Managing Business Ethics

Chapter 5

by Linda Klebe Trevio and Katherine A. Nelson

Chapter 5 Overview
Moral awareness and moral judgment
Individual differences, moral judgment, and ethical
behavior
Cognitive barriers to good ethical judgment
Gioias personal reflections on the Pinto Fires
Case

The Relationship between

Moral Awareness and Moral
Judgment

Moral Awareness

Moral Judgment

Cognitive Moral Development

Level I (Preconventional)
Stage 1 - Obedience
Stage 2 - Exchange
Level II (Conventional)
Stage 3 - Conformity - Social Approval
Stage 4 - Upholding duties, laws
Level III (Postconventional or Principled)
Stage 5 - Justice and rights
Stage 6 - Theoretical stage only

Locus of Control
Individuals perception of how much control
he or she exerts over events in life.

External

Internal

Cognitive Barriers to Good Ethical

Judgment
Script Processing
Barriers to Fact Gathering
Overconfidence
Confirmation Trap
Barriers to Consideration of Consequences
Reduced number
Ignore consequences that affect few
Risk underestimated: illusion of optimism,
illusion of control

More Cognitive Barriers

Barriers to thoughts about integrity
Illusion of superiority
Barriers to attention to gut
Careful! Gut may be wrong

How it felt to be a recall

coordinator
The recall coordinators job was serious business. The scripts
associated with it influenced me more than I influenced [it].
Before I went to Ford I would have argued strongly that Ford
had an ethical obligation to recall. After I left Ford, I now
argue and teach that Ford had an ethical obligation to recall.
But, while I was there, I perceived no obligation to recall and
I remember no strong ethical overtones to the case
whatsoever. It was a very straightforward decision, driven by
dominant scripts for the time, place, and context.