Article: The Moral Development Index of Future Business Leaders: A Study on the Impact of Changes in Economic Systems and Gender Journal: Journal of Business and Management (JBM) 2018 Vol.24 No.1 pp.49 - 78 Abstract: As is clear from the burgeoning world of overbooked flights, potential travel bans, tense relationships between nuclear powers and political change as exemplified by the 'Brexit', the issues associated with culture are extremely important. This article addresses moral development among college students majoring in business, and the impact on business practices. Culture is reflective of the most basic beliefs of a group or nation, from which their values, attitudes and behaviors are formed. However, when there is radical change in the economic and political system of a country, many cultural values may be weakened and replaced by new beliefs. The impact of this rapid change is studied with special emphasis on the changes in Eastern Europe. We use Schwartz's value theory (1992) and Lawrence Kohlberg's levels of moral development (1973, 1981) to determine if there are differences between developed countries which have dealt with free-markets for generations and post-communist countries which have rapidly changed in less than a generation. We found that there is a difference in level of moral development between subjects from developed vs. post-communist countries, as well as gender differences. This work makes a significant contribution to the study of moral development across national boundaries by showing statistically significant differences among future business leaders in developed nations and those in post-communist nations. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: The Moral Development Index of Future Business Leaders: A Study on the Impact of Changes in Economic Systems and Gender

Authors: Dinah Payne; Marek Pawlak; Sathiadev Mahesh

Addresses: Author address listing can be found in the "About the Authors" section at the end of the article.

Abstract: As is clear from the burgeoning world of overbooked flights, potential travel bans, tense relationships between nuclear powers and political change as exemplified by the 'Brexit', the issues associated with culture are extremely important. This article addresses moral development among college students majoring in business, and the impact on business practices. Culture is reflective of the most basic beliefs of a group or nation, from which their values, attitudes and behaviors are formed. However, when there is radical change in the economic and political system of a country, many cultural values may be weakened and replaced by new beliefs. The impact of this rapid change is studied with special emphasis on the changes in Eastern Europe. We use Schwartz's value theory (1992) and Lawrence Kohlberg's levels of moral development (1973, 1981) to determine if there are differences between developed countries which have dealt with free-markets for generations and post-communist countries which have rapidly changed in less than a generation. We found that there is a difference in level of moral development between subjects from developed vs. post-communist countries, as well as gender differences. This work makes a significant contribution to the study of moral development across national boundaries by showing statistically significant differences among future business leaders in developed nations and those in post-communist nations.

Keywords: Moral development; business leaders; Schwartz's theory; Kohlberg's theory; post-communist countries.

DOI: 10.1504/JBM.2018.141262

Journal of Business and Management, 2018 Vol.24 No.1, pp.49 - 78

Published online: 05 Sep 2024 *

Title: The Moral Development Index of Future Business Leaders: A Study on the Impact of Changes in Economic Systems and Gender

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