A STRUCTURAL APPROACH TO ETHICAL REASONING: THE INTEGRATION OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

A new approach to the field of ethical decision research is proposed to deal with integrating deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics into a unified framework of moral philosophy to study ethical reasoning among business professionals. Three hundred thirty-four managers from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were tested by using structural equation modeling procedures to determine the best fit indices. Although deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics are inter-related within the scope of moral philosophy, it was also found that moral philosophy positively affects ethical reasoning, i.e., awareness, judgment, motivation, and intention. It is hoped that our findings will provide greater insights into how moral philosophy determines the ethical values of managers during the ethical decision making process. 