James Weber

• PhD., University of Pittsburgh
• Managing Director at Duquesne University

Our research extends the current understanding of cognitive moral reasoning research by considering the often-overlooked element of context, specifically the issue presented in the ethical dilemma, and the issue of gender agreement between the subject and the dilemma actor. We rely on gender identity and cognitive moral reasoning theories to provid...

Age group typically identifies millennials – those born between 1982 and 2004. Yet our research challenges the designation based on age group by considering this population in the context of an individual’s citizenship or culture. Based on tenets of social identity theory, we explore a citizen’s personal value orientation and cognitive moral reason...

Ethical work climate (EWC), introduced by Bart Victor and John Cullen, plays a central role in the business ethics literature due to its influence on employee’s ethical decision-making. Yet, the often-used framework is limited as a descriptive and prescriptive model because it lacks a normative focus and does not allow for organizations guided by (...

Values research generally confirms that personally held values influence an individual's decision processes and behavior. Yet this academic research often is limited to the individual or organizational level of analysis. This study utilizes social identity and personal values theories to search for the presence of superordinate identities emerging...

This research explores the relationship of variant degrees of a country’s economic freedom to the ethical profiles of millennial business students, specifically an individual’s personal value orientation and post-conventional reasoning. Grounded in Social Identity, Personal Values, and Cognitive Moral Development theories, we construct an ethical p...

Millennials are a powerful workforce group and are quickly becoming established business leaders, consumers, and investors. Yet, millennials are often described as a uniformly homogeneous generation, despite mounting evidence of variances across their private and workplace behaviors, attitudes and preferences, and personal values. This article exam...

This symposium created a circle of trust between IABS Fellows in attendance and other attendees around the issue of co-creating a vision for IABS 2050. A circle of trust is exploratory, inclusive, respectful of difference, open to new insights and perspectives, while being bound together by a shared commitment to co-learning and co-creation via the...

Many business schools profess a commitment to ethics in their mission statements and focus a spotlight on the intersection between the university’s mission and attention to business ethics. To explore this trend, we analyze a sample of students’ values from two universities with an explicit religious foundation and recognized commitment to ethics a...

This research builds on previous investigations seeking to understand how individuals reason about moral problems. Our research includes a preliminary investigation about Millennials and a cross‐generational analysis using secondary research data to understand this emerging generation's moral reasoning and assess trends in moral reasoning over time...

The Millennials, people born between 1980 and 2000, are poised to have a profound impact on our society but are often treated as a homogenous generation. While some prior research on generations posits that there are a number of consistencies across a generation, others argue that differences may emerge and distinguish individuals within a generati...

Focusing on millennials, individuals born between 1980 and 2000 and representing the largest generational population in our history, this research seeks to understand their ethical decision-making processes by exploring the distinctive, yet interconnected, theories of personal values and cognitive moral reasoning. Utilizing a decision-making framew...

Values theory posits that individuals have values and they are formed by upbringing and life’s experiences and influence an individuals’ cognitive processes, decisions, and behavior. Emerging onto the business scene is a new population group, the Millennials. This research seeks to explore Millennials’ values from the viewpoint of their personal va...

Most business ethics scholars interested in understanding individual moral cognition or reasoning rely on the Defining Issues Test (DIT). They typically report that managers and business students exhibit a relatively high percentage of principled moral reasoning when resolving ethical dilemmas. This article applies neurocognitive processes and Bloo...

The notion of leadership emerged as soon as people gathered and focused on a single purpose or goal. As tribes evolved into communities and then into formal organizations, so did the notion of leadership. When a normative element was infused into leadership, ethical leadership found a significant place in academic literature and professional practi...

This research investigates managerial value orientations (MVO) using the Rokeach Value Survey to assess the importance managers assign to various values. While prior work and select organizational theory posit that MVO will not change over time, the data are analyzed to determine if the MVO of mid- to upper-level managers, the key decision-makers i...

The corporate financial performance (CFP)–corporate social performance (CSP) relationship has been investigated many times over the past few decades, yet the notion of CSP has generally been understood to be a single, monolithic aspect of corporate strategy. This article examines the common CFP–CSP understanding in three distinct ways: (1) by exten...

Reoccurring instances of unethical employee behavior raises the question of the effectiveness of organization’s employee ethics training programs. This research seeks to examine employee ethics training programs among US-based global organizations by asking members of the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association to describe various elements of the...

The notion of leadership emerged as soon as people gathered and focused on a single purpose or goal. As tribes evolved into communities and then into formal organizations, so did the notion of leadership. When a normative element was infused into leadership, ethical leadership found a significant place in academic literature and professional practi...

This symposium focuses on theoretical, methodological and empirical advances to the ethical work climate (EWC) construct introduced by Victor and Cullen (1988). James Weber proposes a new, stronger, inherently normative, and more empirically viable theoretical framework for identifying and understanding EWCs. Anke Arnaud adds collective moral value...

The number of online courses in business schools is growing dramatically, but little has been published about teaching business ethics courses online. This article addresses key pedagogical design, delivery, student engagement, and assessment issues that should be considered when creating a high-quality, asynchronous online business ethics course f...

The Organizations and the Natural Environment (ONE) Division of the Academy of Management, like many divisions, has an annual dissertation competition to recognize and honor emerging and exemplary work in the field. This special research forum provides an opportunity for the finalists of this competition, doctoral students or recently doctored facu...

This research explores the impact of coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphic pressures on the coverage and offering of courses addressing ethical, social, and sustainability issues (ESSI) in business schools’ graduate marketing curricula. Data from the Aspen Institute’s Beyond Grey Pinstripes program are analyzed to detect if significant increa...

This research reports on the current state of ethics and compliance programs among business organizations in the United States. Members of the Ethics and Compliance Officers Association (ECOA), the premier professional association for managers working in this field, were asked to provide in-depth responses to a series of questions covering various...

In addition to a person’s character and training, the organization’s ethical work climate (EWC) can assess how the organization influences an individual’s ethical decision-making process by examining the individuals’ perception of “what is the right thing to do” in a particular organizational environment. Relatively little research has explored whi...

This research draws on the stakeholder salience framework to explore more deeply the web of business–stakeholder relationships that characterize the Fortune Global 100’s corporate social responsibility and sustainability reports. By better understanding stakeholder salience, defined as the power, legitimacy, and urgency attributed to stakeholders i...

Relying on an expanded view of leadership and the moral reasoning framework developed by Lawrence Kohlberg (1981), this study explores the moral reasoning of the chief executive officers at the 11 largest automobile manufacturers in the world. Using the CEOs’ letter to their stakeholders found in the organizations’ annual social responsibility repo...

The introduction and validation of a new instrument, The Moral Reasoning Inventory, designed to measure an individuals’ moral reasoning (MR) in response to two moral dilemmas within a business setting is the subject of this article. The instrument consists of two moral dilemma scenarios with eight MR statements. Two measurement scales were used for...

Initially, a brief history of Buddhism and Confucianism describes for the reader a framework developed to determine right versus wrong action and to guide followers of these religions to do the right thing in social or business practice. In addition, this article uncovers exemplary business practices grounded in Buddhist and Confucian ethical value...

A review of extent business ethics research uncovered well over 200 published articles that investigated the role of job functions within a business organization as an explanatory factor of ethical or unethical behavior. While an important body of work, ethical breaches are often found to cut across job functions and involve multiple disciplines em...

This article discusses bribery, its ethical implications, and how certain parts of the world consider it a necessary tool for doing business. While most concerns about bribery encompass its ethical ramifications, many experts wonder if it comes with economic consequences and costs. A study tackled the question of whether a company's willingness to...

Scholars and practitioners have wondered and debated over the participation of business organizations in the corporate social environment as well as argued over the successes or limitations of such participation. The authors examined six firms' corporate social responsibility activities within the beer industry in an effort to identify and compare...

A research instrument is developed and preliminarily validated to formally measure the level of national business ethics activity for any country in the world. The seven dimensions measured include (a) academia, (b) business, (c) social or ethical investment, (d) business ethics organizations, (e) government activity, (f) social activist groups, an...

This paper acknowledges the paucity of attention regarding the development of ethics programs within an academic environment and describes in a case study how the Duquesne University schools of business attempted to introduce, integrate and promote its own ethics program. The paper traces the business school’s attention to mission statements, cur...

No abstract available.

Bribery in international business has become a priority concern among business, government, and community leaders. While discussions among philosophers often emphasize the ethical justification for banning bribery, policy-makers around the world are challenging it on the basis of its effects for economic development. In this paper we define bribery...

No abstract available.

The Treadway Commission examined the causes offraudulent financial reporting and maderecommendations to curb its occurrence. In itsrecommendations to educators, the TreadwayCommission (1987) stated that ``(b)usinessschools should encourage business andaccounting faculty to develop their ownpersonal competence as well as classroommaterials for conve...

In a rare opportunity, the authors gathered data from two matched health care providers managed by an insurance company where auditors had discovered theft by employees in one of the matched organizations. Data were gathered about the organizations' ethical work climates (EWCs). Analysis revealed statistically significant differences in EWCs across...

Using a dataset of 391 field-based case studies, we test the viability of Miles's (1987) data-collection framework for managing corporate stakeholders by assessing its internal validity (essentiality, comprehensiveness and strength of the interrelationships of the framework's components) and external validity (generalisability across multiple indus...

This research replicates Weber's 1995 study of a large financial services firm that found that ethical subclimates exist within multi-departmental organizations, are influenced by the function of the department and the stakeholders served, and are relatively stable over time. Relying upon theoretical models developed by Thompson (1967) and Victor a...

Using the Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior and Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development, we look at individual beliefs (What should I do?), intention (What would I do?), and actual behaviors (What did I do?) and the rationale used in each instance. Ten of twelve hypotheses are strongly supported and two are moderately supported. This data set shows...

Managers often face situations that challenge their ability to reason morally. Avariety of factors, including the issue itself and personal and organizational influences, may affect their responses. Using Kohlberg’s moral development theory and the Adapted Moral Judgment Interviewtechnique, we examine the influences of context, age, gender, type of...

Until now, there has been little research assessingthe impact and extent of business ethics education andservice learning upon students values and opinions. This paper studies the influence of these variables byanalyzing 129 junior-level students ethical valuesand opinions before and after these experiences. Through the use of the Students Values a...

Recent studies suggest that trust is culturally determined and that differentials in trust exist globally between cultures. The trusting culture may be an artifact given that there is little empirical support for such a notion. The results of an international survey of 122 business leaders failed to reveal significant differences in trust between c...

Although the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct emphasizes the importance of education in ethics, very little is known about how and when the Code and the topic of ethics can be presented to enhance the effectiveness of ethics-oriented education. The purpose of this research was to provide preliminary evidence about the ethical development of stude...

This review offers a cautious acceptance of the Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES) developed by Robin, Gordon, Jordan and Reidenbach. While the contribution of the MES to future empirical research of individuals’ moral reasoning is welcomed, a number of reservations or criticisms are raised regarding theory confusion, instrument confusion, and fea...

This review offers a cautious acceptance of the Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES) developed by Robin, Gordon, Jordan and Reidenbach. While the contribution of the MES to future empirical research of individuals' moral reasoning is welcomed, a number of reservations or criticisms are raised regarding theory confusion, instrument confusion, and fea...

Business ethics research typically emphasizes the influence of personal and organizational forces upon ethical decision making. While accepting these forces as important, Collins (1989) and Jones (1991) suggest that the moral issue and its intensity may also influence individuals' resolution of an ethical dilemma. Utilizing a sample of 259 managers...

This paper addresses the often discussed, but underresearched topic involving organization design I and ethical outcomes. The paper's central contribution derives from its innovative extension of the J. D. Thompson framework to ethical climate theory and empirically investigating some key constructs. The paper should serve to motivate and stimulate...

Culturally embedded differences in self-interested behavior and perceptions of trust violate the universal assumption of moral hazard held by transaction cost economic theorists. A model of transaction cost advantage is derived and propositions developed using the cultural value diversity literature to test the universal assumptions of transaction...

This paper compares and contrasts two distinct techniques for measuring moral judgment: The Moral Judgment Interview and the Defining Issues Test. The theoretical foundations, accompanying advantages and limitations, as well as appropriate usage of these methodologies are discussed. Adaptation and use of the instruments for business ethics research...

Grounded upon the late 1970s phrase “institutionalizing ethics into business,” I present a multi-component model and research agenda to enhance our understanding of organizations' efforts to integrate ethics into the daily decision-making process of employees. Three research foci are emphasized: (1) the need to establish consistent categorical fram...

Personal values and moral reasoning have been found to influence behavior. However, as presently developed, these theories do not provide a comprehensive understanding and explanation of an individual's decision-making process leading to behavior. This paper explores the four personal value orientations introduced by Milton Rokeach and the moral re...

A growing number of researchers in the business ethics field have used scenarios as a data gathering technique in their empirical investigations of ethical issues. This paper offers a review and critique of 26 studies that have utilized scenarios to elicit inferences of ethical reasoning, decision making, and/or intended behavior from managerial or...

This paper presents an adaptation of Lawrence Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview and Standard Issue Scoring method. The adaptation emphasizes four points: (1) a mixture of less familiar and more familiar moral dilemmas, (2) followup questions which probe managers’ moral reasoning by focusing upon key organizational values, (3) the flexibility of u...

In response to recent recommendations for the teaching of principled moral reasoning in business school curricula, this paper assesses the viability of such an approach. The results indicate that, while business students' level of moral reasoning in this sample are like most 18- to 21-year-olds, they may be incapable of grasping the concepts embodi...

Based on Kolhberg's theory of moral development, an assessment of managers' responses to three moral dilemmas was explored. The findings indicate that managers typically reason at moral reasoning stages 3 or 4, similar to most adults in Western, urban societies or other business managers. However, differences were discovered when the organizational...

This paper takes a critical look at the empirical studies assessing the effectiveness of teaching courses in business and society and business ethics. It is generally found that students' ethical awareness or reasoning skills improve after taking the courses, yet this improvement appears to be short-lived. The generalizability of these findings is...

This paper presents a comprehensive assessment of managers' values by extending Milton Rokeach's theory of values. Through an assessment of previous value studies, a typology of managerial value orientations is developed. This classification will assist future value researchers in developing a priori testable hypotheses regarding managerial value p...

Contenido: Parte I La Corporación en la sociedad: 1) La Corporación y sus partes interesadas; 2) La gestión de los asuntos públicos. Parte II Los negocios y el entorno social: 3) Responsabilidad social corporativa; 4) Ciudadanía de corporaciones globales. Parte III Empresarios y el entorno ético: 5) Etica y razonamiento ético; 6) Etica organizacion...