Ethics can elucidate the principles that govern morals and even offer subsidies for its improvement. (Vázquez, 2014).
2.2.2 Individual ethical system
Fraedrich and Ferrell (1992) summarize that all morals refer to a set of values; these, in turn, result from a learning process initiated in the first years of human life. Usually, every child learns the basic rules of behavior and the values of their parents. When in maturity, the individual incorporates practices or actions of friends, teachers, and others, comparing them with their own experiences until an individual ethical pattern is defined. Therefore, the process of assimilating moral rules is long and complex, and the person's moral system becomes the basis for any personal ethical decision (Fraedrich & Ferrell, 1992).
Besides, the process occurs due to several related moral conceptions, which underlie individuals' actions (Forsyth, 1992). The scenario of multiple ethical principles in the same society results from the coexistence of different cultures and theoretical lines of ethics study (Vázquez, 2014). Thus, the entire academic and philosophical field of ethics encompasses philosophers' theories, often allowing a confrontation of ideas, rules, and interpretations, with divergent assessments of what is right or wrong, moral or immoral (Reidenbach & Robin, 1990). Based on this reflection, we find that there are different ways of interpreting and judging man's moral actions, not only in terms of the current mores in a given society but also in terms of the individual ethical systems built from ethical theories (Reynolds, 2006).
In line with these findings, scholars sought to identify patterns of individual ethical systems present in the judgments and moral behaviors formulated by individuals (Reidenbach
& Robin, 1990; Forsyth, 1992; Monga, 2005; Reynolds, 2006; Al-Khatib, Vollmers & Liu, 2007; Tsahuridu, 2011; Wang & Calvano, 2015; Fok, Payne, & Corey, 2016; Clouse, Giacalone, Olsen & Patelli, 2017; Li, Chao, Chen & Zhang, 2018).
These studies fit individuals into categories formed by the deepest values and constructs that underlie their ethical decisions. Such categories are identified from the principles, rules, and objectives that guide individuals' decisions (Forsyth, 1992). They were named “moral philosophies,” based on traditional academic and historical moral perspectives (Al-Khatib et al., 2007), and allow the classification of individuals into concepts that reflect their ethical references.
2.2.3 Moral philosophies
The categories present several names, however maintaining the similarity of concepts.
Business ethics studies of moral philosophies focus mainly on two paradigms: the deontological and the teleological approaches (Reynolds, 2006).
2.2.4 Deontological approach
The deontological moral philosophy presents itself as the most conservative and traditional. It is associated with the belief in universal values as imperatives. The deontological subject believes that moral rules are appreciated in their own right, regardless of the circumstances involved in the situations (Cranenburgh & Arenas, 2014).
According to Hunt and Vitell (2006), in the process of deontological ethics, the individual evaluates the right or the wrong in each alternative found. The approach contrasts the options with the predetermined norms, as they represent society's shared values.
Deontological statements precede actions or intentions, defining an ethical or unethical attitude even before evaluating its consequences (Bowen, 2004). According to Cranenburgh and Arenas (2014), Kant's categorical imperative (act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law) presents itself as a classic illustration of a deontological vision.
For that reason, people who behave based on this moral philosophy have precise positions on what it is to be honest or dishonest, so that these decisions are never contingent or conditional (Hunt & Vitell, 2006). Individuals guided by this moral philosophy follow the idea that they have duties to execute. They do not discuss contingencies but act based on what they previously defined as “the right thing” to do (Al-Khatib et al., 2007).
2.2.5 Teleological approach
Teleological moral philosophy is opposed to deontological. It rejects any judgment that precedes the intentionality of the action and does not follow universal values for itself. The
teleological approach judges the morality of an action given the consequences it presents (Cranenburgh & Arenas, 2014). Because of that, they are considered “consequentialist”. It reflects the idea that if the result of the act is good, then the action is ethical. If the result is bad, the action is unethical (Bowen, 2004).
2.2.6 Utilitarianism and individualism
According to Beekun, Westerman, and Barghouti (2005), teleological moral philosophy subdivides into individualistic and utilitarian conceptions, as the difference between them is in the subject beneficiary of the action or intention. Individualism is the teleological conception that focuses on the good of the individual responsible for the action and only on himself.
Utilitarianism focuses on the collective interest so that the decision-maker considers all the results of an action to choose the one which favors a greater number of people (Bowen, 2004).
Thus, the utilitarian decision, whether for an individual, a company, or a government, is one that maximizes the good for a population (Cranenburgh & Arenas, 2014).
2.2.7 Relativism and idealism
Forsyth (1992) developed an analogous study of moral philosophies. He created four new categories by crossing two variables, idealism and relativism, that according to him, can be found in each individual's ethical system. Idealism is a dimension that favors the understanding that there is always a “right thing to do.” Idealistic people believe that hurting others is always preventable (Forsyth, 1992).
Relativism is another dimension measured by Forsyth (1992) that influences an individual ethical system. This conception consists in the denial of the importance of universal
norms. Thus, relativism is based on the argument that people have different opinions and experiences. There is no absolute principle, with each one having to develop and fix their own values.
The taxonomy developed by Forsyth (1992) provides four types of personal moral philosophies, coming from the crossing of idealism and relativism dimensions. As a result, individuals with a strong influence of the two dimensions are called “situationists” and seek the best possible results for everyone in their decisions. Those with high idealism and low relativism compose the “absolutist” group, as they are strongly attached to moral rules.
Individuals with low idealism and high relativism make up the “subjectivist” type; they reject moral regulations and believe that ethical decisions must be made individually. Finally, those with the low influence of the two dimensions are called “exceptionalists” and believe that compliance with moral rules is desirable; however, it is not the criterion to be followed (Forsyth, 1992).
2.3 Methodology
This study is exploratory. It aims to have a broad view of the moral philosophy theme, its most studied subjects, the most prevalent methods, and its academic development. Thus, in addition to the literature review, we used the bibliometric technique to collect thematic information from a sample of articles. We also gathered data about the number of publications by year and made a list of published studies that used quantitative methods to measure moral philosophies.
2.3.1 Bibliometrics
The bibliometric approach applies tools to gather information. This technique is crucial to the field of information management and scientific knowledge among individuals, disciplines, and organizations (Guedes, 2012). Bibliometrics was developed in recent decades with the advent of software capable of processing bibliographic data, allowing the generation of objective information for more accurate knowledge of scientific production (Vanz & Stumpf, 2010). The field of bibliometrics encompasses many techniques for different purposes of extracting information from texts or databases. This study, among other things, uses the content analysis method and does so through bibliometric procedures using the R® software.
According to Alves (2011), content analysis is an investigation technique that uses methods to go through texts and extract meaning from them based on their terms. Therefore, it is possible to use bibliometric procedures to locate, process, and synthesize scientific production on a theme, counting words and generating numerical indicators that can be analyzed and interpreted (Bardin, 2011). For this purpose, we used Scopus® as a search engine for articles and R® software for processing texts.
2.3.2 Sample
Following the guidance of Vanz and Stumpf (2010), we used a bibliographic database to search for the articles to compose our sample. We chose the Scopus® database, produced by Elsevier® since 2004, to survey the literature. This database offers wide coverage of the scientific and technical literature (Vanz & Stumpf, 2010) and a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed journals, representing academic production in areas associated with applied social sciences (e.g., Nobre & Tavares, 2017; Silveira, Petrini & Santos, 2016).
We selected the main keywords for the search according to the literature. We used the root business ethic* associated with any of the other following roots: moral philosoph*, ethical ideolog*, relativism*, deontolog*, utilitar*, teleolog*.
As for the delimitation of years to be loaded on the Scopus® database, we used two criteria. The first criterion would be to define a period that, starting from the present towards the past, could offer a significant time frame, revealing the theme and its evolution. The second criterion is operational and is related to the feasibility of the research. Given our limitations in assessing all documents, the number of articles should not exceed 150.
Finally, after some tests, we identified that a sample with a delimitation of fifteen years would offer an optimum research horizon, attending at the same time our research objective and our capacity of reviewing each document. Hence, we limited our research to articles in the Scopus® database between 2004 and 2018, assembling fifteen years of research on the topic.
Since we made the study in 2019, we decided not to include the year in the studied sample, as it was not finished. In the end, after the exclusion of some inappropriate documents (repeated, out of the scope, among other reasons), the sample had 122 reviewed publications.
2.3.3 Procedures
All 122 articles were examined, confirmed within the research scope, and separated according to the research method and publication year. Besides, we prepared two graphs with publications per year and designed two tables with quantitative research articles about moral philosophies in business ethics. Finally, the articles were loaded into the R® software to perform content analysis, composing the frequency of word table and the word cloud.
For the frequency of words, after some tests, we determined the frequency of appearance greater than 600 times as the cutoff factor of the terms, forming a group of the 15 most
mentioned words. This cutoff point was proven to represent the theme of the texts, being at the same time feasible for analysis and interpretation. Given the research's objectives, the words describing the main categories of moral philosophies were also separately counted. We executed each word count procedure eliminating prepositions, articles, and other generic words.
2.4 Results
2.4.1 Content analysis: word frequency
Figure 1.1 shows the histogram image generated in the R® software output. The word
“social” is the most frequent. “Society” also has a high frequency. It shows the clear social bias of moral philosophy studies. Somehow, related to these words, and also frequently used, is the term “stakeholder.” This information suggests the idea that the academic field turns to the collective importance of individual ethical systems.
Figure 1.1. Histogram of terms with more than 600 citations in the sample.
0 500 1000 1500 2000
virtue values unethical students stakeholder society social relativism individuals individual human decision behavior action act
Furthermore, in articles concerning individual characteristics, the terms “individual”
and “individuals” are on the most cited list. Equally important, the word “human” is often cited, corroborating the idea of studies that focus on human nature, seeking to understand their behavior.
The words “virtue” and “values” reveal these terms in articles concerning moral philosophies. Another high-frequency term is “unethical,” confirming the notable issues of the text, as many studies seek to understand the relationship between moral philosophies and human behavior. In particular, there is a significant concern with realizing how moral philosophies relate to good and bad behavior.
The high frequency of the words “decision,” “behavior,” “action,” and “act” confirm that moral philosophy studies seek to explain human behavior. In summary, many research studies seek not only to understand the relationships among moral philosophies and ethical judgments (already heavily studied) but above all, to understand how moral philosophies could influence a positive behavioral pattern.
Finally, the word “students” correlates with many studies conducted with student samples. The term relativism, as we saw in the literature review, is present in the methodology developed by Forsyth (1992), in addition to representing a modern ideological tendency, measured by some authors in moral philosophy studies (e.g., Nguyen, Basuray, Smith, Kopka
& McCulloh, 2008).
2.4.2 Word cloud
The R® software formed the word cloud, allowing a visual distinction of the most cited words. Figure 1.2 presents the word cloud. It confirms the article's social and behavioral focus, emphasizing virtues and values regarding the individual and their decisions.
Figure 1.2. Word cloud.
2.4.3 Frequency of moral philosophy categories
Following the literature, we did an extra frequency search for the most important categories in the studies of moral philosophies. The frequencies in descending order are relativism, 680; deontological approach, 471; idealism, 460; utilitarianism, 564; individualism, 173; teleological approach, 105.
Figure 1.3 presents these results graphically. Relativism, idealism, deontological approach, and utilitarianism presented similar frequencies. This observation reveals that the research focuses on the binomials deontological-utilitarian and idealism-relativism, following
the original studies of moral philosophies in business ethics, that is, the methods of Reidenbach and Robin (1990) and Forsyth (1992).
Relativism has the highest frequency and also appears in the list of the fifteen most cited words (Figure 1.1). Besides the studies in which relativism is measured along with idealism, using the Forsyth scale (1992), researchers that use other metrics also measure this construct (e.g., Nguyen et al., 2008).
Figure 1.3. Frequency of moral philosophies.
2.4.4 Publications per year
Figure 1.4 shows a summary of the sample publications by year. The graph shows that the moral philosophy research in business ethics grew between 2004 and 2009, followed by oscillations since then. The means of publications per year in our sample is 8.13. We have four years below this mean and three years above it in the oscillation period, and peaks in 2014 and 2018. Therefore, despite these peaks, there was a constant rate of publications during these
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
fifteen years. Thus, even though original studies in moral philosophies in business ethics began almost forty years ago, international academia still shows interest in the topic.
Figure 1.4. Histogram of the number of publications by year.
Figure 1.5 presents a summary of quantitative surveys by year. The publication mean is 1.86 per year. In general, publications have remained fairly constant, with a little growth trend in the last five years. The graph shows that quantitative research on moral philosophies has recently increased.
2.4.5 Quantitative research
Table 1.1 and Table 1.2 summarize the information from moral philosophies quantitative research in business ethics.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Figure 1.5. Histogram with the number of quantitative surveys by year.
Table 1.1
Quantitative studies based on deontological and teleological approaches
authors N sample crossing variables
Beekun et al., 2005 165 managers relativism, behavioral intentions
Reynolds, 2006 195 executives, students moral awareness Nguyen et al., 2008 340 managers gender, moral equity,
contractualism, relativism Senadheera et al., 2014 333 managers utilitarianism, egoism
Xu & Ma, 2016 437 managers ethical behavior
Fok et al., 2016 117 students cultural values
Wisler, 2018 51 analysts Leadership
0
1 2 3 4 5
Table 1.2
Quantitative studies that used Forsyth's (1992) method
authors N sample crossing variables
Monga, 2005 175 managers Demographics
Vitell & Hidalgo, 2006 388 students social responsibility, ethical values, commitment.
Al-Khatib et al., 2007 140 students Machiavellianism, self-reported inappropriate strategies Robertson et al., 2008 176 managers employees' willingness to sacrifice
ethical standards
Sobral, 2009 221 students moral judgment, humans values
Bierly et al., 2009 899 students creativity
Oumlil & Balloun, 2009 172 students
gender, religiosity ethical perceptions, ethical intentions, corporate ethical
values
Cadogan et al., 2009 154 students ethical behavior
Kolodinsky et al., 2010 298 managers materialism, CSR
Tsahuridu, 2011 209 analysts work anomia, religion
Angelidis & Ibrahim, 2011 324 entrepreneurs emotional intelligence
Quah et al., 2012 160 students Machiavellianism, plagiarism
Rawwas et al., 2013 131 adults virtue- and vice-items, optimism
Sidani et al., 2014 207 students tax evasion
Wang & Calvano, 2015 93 executives gender, business ethics education Al-Khatib et al., 2016 995 adults Machiavellianism, opportunism,
unethical negotiation tactics Clouse et al., 2017 362 students Machiavellianism, integrity Oumlil & Balloun, 2017 172 consumers cultural factors, ethical decisions Andersch et al., 2017 420 analysts resistance to deviations
Rawwas et al., 2018 197 CEO's ethical practice
Li et al., 2018 451 students moral developing
Calculations from these tables reveal that the mean number of respondents (N) was 285.
However, there was a wide variation between the samples. 61% of the surveys had a sample smaller than the mean. This 61% composed a mean of 160 respondents per survey. On the other hand, 39% of the surveys had an N above 285, with a mean of 477 respondents per survey.
Regarding the respondents' profiles, in twelve surveys, they were managers, entrepreneurs, or workers. In eleven surveys, they were students. In some cases, MBA students were considered to be managers or executives. It seems that collecting data from students can be a research facilitator. Unfortunately, this practice has been common throughout the academic history of business ethics.
Regarding the variables, 100% of the studies crossed the information from personal moral philosophies with other variables, with no detectable pattern. However, some variables appeared more frequently, such as Machiavellianism, which was evaluated in four studies.
Besides, 57% of the articles intended to correlate moral philosophies with tax evasion, plagiarism, ethical behavior, Machiavellianism, and illicit negotiation strategies. Finally, 75%
of the papers used Forsyth's (1992) method and the remaining 25% of the articles used deontological and teleological approaches.
2.5 Conclusions
The literature review sought to clarify concept issues and discuss how the theme of moral philosophies has been studied in business ethics, with the main theoretical currents and measurement methodologies.
Content analysis through bibliometrics revealed that, in this theme, significant attention is given to social issues with a clear collective bias, looking for virtues and values, focusing on the human and the individual with behavioral content.
The summary tables of quantitative research articles have confirmed the two main original methods presented in the literature review, that is, idealism-relativism and deontological-teleological. The data also revealed the significant preponderance of Forsyth's (1992) measurement model.
The results showed that the researchers were concerned with comparing personal moral philosophies data to other variables, aiming to identify, above all, correlations with individual behavior and thus corroborating what had been interpreted in the content analysis (frequency and word cloud).
Regarding the respondents' profiles, there was a balance of students and managers in the surveys. The sample sizes presented significant variation, with two salient groups: one in the range of 150 to 200 respondents and the other ranging from 450 to 500.
This article showed that additional studies on personal moral philosophies linked to behavioral research could advance Brazil's academic production. Such studies could contribute to a greater understanding of the national ethical context based on Brazilians' ethical systems.
The information is essential for developing policies to foster ethics in Brazil's business environment.
For this reason, we suggest the improvement of national research on the topic. One possibility would be using the methodology developed by Forsyth (1992), which proved to be the most internationally prominent. The standardized questionnaire of this methodology allowed the author to use 139 samples from 29 countries, Brazil not included, and to carry out a meta-analysis, correlating the results with the cultural dimensions of the countries (Forsyth, O'Boyle & McDaniel, 2008). Brazil could be researched in order to be compared to these 29 countries.
Finally, for future studies, the questionnaires of any research conducted in Brazil should not target student groups. In a national environment of ethical precariousness (Forte et al.,
2015), those who become students could offer a more ethical conscience bias (Monga, 2005) without revealing the ethical issues found in most management professionals.
2.6 Limitations
This study sought to explore the field of moral philosophies in business ethics. The sample studied was composed of publications researched on the Scopus® database over 15 years. The study reveals a non-exhaustive extent of the information on the theme. It is also worth noting that the interpretations offered here are limited and are not subject to generalization. For this reason, we recommend further study to confirm these findings and for a broader understanding of the theme.
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3 Second Paper: Ethics Position of Brazilians Workers: An International Comparative Study
Abstract
This article explores Brazilian workers' ethics position and compares it to those of other nations.
We surveyed 410 Brazilian workers and used the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ), with idealism and relativism scales (Forsyth, 1980). We translated, back-translated, and adapted the scales according to Sperber (2004) and conducted exploratory factor analyses together with confirmatory factor analyses to validate them. The results show that Brazilians present, on average, high idealism and low relativism. Therefore, Brazil appears to be a well-defined
"absolutist" country compared to other nations, a surprising outcome, since Brazil ranks as one of the most corrupt countries on international scales. Brazil's systemic corruption ultimately confirms its complexity, as the nation shows high moral values and low ethics performance.
Keywords: idealism; relativism; ethics position; Brazil.
3.1 Introduction
Discussion about ethics in Brazil has gained relevance. "Lava Jato," the famous national police operation, started in 2014, exposing old political and economic corruption schemes.
These corruption scandals have affected Brazil's external reputation (Gehrke, Borba & Ferreira, 2017). Since then, there has been a growing concern about internal corruption (Garcia &
Teodósio, 2020).
However, Brazilians have not studied the origins of these problems in depth. There has been little investigation and publication about business ethics in Brazil. All of Latin America has lagged behind the Western world in studies of those issues (Robertson, Olson, Gilley &
Bao, 2008). Thus, one of our purposes is to contribute with knowledge that will help the country advance in understanding and reforming its ethical shortcomings.
This study aims to address a theme of business ethics of central importance to a country:
the ethical system of individuals. The objective is to reveal the predominant traits of Brazilians' ethical systems that contribute to the country's ethical diagnosis, especially in the organizational and business fields. Thus, public and private policies can work appropriately to contribute to an
"ethical evolution," and hopefully remove Brazil from the list of the world's most corrupt countries (Transparency International, 2020).
There are several methodologies available in the literature to analyze the individual ethical system. This article shortly presents three of them, and adopts an internationally established method, thus allowing a comparison of Brazil's results with those of other nations.
The results of the application of the scales in a survey of 410 Brazilian agency employees reveal the respondents' ethical profile. The information allows for comparisons between the idealism and relativism indices for Brazil and other countries.
3.2 Literature Review
3.2.1 Individual ethical system
The mechanisms behind the principal personal ethical systems have been the focus of investigation by many scientists in the last two decades (Bialek & Neys, 2017). Fleischmann et al. (2020, p. 1) say that "philosophy and early moral psychology often assumed that people arrive at moral decisions mainly through private internal processing – either through reasoning, intuition, or emotional reactions." Many authors have proposed individual ethical system models. We have sought to focus our analysis on the business ethics field, as we aim to
