This chapter covers the research framework, research method, research procedure, population and sample, research instrument and instrument validity.
Research Framework
According to the research purpose and literature review, the researcher constructed the framework of the study as shown below in figure 3.1. The framework illustrates the relationship between the independent variables on the dependent variable. It aims to find out whether the gender, age, household income, status and religiosity affect attitudes towards business ethics (ATBE) and also the effect of these variables on the five sub dimensions of the ATBE .
Research Hypotheses
Based on the literature review and the purpose of the study, the following hypotheses were formulated:
Demographic variables and Business ethics
H1-1: Gender has a significant impact on students’ attitudes toward business ethics H1-1.1: Gender has a significant impact on Social Darwinism for students H1-1.2: Gender has a significant impact on Machiavellianism for students H1-1.3: Gender has a significant impact on Moral Objectivism for students H1-1.4: Gender has a significant impact on Legalism for students
H1-1.5: Gender has a significant impact on Ethical Relativism for students
H1-2: Gender has a significant impact on employees’ attitudes toward business ethics H1-2.1: Gender has a significant impact on Social Darwinism for employees H1-2.2: Gender has a significant impact on Machiavellianism for employees H1-2.3: Gender has a significant impact on Moral Objectivism for employees H1-2.4: Gender has a significant impact on Legalism for employees
H1-2.5: Gender has a significant impact on Ethical Relativism for employees
H2-1: Female students are more ethical than male students H2-2: Female employees are more ethical than male employees
H3-1: Age has a significant impact on students’ attitudes toward business ethics H3-2: Age has a significant impact on employees’ attitudes toward business ethics
Income and Business Ethics
H4-1: Household Income has a significant impact on students’ attitudes toward business ethics
H4-1.1: Household income has no significant impact on Social Darwinism for students H4-1.2: Household income has no significant impact on Machiavellianism for students H4-1.3: Household income has no significant impact on Moral Objectivism for students H4-1.4: Household income has no significant impact on Legalism for students
H4-1.5: Household income has no significant impact on Ethical Relativism for students
H4-2: Household Income has a significant impact on employees’ attitudes toward business ethics H4-2.1: Household income has a significant impact on Social Darwinism for employees H4-2.2: Household income has a significant impact on Machiavellianism for employees H4-2.3:Household income has a significant impact on Moral Objectivism for employees H4-2.4: Household income has a significant impact on Legalism for employees
H4-2.5: Household income has a significant impact on Ethical Relativism for employees
Status and Business Ethics
H5: Status has a significant impact on attitudes towards business ethics H6: Employees are more ethical than students
Religiosity and Business Ethics
H7-1: Intrapersonal Religiosity has a significant impact on students’ attitudes towards business ethics.
H7-1.1: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Social Darwinism for students H7-1.2: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Machiavellianism for students H7-1.3: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Moral Objectivism for students H7-1.4: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Legalism for students
H7-1.5: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Ethical Relativism for students
H7-2: Intrapersonal Religiosity has a significant impact on employees’ attitudes towards business ethics.
H7-2.1: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Social Darwinism for employees H7-2.2: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Machiavellianism for employees H7-2.3: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Moral Objectivism for employees H7-2.4: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Legalism for employees
H7-2.5: Intrapersonal religiosity has a significant impact on Ethical Relativism for employees
H8-1: Interpersonal Religiosity has no significant impact on students’ attitudes towards business ethics
H8-1.1: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Social Darwinism for students H8-1.2: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Machiavellianism for students H8-1.3: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Moral Objectivism for students H8-1.4: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Legalism for students
H8-1.5: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Ethical Relativism for students
H8-2: Interpersonal Religiosity has no significant impact on employees’ attitudes towards business ethics
H8-2.1: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Social Darwinism for employees H8-2.2: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Machiavellianism for employees H8-2.3: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Moral Objectivism for employees H8-2.4: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Legalism for employees
H8-2.5: Interpersonal religiosity has no significant impact on Ethical Relativism for employees
Research Approach
A quantitative research method was employed for this study as the study satisfies all the requirements of quantitative studies. The aim of quantitative research is to determine the relationship between one thing (an independent variable) and another (a dependent or outcome variable) in a population. Further the research design is descriptive which means the subjects are measured once and the researcher is seeking to establish only associations between the variables.
(Cresswell, 2005) states that a quantitative method is used to study research problems that require either a description of trends or an explanation of the relationship among variables.
Supporting this position is (Cacana, Delahaye, & Sekaran, 2001) who argued that quantitative study was the best design for explaining relationships between variables. Also similar studies surveying attitudes towards business ethics have used a quantitative approach.
A letter requesting permission to conduct the survey was sent to the respective institutions. Once permission was granted, the questionnaires were forwarded by the researcher to the research assistants and afterwards administered to employees and students. For students, the instrument was distributed to various classes during class time by research associates. Classes are held Mondays through Fridays. For employees, the research assistants distributed to various members of the organization. The organizations surveyed belong to the financial and telecommunication sectors in St Lucia. Completed surveys were collected by the research assistants.
Research Procedure
The procedure for this research was divided into various steps. The steps are described below and presented in tabular form in figure 3.2.
1. Reviewing literature on the topic to understand the direction of research in that field 2. Identifying the research topic
3. Defining the purpose of the study 4. Proposing hypothesis
5. Creating the research framework
6. Selecting two proven instruments (questionnaires) 7. Analyzing reliability of the instrument
8. Conducting a peer and practioner review of the instrument. The questionnaire was redesigned the content the same
9. Collecting data 10. Analyzing data
11. Reporting findings, conclusions and recommendations
Literature review
Research topic
Purpose of study
Hypothesis formulation
Research framework
Instrument selection
Reliability analysis
Instrument review
Data Collection
Data analysis
Findings, conclusions and recommendations
Figure 3.2. Research procedure
Research Sample Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (SALCC)
The Sir Arthur Lewis Community College is Saint Lucia’s lone national tertiary institution. It was established under an Act No. 8 of 1985, to provide a place of education offering instruction in Agriculture, Arts Science and General Studies, Health Science, Teacher Education and Educational Administration, Technical Education and Management Studies and in such other fields of education as the Minister may from time to time determine.
The College sees itself as an open, comprehensive, flexible, learning institution, committed to excellence, and responsive to the needs of its clients, and to the challenges that face the St Lucian society. The mandate of the institution enjoins it as a community college to: be a resource to the community; foster the personal development of its students; equip its students with relevant and appropriate career entry, advancement or retraining skills and competencies and increase opportunities for tertiary education and training. The mission of the College is to pursue its vision and fulfill its mandate in the most effective, efficient and equitable manner possible while giving due attention to: excellence in teaching, research, administration and service; the social, cultural and artistic development of its students; and the need to develop and foster self-directed and lifelong learning.
The college is home to the largest group of students pursuing studies in business at the tertiary level and is the main institution responsible for producing a workforce that can meet the present and future challenges of the global economy. These students represent a large percentage of the future labour force.
The Business Sector in St Lucia
The organizations surveyed belong to the private sector of St Lucia. According to the 2011 social and economic review of St Lucia, the private sector contributes approximately eighty six percent (86%) to GDP. The private sector is the backbone of any economy. The figures stated above highlight how important the private sector is to the development of the St Lucian economy and therefore it is vital to get a sense of the ethical orientation of the employees in business enterprises. Small island economies such as Saint Lucia who are overly dependent of
foreign direct investment can ill afford to allow a business environment that is deemed unethical as the literature suggest that the cost of doing business in an unethical environment is very costly.
The ethical orientations of these employees are therefore crucial to the country’s overall development and economic growth.
Sample Background
The research population constitutes the business students of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (SALCC) and private sector employees. Business students were chosen because SALCC is the only national tertiary educational institution on the island and is home to the majority of the students wishing to pursue tertiary level education. It is the only institution housing such as large group of students pursuing studies in business and therefore very appropriate for this kind of research. (Albaum &Peterson, 2006) says business students collectively constitute leadership of Corporations and that they are probably the most frequently studied stakeholder group b researchers undertaking empirical studies in business ethics.
The sample constitutes students majoring in business management at three separate divisions. The students are from the Division of Arts, Science and General Studies who are pursuing Advance level Management of Business with University of Cambridge; the Division of Technical Education and Management Studies pursuing an Associate Degree in Business Administration and from the Southern Extension Department also pursuing studies in an Associate degree in Business administration.
The second group of the sample comprises employees from the financial and telecommunication sectors of St Lucia. These sectors were chosen because most of the firms involved in corporate scandals belong to these two sectors. The companies surveyed form part of the all-important service sector. According to the government of Saint Lucia Statistics Department 2011 Economic and Social Review, in terms of the labour force by economic sector, the service sector accounts for sixty one percent (61%). In terms of contribution to GDP, the financial sector and communication sectors contribute a total of fifteen percent (15%) to GDP.
Of the eleven sectors that form part of the private sector, the financial and communication sectors are ranked sixth and seventh respectively in terms of GDP contribution. According to the
government of Saint Lucia statistics department population census 2010, these two sectors represent six percent of the labour force by industry group in the private sector.
The management of these companies surveyed re constantly seeking ways of ensuring that public confidence is at a premium. The employees in this sample play an important role in shaping the business environment that currently exists in Saint Lucia and the students will play a role in maintaining, enhancing or changing the future business environment.
Sampling Process
The sampling technique used in this study is convenience sampling. The method was chosen because of accessibility being that the researcher resides very far from the sample. The researcher is also familiar with members of the organizations or knows of employees at these organizations who can assist in facilitating the questionnaires. For the student sample the selection was made based on the students pursuing studies in Business at the College. For employees, the samples were chosen from two companies in the financial sector and one from the telecommunication sector.
Research Instrument
The instrument for this study represents a compilation of two separate instruments. To measure attitudes towards business ethics, this study adopted the Neumann and Reichel (1987) 30-item Attitude towards Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) first utilized by Preble and Reichel (1988) (Cited in Sims 2006). Please see Appendix A, page 95-96 section one. The ATBEQ is scored on a five-point scale ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree. The ATBEQ was used because of it’s a well-established instrument for these kinds of studies; it covers a wide range of ethical issues and deals with everyday practical situations that employees and students alike can be faced with.
The second component of the instrument used to measure the religiosity dimension was the Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI-10) developed by Worthington et Al., (2003). Please see Appendix A, page 53 section two. It consists of ten 5-point Likert-type statements ranging
from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The RCI-10 measures both intrapersonal religiosity and interpersonal religiosity of a religious value system. This instrument was used because it is applicable to all religions irrespective of the content of beliefs in the individual faith system. The scale has been adopted by many researchers and has been validated across various samples” (Mokhlis, 2006 cited in Lung & Chai, 2010). The intrapersonal religiosity dimension is comprised of 6 questions and is exemplified by items such as, "Religious beliefs influence all my dealings in life". The interpersonal religiosity dimension is comprised of 4 questions and is exemplified by questions such as, "I enjoy spending time with others of my religious affiliation".
The two instruments were collated into one document- the ABEQ is the first section, the RCI-10 forms section two. Section three contains biographical data and other personal data.
Research Instrument Reliability and Validity
Reliability and validity is a crucial component of research and the adopted instruments used in this study are proven instruments. The ABTEQ is a well-established instrument (Akram
& Azad, 2011). As regards the ABEQ, Bageac et al (2011) says “For almost two decades several studies have developed a deeper understanding of the way people consider such a complex phenomenon as business ethics using the ATBEQ. Lin (1999) in commenting about the reliability of using the ATBEQ as obtained from Small (1992) study said “I conducted a reliability test. Cronbach's alpha for the 30 items was 0.77” (p. 643). Lung & Chai (2010) also conducted reliability test for the ATBEQ and found a score of 0.807. The RCI-10 according to Lung & Chai (2010):
In order to obtain reliable information from the respondents, an established and validated scale is one of the critical parts of doing research. Religiosity is a multi-dimensional construct that is measured using the Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI-10) developed by Worthington et al... Intrapersonal religiosity comprised of 6 items …this dimension has a reliability of 0.862. The interpersonal religiosity scale contains 4 …this dimension achieved a reliability of 0.779 (p.228).
The researcher conducted a peer review and a practioner review of the questionnaire.
The peer review consisted of former students of the Graduate Institute of the International Human Resource Development programme of the National Taiwan Normal University. The practioner review consisted of business students of the SALCC and employees from the business sector. A total of two persons were selected from each group. The business employees were selected from institutions that the researcher had connections with. They were from the financial and telecommunication sectors. Two participants were selected from each review grouping. For the students, the research assistant selected students at random form the student group. For the peer and practioner review, the researcher selected participants with whom she was familiar with because of the distance between the sample and the researcher. The instructions were understood by all participants and there was no problem in understanding the questions. Advice was given to reformat the questionnaire into three separate sections in an effort to make the questionnaire appear shorter to participants as people generally do not enjoy completing long questionnaires. This advice was accepted and the questionnaire was subsequently redesigned accordingly but the questions from the two instruments remain the same.
Data Collection
The questionnaires were forwarded electronically to the research assistant for onward submission to the institutions participating in the survey. Hard copies of the questionnaires were made and distributed accordingly. The data was gathered through questionnaires. A total of five hundred (500) copies were distributed to the educational institution for survey of the students and a total of one hundred and fifty (150) copies were distributed to the various institutions for completion by the employees. Completed questionnaires were subsequently forwarded via courier to the researcher for analysis. Valid questionnaires totaled three hundred and ninety six (396) copies from the students and one hundred and nine from employees making a response rate of seventy nine percent (79%) and seventy three (73%) respectively.
Data Analysis
The first section of the research instrument, the ATBEQ measured ethical attitudes and is made up of the first thirty questions on the questionnaire. These questions make up the dependent variable. These questions were first analyzed together to measure ethicality, then they were further broken down into the five sub dimensions (business philosophies) as previously mentioned to measure philosophy preference. The corresponding questions for each dimension are presented in Table 3.1
Table 3.1
Composition of the ATBEQ
Business Philosophy Corresponding question
Social Darwinism Q11, Q12, Q13, Q14, Q15, Q16, Q17, Q18
Machiavellianism Q1, Q2, Q6, Q7, Q9, Q19, Q20, Q21, Q22, Q23, Q24, Q25 Moral Objectivism Q3, Q26, Q27, Q28, Q29, Q30
Legalism Q4
Ethical Relativism Q5, Q8, Q10
Note. Adapted from “Management students; attitudes towards business ethics: A comparison between France and Romania” by Bageac, D., Furrer, O., & Reynaud, E. (2011). Journal of Business Ethics, 98(3), 391-406.
The second section of the questionnaire measured intrapersonal and interpersonal religiosity respectively and the third section provided data for the descriptive statistics. Using the latest version of SPSS software, this study used the following statistical techniques to analyze the data (Table 3.2):
Table 3.2
Summary of Statistical Tests for Data Analysis
Statistical Test Purpose Description
Descriptive Statistics Sample characteristics:
Frequency and corresponding data for:
Gender, age, household income, religion, work experience, College division and year group
Multiple linear regression: Hypothesis testing: H1-1, H1-2: effect of gender H3-1, H3-2: effect of age
H4-1, H4-2: effect of household income H7-1.1-1.2: effect of intrapersonal religiosity H7-2.1 -2.2: effect of Interpersonal religiosity Philosophy preference: Effect of independent variables
Independent samples t test: Hypothesis testing: H2-1-2-2: females are more ethical than males H5: effect of status (students/employees) H6: employees are more ethical than students
Philosophy preference: Gender in each sample group
One way anova further analysis Test ethicality at various levels of income
(Post hoc tests) for employees
further analysis Test ethicality of the different age groups for students and employees
Pearson Correlation further analysis Correlation between variables