Teaching Ethical Behaviour: Conversational Analysis in Perspective
In the past researchers have questioned the
effectiveness of ethics training in higher education. Also, there are
observations that support the view that ethical behaviour (range of
actions)/ethical decision making models used in the past make use of
vignettes to explain ethical behaviour. The understanding remains in
the perspective that these vignettes play a limited role in determining
individual intentions and not actions. Some authors have also agreed
that there are possibilities of differences in one’s intentions and
actions. This paper makes an attempt to fill those gaps by evaluating
real actions rather than intentions. In a way this study suggests the
use of an experiential methodology to explore Berlo’s model of
communication as an action along with orchestration of various
principles. To this endeavor, an attempt was made to use
conversational analysis in the pursuance of evaluating ethical
decision making behaviour among students and middle level
managers. The process was repeated six times with the set of an
average of 15 participants. Similarities have been observed in the
behaviour of students and middle level managers that calls for
understanding that both the groups of individuals have no cognizance
of their actual actions. The deliberations derived out of conversation
were taken a step forward for meta-ethical evaluations to portray a
clear picture of ethical behaviour among participants. This study
provides insights for understanding demonstrated unconscious human
behaviour which may fortuitously be termed both ethical and
unethical.
[1] J. Gandz& N. Hayes, “Teaching business ethics”, Journal of Business
Ethics, 7, pp. 657-669, 1988.
[2] James Weber, “Measuring the impact of teaching ethics to future
managers: A review, assessment, and recommendations,” Journal of
Business Ethics, vol.9 no. 3, pp. 183-190, 1990.
[3] W. Y. Penn Jr, “Teaching Ethics‐A Direct Approach,” Journal of Moral
Education, vol. 19 no. 2, pp. 124-138, 1990.
[4] D.Melé, “Integrating ethics into management,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 291-297, 2008.
[5] A. R. Oddo, “A framework for teaching business ethics,” Journal of
Business Ethics, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 293-297, 1997.
[6] J. F. Lozano, “Educating responsible managers. The role of university
ethos,” Journal of Academic Ethics, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 213-226, 2012.
[7] J. L. Craft, “Making the case for ongoing and interactive organizational
ethics training,” Human Resource Development International, vol. 13,
no. 5, pp. 599-606, 2010.
[8] E. J. O’Boyle, & L. Sandonà, “Teaching Business Ethics through
Popular Feature Films: An Experiential Approach,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 121, no. 3, pp. 329-340, 2014.
[9] M. Rosenbaum, Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy, New York: The
Free Press, 1982, pp 82-83.
[10] J. S. Eccles& A. Wigfield, “Motivational beliefs, values, and goals,”
Annual review of psychology, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 109-132, 2002.
[11] Scheewind, J.B., ‘Why study Kant’s Ethics?,’in Ground work of the
Metaphysics of Morals, Allen W. Wood, Ed. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2002, pp 83-92
[12] N.K. Mehta, “Affecting eternity via – management by connectivity,”
inProc. 16th International Symposium on Ethics, IESE Business School,
Barcelona Spain, 13–15 May (online)
http://www.iese.edu/Aplicaciones/Events/16thSymposium/listado_web.a
sp? (Accessed 27 January 2013)
[13] A.B. Carroll, Business Ethics: Basic Readings on Vital topics, New
York: Routledge, 2003, pp.158-159.
[14] S. D.Hunt and J. V. Scott, “A General Theory of Marketing Ethics,”
Journal of Macromarketing, vol. 6, pp. 5-15, Spring, 1986.
[15] C. Gilligan, ‘Moral Orientation and Moral Development’, in The
Feminist Philosophy Reader, 1st ed., By Alison Bailey and Chris J.
Cuomo Ed., Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008, pp. 467-478.
[16] Hursthouse, R. On Virtue Ethics: Oxford : Oxford University
Press,2001, pp. 108-120
[17] L. Kohlberg, “Moral stages and moralization: The cognitivedevelopmental
approach, ’’ in Moral development and behaviour:
Theory, research, and social issues, T. Lickona, Ed., New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston. 1976. pp. 31-53 [18] McLeod, S. A. (2010). Kolb - Learning Styles. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html (Accessed 10
September, 2014)
[19] Satyanarayana, Y.V., Ethics Theory and Practice. New Delhi: Pearson
Education India, 2010. pp. 59.
[20] Kopp, S.If youmeet the Buddha on the Road, KillHim! New York:
Bantam Books, 1972.pp. 3-27
[21] R.R. Sims, “Business Ethics Teaching: Using Conversational Learning
to Build an Effective Class room Learning Environment,” Journal of
Business Ethics, vol. 49, pp. 201–211, 2004.
[22] R. T. Garner, and B. Rosen, Moral philosophy: A systematic
introduction to normative ethics and meta-ethics. New York:
Macmillan, 1967. pp 215
[23] G. Harman, ‘Moral philosophy meets social psychology: Virtue ethics
and the fundamental attribution error,’.in Proc. of the Aristotelian
Society.Vol. 99, 1999, pp. 315-331.
[24] G.Oddie, ‘Moral Realism, Moral Relativism and Moral Rules (A
Compatibility Argument),’ Synthese, vol. 117, no. 2, Rules in Practical
Reasoning (1998/1999), pp. 251-274
[25] B. Williams, Morality: An introduction to ethics, Cambridge University
Press, 2012, pp 14-25
[26] Hirst, P., ‘Is it rational to rejectrelativism?’ in Reason and Morality, J.
Overinged. Routledge, 1984, pp. 84-102
[27] T.W. Loe, L. Ferrell, and P. A Mansfield, “Review of Empirical Studies
Assessing Ethical Decision Making in Business,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 25, no. 3, pp 185-204, 2000.
[28] M. O'Fallon and K. Butterfield, “The Influence of Unethical Peer
Behavior on Observers' Unethical Behavior: A Social Cognitive
Perspective,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 109, no. 2, pp. 117-131,
2012.
[29] J.L. Craft, “A Review of the Empirical Ethical Decision Making-Making
Literature: 2004-2011,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 117, no. 2, pp.
221-259, 2010.
[30] S. J. Vitell,K. C Rallapalli, andA. Singhapakdi, “Marketing norms: The
influence of personal moral philosophies and organizational ethical
culture,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 21, no. 4,
pp. 331-337, 1993.
[31] T. Tyson, “Does Believing that Everyone Else is Less Ethical have an
Impact on Work Behavior?,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 11, pp.
707—17, 1992.
[32] R. Morgan, “Self and Co-worker perceptions of ethics and relationships
to leadership and salary,” Academy of Management Journal, vol. 36, no.
1, pp. 200-214, 1993.
[33] P, O'Clock, and M. Okleshen, “A comparison of ethical perceptions of
business and engineering Majors,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 12,
no. 9, pp. 677 – 687, 1993.
[34] J.S. Wimalasiri, F. Pavri, and A.A.K Jalil, “An Empirical Study of
Moral Reasoning among Managers in Singapore,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 15, pp. 1331-1341, 1996.
[35] V. Willem, O. Cokand P. Ed, “Exploring the contextual and individual
factors on ethical decision making of sales people,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 1175 – 1187, 1996.
[36] J. R. Sparks and S.D. Hunt, “Marketing researcher ethical sensitivity:
Conceptualization, measurement, and exploratory investigation,” Journal
of Marketing, vol. 62, pp. 92-109, February, 1998.
[37] M. A. Razzaque and T. P. Hwee, “Ethics and purchasing dilemma: A
Singaporean view,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol.35, no.4, pp. 307 –
326, 2002.
[38] S. Valentine and F. Gary, “Ethical reasoning in an equitable relief
innocent spouse context,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol.45, no. 4, pp.
325-339, 2003.
[39] G. E. Loviscky, L. K. Treviño and R. R. Jacobs, “Assessing managers’
ethical decision-making: An objective measure of managerial moral
judgment,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 73, pp.3, pp. 263-285, 2007.
[40] A. Crane, D. Matten, Business Ethics, Second Edn.,New York : Oxford
University Press. 2007. pp 480-481
[41] I. Ajzen, T. C. Brown, and F. Carvajal, “Explaining the discrepancy
between intentions and actions: The case of hypothetical bias in
contingent valuation,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol.
30 no. 9, pp. 1108-1121. 2004.
[42] Berlohttp://communicationtheory.org/berlos-smcr-model-of
communication/. (Accessed September 10, 2014)
[43] T.K. Gamble, and M. Gamble Communication Works, New York:
Random House, 9th Ed., 2010, pp. 209-211.
[44] Stewart, I. and Jones, V., ‘TA Today: A New Introduction to
Transactional Analysis’ Second Edn. Melton Mowbray: Life space
Publishing. 2014. pp11-31
[45] B. W. Tuckman, and M. A. C. “Jensen, Stages of small-group
development revisited,” Group & Organization Management,vol. 2, no.
4, pp 419-427.1977.
[46] T. Kilmann, “Conflict and Conflict Management (in Handbook of
Industrial and Organizational Psychology),” M/ Dunnette (Ed.),
Chicago: Rand McNally, 1976. pp 38, 971-980
[47] J. Rest, ‘Background: Theory and research’ in J. Rest& D. Narvaez
(Eds.), Moral development in the professions: Psychology and applied
ethics New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1994. pp. 1–26
[48] D. Silverman, Harvey Sacks: Social science and conversation analysis.
Oxford UniversityPress, 1998. pp 98-127
[49] U. Sekaran, “Organisational Behavior: Text and Cases,” New Delhi:
Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., 1989, pp. 52-53.
[50] C.E. Johnson, OrganizationalEthics: A PracticalApproach, Second Ed.,
California: Sage Publications, 2012.pp85-101
[51] V. Braun, and V. Clarke, “Using thematic analysis in psychology,
Qualitative Research in Psychology,” vol. 3 no. 2, 2006, pp. 77-101.
[52] D. Treadwell, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry,
Second Ed. California: Sag Publications, 2014.pp 86
[53] J. May. http://www.iep.utm.edu/psychego/(Accessed September 12,
2014).
[54] N.K. Mehta, “A qualitative study on communication challenges in
production and operations management of high technology
organizations,” in Proc. NITIE POMS International Conference 2014.
pp. 56-71
[55] C Antaki. An introductory tutorial in Conversation Analysis. Online
at<http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~ssca1/sitemenu.htm>. Accessed on
(09/11/2014).
[1] J. Gandz& N. Hayes, “Teaching business ethics”, Journal of Business
Ethics, 7, pp. 657-669, 1988.
[2] James Weber, “Measuring the impact of teaching ethics to future
managers: A review, assessment, and recommendations,” Journal of
Business Ethics, vol.9 no. 3, pp. 183-190, 1990.
[3] W. Y. Penn Jr, “Teaching Ethics‐A Direct Approach,” Journal of Moral
Education, vol. 19 no. 2, pp. 124-138, 1990.
[4] D.Melé, “Integrating ethics into management,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 291-297, 2008.
[5] A. R. Oddo, “A framework for teaching business ethics,” Journal of
Business Ethics, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 293-297, 1997.
[6] J. F. Lozano, “Educating responsible managers. The role of university
ethos,” Journal of Academic Ethics, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 213-226, 2012.
[7] J. L. Craft, “Making the case for ongoing and interactive organizational
ethics training,” Human Resource Development International, vol. 13,
no. 5, pp. 599-606, 2010.
[8] E. J. O’Boyle, & L. Sandonà, “Teaching Business Ethics through
Popular Feature Films: An Experiential Approach,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 121, no. 3, pp. 329-340, 2014.
[9] M. Rosenbaum, Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy, New York: The
Free Press, 1982, pp 82-83.
[10] J. S. Eccles& A. Wigfield, “Motivational beliefs, values, and goals,”
Annual review of psychology, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 109-132, 2002.
[11] Scheewind, J.B., ‘Why study Kant’s Ethics?,’in Ground work of the
Metaphysics of Morals, Allen W. Wood, Ed. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2002, pp 83-92
[12] N.K. Mehta, “Affecting eternity via – management by connectivity,”
inProc. 16th International Symposium on Ethics, IESE Business School,
Barcelona Spain, 13–15 May (online)
http://www.iese.edu/Aplicaciones/Events/16thSymposium/listado_web.a
sp? (Accessed 27 January 2013)
[13] A.B. Carroll, Business Ethics: Basic Readings on Vital topics, New
York: Routledge, 2003, pp.158-159.
[14] S. D.Hunt and J. V. Scott, “A General Theory of Marketing Ethics,”
Journal of Macromarketing, vol. 6, pp. 5-15, Spring, 1986.
[15] C. Gilligan, ‘Moral Orientation and Moral Development’, in The
Feminist Philosophy Reader, 1st ed., By Alison Bailey and Chris J.
Cuomo Ed., Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008, pp. 467-478.
[16] Hursthouse, R. On Virtue Ethics: Oxford : Oxford University
Press,2001, pp. 108-120
[17] L. Kohlberg, “Moral stages and moralization: The cognitivedevelopmental
approach, ’’ in Moral development and behaviour:
Theory, research, and social issues, T. Lickona, Ed., New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston. 1976. pp. 31-53 [18] McLeod, S. A. (2010). Kolb - Learning Styles. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html (Accessed 10
September, 2014)
[19] Satyanarayana, Y.V., Ethics Theory and Practice. New Delhi: Pearson
Education India, 2010. pp. 59.
[20] Kopp, S.If youmeet the Buddha on the Road, KillHim! New York:
Bantam Books, 1972.pp. 3-27
[21] R.R. Sims, “Business Ethics Teaching: Using Conversational Learning
to Build an Effective Class room Learning Environment,” Journal of
Business Ethics, vol. 49, pp. 201–211, 2004.
[22] R. T. Garner, and B. Rosen, Moral philosophy: A systematic
introduction to normative ethics and meta-ethics. New York:
Macmillan, 1967. pp 215
[23] G. Harman, ‘Moral philosophy meets social psychology: Virtue ethics
and the fundamental attribution error,’.in Proc. of the Aristotelian
Society.Vol. 99, 1999, pp. 315-331.
[24] G.Oddie, ‘Moral Realism, Moral Relativism and Moral Rules (A
Compatibility Argument),’ Synthese, vol. 117, no. 2, Rules in Practical
Reasoning (1998/1999), pp. 251-274
[25] B. Williams, Morality: An introduction to ethics, Cambridge University
Press, 2012, pp 14-25
[26] Hirst, P., ‘Is it rational to rejectrelativism?’ in Reason and Morality, J.
Overinged. Routledge, 1984, pp. 84-102
[27] T.W. Loe, L. Ferrell, and P. A Mansfield, “Review of Empirical Studies
Assessing Ethical Decision Making in Business,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 25, no. 3, pp 185-204, 2000.
[28] M. O'Fallon and K. Butterfield, “The Influence of Unethical Peer
Behavior on Observers' Unethical Behavior: A Social Cognitive
Perspective,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 109, no. 2, pp. 117-131,
2012.
[29] J.L. Craft, “A Review of the Empirical Ethical Decision Making-Making
Literature: 2004-2011,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 117, no. 2, pp.
221-259, 2010.
[30] S. J. Vitell,K. C Rallapalli, andA. Singhapakdi, “Marketing norms: The
influence of personal moral philosophies and organizational ethical
culture,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 21, no. 4,
pp. 331-337, 1993.
[31] T. Tyson, “Does Believing that Everyone Else is Less Ethical have an
Impact on Work Behavior?,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 11, pp.
707—17, 1992.
[32] R. Morgan, “Self and Co-worker perceptions of ethics and relationships
to leadership and salary,” Academy of Management Journal, vol. 36, no.
1, pp. 200-214, 1993.
[33] P, O'Clock, and M. Okleshen, “A comparison of ethical perceptions of
business and engineering Majors,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 12,
no. 9, pp. 677 – 687, 1993.
[34] J.S. Wimalasiri, F. Pavri, and A.A.K Jalil, “An Empirical Study of
Moral Reasoning among Managers in Singapore,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 15, pp. 1331-1341, 1996.
[35] V. Willem, O. Cokand P. Ed, “Exploring the contextual and individual
factors on ethical decision making of sales people,” Journal of Business
Ethics, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 1175 – 1187, 1996.
[36] J. R. Sparks and S.D. Hunt, “Marketing researcher ethical sensitivity:
Conceptualization, measurement, and exploratory investigation,” Journal
of Marketing, vol. 62, pp. 92-109, February, 1998.
[37] M. A. Razzaque and T. P. Hwee, “Ethics and purchasing dilemma: A
Singaporean view,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol.35, no.4, pp. 307 –
326, 2002.
[38] S. Valentine and F. Gary, “Ethical reasoning in an equitable relief
innocent spouse context,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol.45, no. 4, pp.
325-339, 2003.
[39] G. E. Loviscky, L. K. Treviño and R. R. Jacobs, “Assessing managers’
ethical decision-making: An objective measure of managerial moral
judgment,” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 73, pp.3, pp. 263-285, 2007.
[40] A. Crane, D. Matten, Business Ethics, Second Edn.,New York : Oxford
University Press. 2007. pp 480-481
[41] I. Ajzen, T. C. Brown, and F. Carvajal, “Explaining the discrepancy
between intentions and actions: The case of hypothetical bias in
contingent valuation,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol.
30 no. 9, pp. 1108-1121. 2004.
[42] Berlohttp://communicationtheory.org/berlos-smcr-model-of
communication/. (Accessed September 10, 2014)
[43] T.K. Gamble, and M. Gamble Communication Works, New York:
Random House, 9th Ed., 2010, pp. 209-211.
[44] Stewart, I. and Jones, V., ‘TA Today: A New Introduction to
Transactional Analysis’ Second Edn. Melton Mowbray: Life space
Publishing. 2014. pp11-31
[45] B. W. Tuckman, and M. A. C. “Jensen, Stages of small-group
development revisited,” Group & Organization Management,vol. 2, no.
4, pp 419-427.1977.
[46] T. Kilmann, “Conflict and Conflict Management (in Handbook of
Industrial and Organizational Psychology),” M/ Dunnette (Ed.),
Chicago: Rand McNally, 1976. pp 38, 971-980
[47] J. Rest, ‘Background: Theory and research’ in J. Rest& D. Narvaez
(Eds.), Moral development in the professions: Psychology and applied
ethics New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1994. pp. 1–26
[48] D. Silverman, Harvey Sacks: Social science and conversation analysis.
Oxford UniversityPress, 1998. pp 98-127
[49] U. Sekaran, “Organisational Behavior: Text and Cases,” New Delhi:
Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., 1989, pp. 52-53.
[50] C.E. Johnson, OrganizationalEthics: A PracticalApproach, Second Ed.,
California: Sage Publications, 2012.pp85-101
[51] V. Braun, and V. Clarke, “Using thematic analysis in psychology,
Qualitative Research in Psychology,” vol. 3 no. 2, 2006, pp. 77-101.
[52] D. Treadwell, Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry,
Second Ed. California: Sag Publications, 2014.pp 86
[53] J. May. http://www.iep.utm.edu/psychego/(Accessed September 12,
2014).
[54] N.K. Mehta, “A qualitative study on communication challenges in
production and operations management of high technology
organizations,” in Proc. NITIE POMS International Conference 2014.
pp. 56-71
[55] C Antaki. An introductory tutorial in Conversation Analysis. Online
at<http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~ssca1/sitemenu.htm>. Accessed on
(09/11/2014).
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:69663", author = "Nikhil Kewal Krishna Mehta", title = "Teaching Ethical Behaviour: Conversational Analysis in Perspective", abstract = "In the past researchers have questioned the
effectiveness of ethics training in higher education. Also, there are
observations that support the view that ethical behaviour (range of
actions)/ethical decision making models used in the past make use of
vignettes to explain ethical behaviour. The understanding remains in
the perspective that these vignettes play a limited role in determining
individual intentions and not actions. Some authors have also agreed
that there are possibilities of differences in one’s intentions and
actions. This paper makes an attempt to fill those gaps by evaluating
real actions rather than intentions. In a way this study suggests the
use of an experiential methodology to explore Berlo’s model of
communication as an action along with orchestration of various
principles. To this endeavor, an attempt was made to use
conversational analysis in the pursuance of evaluating ethical
decision making behaviour among students and middle level
managers. The process was repeated six times with the set of an
average of 15 participants. Similarities have been observed in the
behaviour of students and middle level managers that calls for
understanding that both the groups of individuals have no cognizance
of their actual actions. The deliberations derived out of conversation
were taken a step forward for meta-ethical evaluations to portray a
clear picture of ethical behaviour among participants. This study
provides insights for understanding demonstrated unconscious human
behaviour which may fortuitously be termed both ethical and
unethical.
", keywords = "Berlo’s action model of communication,
Conversational Analysis, Ethical behaviour, Ethical decision making,
experiential learning, Intentions and Actions.", volume = "9", number = "3", pages = "998-9", }
