Name: Amellia Samantha

Auditing / 008201500036
Critical Review
Group 1
Title: The Moral Judgment Relationship Between Leaders and Followers: A Comparative Study
Across the Taiwan Strait
Author: Yi-Hui Ho and Chieh-Yu Lin
Journal: J Bus Ethics (2016) 134:299310 DOI 10.1007/s10551-014-2431-1
1. Motivation
This paper attempts to investigate the relationship between leaders and followers on moral
judgment, and make a comparison between China and Taiwan on the leaderfollower moral
judgment relationship.

2. Theory
Kohlbergs (1969) theory of cognitive moral development is perhaps the best-known
approach to exploring individuals moral judgment. Cognitive moral development is a construct
that explains the structures of reasoning that individuals apply when thinking through ethical issues
and resolving ethical dilemmas, and is the critical element in the judgment phase of ethical decision
making (Rest 1986; Trevin o 1986).

3. Logic behind hypothesis

Leadership has signicant impact on followers ethical decision making because leaders
have the power to motivate followers and enforce the organizational rules and policies as well as
their own viewpoints (Brown & Trevin o 2006). As a result, it is reasonable to expect that leaders
moral judgment development will have a positive effect on their followers moral judgment
development. Therefore, the present study postulates the research hypothesis:
H1: A positive relationship exists between leader moral judgment development and follower moral
judgment development.
According to Hofstedes study (Hofstede et al. 2010), China scored higher on power
distance than Taiwan (Taiwan scored 58 and China scored 80 on the power distance index). As
China scored higher on power distance than Taiwan, Chinese purchasing professionals would be
expected to be more easily inuenced by their workplace superiors than Taiwanese purchasing
professionals. Based on above discussions, the second research hypothesis is proposed as:
H2: The leaderfollower moral judgment relationship is stronger for Chinese purchasing
professionals than their Taiwanese counterparts.

4. Methodology
The Instrument: To measure moral judgment development of purchasing professionals, the
dening issues test (DIT) developed by Rest (1979) is used in the study. It is a short, objective
instrument that is practical for large-sample research (Loviscky et al. 2007). The DIT consists of
a set of ethical dilemmas to which an individual respond. The Sample: Data were collected through
a questionnaire survey on purchasing professionals in China and Taiwan.
5. Result
Research ndings indicate that followers exhibit higher level of moral judgment while their
leaders have higher level of moral judgment. A positive moral judgment relationship exists
between leaders and followers. The comparative study between China and Taiwan reveals that
Chinese purchasing professionals are more easily inuenced by their workplace leaders than their
Taiwanese counterparts. Power distance would strengthen the leaderfollower moral judgment
relationship.

6. Conclusion
Moral judgment is central to ethical decision making. Ethical behavior is to some extent
positively related to individual moral judgment development. Research ndings reveal that there
is a positive relationship between leaders and followers on moral judgment development. Leaders
moral judgment development has positive inuences on followers moral judgment development.
Furthermore, according to the present comparison results between Taiwan and China, it can be
concluded that culture will inuence the leaderfollower moral judgment relationship.

7. Limitation and Future Research

The study is limited by the fact that a self-report format was used in the survey. Such data
collection methods are usually open to the problem that respondents may not have been candid. In
addition to that, the present study only made a comparison between Taiwan and China.
Furthermore, researchers did not show the mechanism linking leaders and followers moral
judgment development. Future research can analyze the mediating roles of leadership style and
organizational ethical climate in linking leaders and followers moral judgment development.
Group 2
Title: Effects of Nationality, Gender, and Religiosity on Business-Related Ethicality
Author: Robert A. Peterson, Gerald Albaum, Dwight Merunka, Jose Luis Munuera, and Scott M.
Smith
Journal: Journal of Business Ethics (2010) 96:573587 DOI 10.1007/s10551-010-0485-2
Springer 2010
1. Motivation
The primary purpose of the present research was to revisit the question whether future
business leaders in the United States (operationalized as American business students) possess, on
average, a higher level of ethicality than their counterparts in other countries.

2. Theory
Gender has been demonstrated to explain differences in ethics attitudes and behaviors.
Meta-analyses have shown that females tend to have higher ethical standards than males (e.g.,
Borkowski and Ugras, 1998), and that this difference exists across a number of countries (e.g.,
Roxas and Stoneback, 2004). Another variable of interest in the study of business-related ethics
attitudes is religiosity. The most common conclusion regarding the relationship between religiosity
and business ethics is that a high degree of religiosity is generally associated with higher ethical
attitudes (Conroy and Emerson, 2004, p. 384).

3. Logic behind hypothesis

The reason for differences in business ethics across countries may well relate to differences
in cultures, since culture affects moral orientations such as idealism and relativism (e.g., Srnka,
2004; Swaidan et al., 2008). Moreover, a majority of studies have concluded that females exhibit
higher ethical standards and behaviors than do males. On the other hand, there have been studies
of the relationship between religiosity and ethics that have dealt with selected issues such as
cheating by students (Allmon et al., 2000; Barnett et al., 1996) and environmentalism (Wolkomer
et al., 1997). In all these studies, a positive relationship between degree of religiosity and level of
ethical attitude has been observed.

4. Methodology
This article reports a study of the relationship between nationality and business-related
ethicality based on survey responses from more than 6300 business students attending 120 colleges
and universities in 36 countries. Two well-documented determinants of business ethics (gender
and religiosity) were investigated as moderators of the nationalitybusiness ethicality relationship.

5. Result
On average, the Ethicality scores of American survey participants (mean = 27.6) were
signicantly higher (p<0.001) than the Ethicality scores of non-American survey participants
(mean = 25.8). Thus, H1 was supported. On average, female survey participants had a signicantly
higher Ethicality score mean than did male survey participants (mean of 27.1 vs. mean of 26.2).
This difference was statistically signicant at p< 0.001, thus supporting H2.
In general, survey participants reporting they were very religious possessed
signicantly higher (p< 0.001) Ethicality scores (mean of 27.6) than survey participants reporting
they were somewhat religious (mean of 26.4) or not very religious(mean of 26.7).

6. Conclusion
The major research finding is that, while statistically significant differences were found
between the business-related ethicality of American survey participants and the business-related
ethicality of the non-American survey participants, the magnitudes of the differences were not
substantial, as indicated by the overlaps of the respective Ethicality score distributions.

7. Limitation and Future Research

Although the results of the present study are more generalizable than those of prior
business-related ethics studies, caution is warranted so that any inferences derived from the present
ndings are not unreasonably broad. Hopefully, the principal ndings of the present investigation
will stimulate future research, especially research that seeks further theoretical explanations for
the attitudinal similarities observed here, and what these similarities mean for business in general
and cross-national business in particular.