Ethical Decision-Making Differences Between American and Moroccan Managers

About this Resource
The article is assessing the effect of the cultural factors on business ethical decision making process in a Western cultural context and in non-Western cultural context. Specifically, the study investigates ethical perceptions, religiosity, personal moral philosophies, corporate ethical values, gender and ethical intentions of U.S. and Moroccan business managers. There is a strong positive relationship between their culture and religion. Moroccan managers were more consist in their corporate ethical values than the U.S. mangers. The results demonstrate that (in general) idealism is a good predictor of ethical intentions and behaviours. Additionally, managers from the two countries differed in the degree of relationship between perceptions and intentions in three of the four scenarios. This study’s results confirm other research findings that, in general, female business managers have higher ethical sensitivity in terms of their ethical judgment than their male counterparts. Managerial implications are also discussed.

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Monash Library Details

 * Authors:
 * Oumlil, A.1 Balloun, Joseph1


 * Source:
 * Journal of Business Ethics. Feb2009, Vol. 84 Issue 4, p457-478. 22p. 6 Diagrams.


 * Document Type:
 * Article


 * Geographic Terms:
 * Morocco United States


 * Author-Supplied Keywords:
 * business ethics culture decision making executives moral personal philosophies Morocco social responsibility U.S.


 * Abstract:
 * Our research’s aim is to assess the effect of cultural factors on business ethical decision-making process in a Western cultural context and in a non-Western cultural context. Specifically, this study investigates ethical perceptions, religiosity, personal moral philosophies, corporate ethical values, gender, and ethical intentions of U.S. and Moroccan business managers. The findings demonstrate that significant differences do exist between the two countries in idealism and relativism. Moroccan managers tend to be more idealistic than the U.S. managers. There is a strong positive relationship between religiosity and idealism. There were mixed findings in examining the correlates of religiosity and various components of ethical intentions. Moroccan managers were more homogenous in their corporate ethical values than were the U.S. managers. The results demonstrate that (in general) idealism is a good predictor of ethical intentions and behaviors. Additionally, managers from the two countries differed in the degree of relationship between perceptions and intentions in three of the four scenarios. This study’s  results confirm other research findings that, in general, female business managers have higher ethical sensitivity in terms of their ethical judgment than their male counterparts. Managerial implications are also discussed.


 * Author Affiliations:
 * 1Department of Marketing, Western Connecticut State University , 181 White Street Daybury 06810 U.S.A.


 * ISSN:
 * 0167-4544


 * DOI:
 * 10.1007/s10551-008-9719-y


 * Accession Number:
 * 36063432