Abstract
This paper introduces a new conceptual framework for studying moral climate in business firms, offering an alternative to other theoretical models currently in the literature. The framework integrates recent advances in organizational climate theory into a new conceptualization of the moral climate construct that explains how moral climates evolve in organizations and suggests moral climate change.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andrews, K.: 1989, ‘Ethics in Practice’, Harvard Business Review(September-October), 99–104.
Ashforth, B.: 1985, ‘Climate Formation: Issues and Extensions’, Academy of Management Review 10(4), 837–847.
Astley, W. G. and A. Van de Ven: 1983, ‘Central Perspectives and Debates in Organizational Theory’, Administrative Science Quarterly 28, 245–273.
Barnard, C.: 1938, The Functions of the Executive (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
Baucus, M. and J. Near: 1991, ‘Can Illegal Corporate Behavior Be Predicted? An Event History Analysis’, Academy of Management Journal 34(1), 9–36.
Beauchamp, T. and N. Bowie: 1991, Ethical Theory and Business, 3rd edition (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Boisjoly, R. P., E. Curtis and E. Mellican: 1989, 'Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger Disaster: The Ethical Dimensions. Journal of Business Ethics 8, 217–230.
Braithewaite, J.: 1989, Crime, Shame and Reintegration (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
Brief, A., J. Dukerich, P. Brown and J. Brett: 1995, ‘What's Wrong with the Treadway Commission Report? Experimental Analyses of the Effects of Personal Values and Codes of Conduct on Fraudulent Financial Reporting’, Journal of Business Ethics(in press).
Burke, W. W.: 1982, Organization Development: Principles and Practices(Little, Brown and Company, Boston).
Campbell, J., M. Dunnette, E. Lawler and K. Weick: 1970, Managerial Behavior, Performance and Effectiveness(McGraw Hill, New York).
Clinard, M.: 1983, Corporate Ethics and Crime(Sage, London).
Clinard, M. B. and P. Yeager: 1980, Corporate Crime (Free Press, New York).
Cohen, D. V.: 1992, ‘Ethical Choice in the Workplace: Situational and Psychological Determinants’, Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, New York, NY.
Cohen, D. V.: 1993, ‘Creating and Maintaining Ethical Work Climates: Anomie in the Workplace and Implications for Managing Change, Society for Business Ethics Best Paper Award, 1992’, Business Ethics Quarterly 3(4), 343–358.
Cohen, D. V.: 1994, ‘Ethics and Crime in Baseness Firms: Organizational Culture and the Impact of Anomie’, in Adler and Laufer (ntEds.), Advances in Criminological Theory, Volume 6.
Cohen, D. V.: 1995, ‘Creating Ethical Work Climates: A Socio-Economic Perspective, Recipient of the 1994 Founders' Prize and Best Paper Award from the Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics’, Journal of Socio-economics 24(2), 317–344.
Coleman, J. W.: 1989, The Criminal Elite: The Sociology of White Collar Crime(St. Martin's Press, New York).
Cullen, J., B. Victor and J. Bronson: 1993, ‘The Ethical Climate Questionnaire: An Assessment of Its Development and Validity’, Psychological Reports 73, 667–674.
Dalton D. and Metzger, M.: 1992, ‘Towards Candor, Cooperation and Privacy in Applied Business Ethics Research: The Randomized Response Technique’, Business Ethics Quarterly 2(2).
Donaldson, T.: 1982, Corporations and Morality (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs).
Donaldson, T. and T. Dunfee: 1994, ‘Towards a Unified Conception of Business Ethics: Integrative Social Contracts Theory’, Academy of Management Review 19(2), 1–32.
Donaldson, T. and L. Preston: 1995, ‘The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence and Implications’, Academy of Management Review.
Drexler, J.: 1977, ‘Organizational Climate: Its Homogeneity within Organizations’, Journal of Applied Psychology 62, 38–42.
Etzioni, A.: 1988, The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics(Free Press, New York).
Fernandes and Randall: 1992, ‘The Nature of Social Desirability Bias in Business Ethics Research’, Business Ethics Quarterly 2(2).
Follett, M. P.: 1925 (1941), ‘The Giving of Orders’, in H. C. Metcalf and L. Urwick (ntEds.), Dynamic Administration(Harper and Brothers, New York), pp. 50–70.
Freeman, R. E.: 1984, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach(Pitman/Ballinger (Harper Collins), Boston).
Freeman, R. E. and N. Bowie: 1992, Ethics and Agency Theory: An Introduction(Oxford University Press, New York).
Freeman, R. E. and D. Gilbert: 1988, Corporate Strategy and the Search for Ethics(Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs).
Frederick, W.: 1986, ‘Toward CSR3: Why Ethical Analysis Is Indispensable and Unavoidable’, California Management Review 28(2).
Frederick, W.: 1992, ‘The Empirical Quest for Normative Meaning: Introduction and Overview’, Business Ethics Quarterly 2(2).
Gaertner, K.: 1992, ‘Moral Intent in Decision Making: Individual and Organizational Determinants’, Working paper (Georgetown University, Washington, DC).
Geis, G. and E. Stotland (ntEds.): 1980, White-Collar Crime: Theory and Research(Sage, Beverly Hills, CA).
Gilligan, C.: 1982, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development(Harvard University Press, Cambridge).
Gladstone, J. and R. Eccles: 1990, Salomon Brothers: Managing the Firm(Harvard Business School, Cambridge MA).
Glick, W.: 1985, ‘Conceptualizing and Measuring Organizational Climate’, Academy of Management Review 10, 601–616.
Greenberg, J.: 1990, ‘Employee Theft as Reaction to Underpayment Inequity’, Journal of Applied Psychology 75, 561–568.
Hanson, K.: 1992, Business Enterprise Trust Awards: Video Tape.
Higgins, A.: 1991, ‘The Just Community Approach to Moral Education’, in W. Kurtines and Gewirtz (ntEds.), Handbook of Moral Behavior and Development, Vol. 3: Application(Earlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ), pp. 111–141.
Hirschman, A. O.: 1970, Voice, Exist and Loyalty (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
Hosmer, L. T.: 1994, ‘Why Be Moral? A Different Rationale for Managers’, Business Ethics Quarterly 4(2).
Howe, J.: 1977, ‘Group Climate: An Exploratory Analysis of Construct Validity’, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 19, 106–125.
Jeffrey, C. R.: 1990, Criminology: An Interdisciplinary Approach(Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs)
Johnston, H.: 1976, ‘A New Conceptualization of Source of Organizational Climate’, Administrative Science Quarterly 21, 95–103.
Jones, A. P. and L. James: 1979, ‘Psychological Climate: Dimensions and Relationships of Individual and Aggregated Work Environment Perceptions’, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 23, 201–250.
Jones, T. M.: 1991, ‘Ethical Decision Making in Organization: An Issue Contingent Model’, Academy of Management Review 16, 366–415.
Jones, T.: 1995, ‘Instrumental Stakeholder Theory: A Synthesis of Ethics and Economics’, Academy of Management Review 20(2), 404–438.
Joyce and Slocum: 1990, ‘Strategic Context and Organizational Climate’, in Schneider (nted.), Organizational Climate and Culture( Jossey-Bass, San Francisco), pp. 130–150.
Kanter, R. M.: 1979, ‘Power Failure in Management Circuits’, Harvard Business Review ( July-August, 1979), 65–75.
Kanter, R. M.: 1983, The Changemasters(Simon and Schuster, New York).
Kanungo, R.: 1992, ‘Alienation and Empowerment: Some Ethical Imperitives in Business’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 413–422.
Katz, D. and R. L. Kahn: 1978, The Social Psychology of Organizations, 2nd edn. (Wiley, New York)
Kelman, H. and V. Hamilton: 1989, Crimes of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility(Yale University Press, New Haven).
Kohlberg, L.: 1984, The Psychology of Moral Development: Moral Stages and the Life Cycle, Volume 2 (Harper and Row, San Francisco).
Kopelman, Brief and Guzzo: 1990, ‘The Role of Climate an Culture in Productivity’, in Schneider (nted.), Organizational Climate and Culture( Jossey-Bass, San Francisco), pp. 282–318.
Kotter, J. P. and J. Heskett: 1992, Corporate Culture and Performance(Free Press, New York).
Lemke, D.: 1994, ‘Structural Antecedents of Ethical Work Climates’, Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the International Association of Business and Society.
Lewin, K.: 1951, Field Theory in Social Science(Harper and Row, New York).
Levenson, J.: 1963, Men, Management and Mental Health(Harvard Press, Cambridge).
Likert, R.: 1961, New Patterns of Management (McGraw Hill, New York).
Mayo, E.: 1933, The Human Problems of Industrial Civilization(Harvard Business School, Boston).
McGregor, D.: 1960, The Human Side of Enterprise (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Merton, R. K.: 1968, Social Theory and Social Structure (Free Press, New York).
Messner, S. and R. Rosenfeld: 1994, Crime and the American Dream: An Institutional Analysis (Wadsworth, Belmont, CA).
Moore, J.: 1992, ‘Corporate Culpability Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines’, Arizona Law Review 34, December.
Newman, K.: 1993, ‘Procedural Justice and Ethical Decision-Making’, Social Justice Research 6, 113–133.
Paine, L.: 1994, ‘Managing for organizational Integrity’, Harvard Business Review(March-April), 106–117.
Payne, R. and R. Mansfield: 1973, ‘Relationships of Perceptions of Organizational Climate to Organizational Structure, Context and Hierarchical Position’, Administrative Science Quarterly 18, 515–526.
Passas, N.: 1988, ‘Merton's Theory of Anomie and Deviance: An Elaboration’, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Passas, N.: 1990, ‘Anomie and Corporate Deviance’, Contemporary Crises 14, 157–178.
Powell, G. and D. Butterfield: 1978, ‘The Case for Subsystem Climates in Organizations’, Academy of Management Review 3, 151–157.
Power, F., A. Higgins, and L. Kohlberg: 1989, Lawrence Kohlberg';s Approach to Moral Eduction (Columbia University Press, NY).
Randall, D. and A. Gibson: 1990, ‘Methodology in Business Ethics Research: A Review and Critical Assessment’, Journal of Baseness Ethics 9, 457–471.
Reichers, A. and B. Schneider: 1990, ‘Climate and Culture’, in B. Schneider (nted.), Organizational Climate and Culture( Jossey-Bass, San Francisco).
Rousseau, D.: 1988, ‘The Construction of Climate in Organizational Research’, in Cooper and Robertson (ntEds.), International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Schein, E.: 1985, Organizational Culture and Leadership (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco).
Schlesinger, P., V. Sathe, L. Schlesinger and J. Kotter: 1992, Organization, 3rd Edition (Irwin, Boston).
Schneider, B.: 1983, ‘Work Climates: An Interactionist Perspective’, in N. Feimer and E. Geller (ntEds.), Environmental Psychology(Praeger, New York), pp. 106–128.
Schneider, B.: 1990, ‘The Climate for Service: An Application of the Climate Construct’, in Schneider (nted.), Organizational Climate and Culture (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco), pp. 383–412.
Shaw, C. and H. McKay: 1929, Delinquency Areas (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).
Shaw, B. and F. Zollers: 1993, ‘Managers in the Moral Dimension’, Business Ethics Quarterly 3(2), 153–168.
Schmalleger, F.: 1993, Criminal Justice Today (Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall).
Simon, H.: 1947, Administrative Behavior(Free Press, New York).
Sims, R.: 1992a, ‘The Challenge of Ethical Behavior in Organizations’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 505–513.
Sims, R.: 1992b, ‘Linking Groupthink to Ethical Behavior in Organizations’, Journal of Business Ethics 11, 651–662.
Sinclair, A.: 1993, ‘Approaches to Organizational Culture and Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics 12, 63–73.
Smith, A.: 1776 (1937), An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations(Modern Library, New York).
Staw, B. and E. Szwajkowski: 1975, ‘The Scarcity-Munificence Component of Organizational Environments and the Commission of Illegal Acts’, Administrative Science Quarterly 20(September), 345–354.
Stevenson, R.: 1992, ‘Sears Ducks, Then Tries to Cover’, New York Times( June 17), D1.
Stone, C. D.: 1975, Where the Law Ends(Harper and Row, New York).
Stotland, E.: 1977, ‘White Collar Criminals’, Journal of Social Issues 33(4), 179–196.
Sutherland, E.: 1949, White Collar Crime(Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York).
Taylor, F. W.: 1911, The Principles of Scientific Management (Harper and Brothers, New York).
Tichy, N.: 1983, Managing Strategic Change: Technical, Political, and Cultural Dynamics (John Wiley & Sons, New York).
Trevino, L.: 1986, ‘Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: A Person-Situation Interactionist Model’, Academy of Management Review 11(3), 607–617.
Trevino, L.: 1990, ‘A Cultural Perspective on Changing and Developing Organizational Ethics’, Research on Organization Change and Development 4, 195–230.
Trevino, L.:1992, ‘Experimental Approaches to Studying Ethical-Unethical Behavior in Organizations’, Business Ethics Quarterly 2(2).
Trevino, L. and D. McCabe: 1994, ‘Meta-Learning about Business Ethics’, Journal of Business Ethics 13(6).
Trevino, L. and B. Victor: 1992, ‘Peer Reporting of Unethical Behavior: A Social Context Perspective’, Academy of Management Journal 35(1), 38–64.
Trevino, L. and S. Youngblood: 1990, ‘Bad Apples in Bad Barrels: A Causal Analysis of Ethical Decision-Making Behavior’, Journal of Applied Psychology 75(4), 378–385.
Trevino, L., Butterfield, K., and D. McCabe: 1995, ‘Contextual Influences on Ethics-Related Outcomes: Rethinking Ethical Climate and Ethical Culture’, Presented as the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Vancouver, BC.
Vandivier, K.: 1972, ‘Why Should My Conscience Bother Me?’, in R. Heilbroner (nted.), In the Name of Profit(Doubleday, New York), pp. 3–31.
Vaughan, D.: 1983, Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behavior: Social Structure and Corporate Misconduct (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).
Victor, B. and J. Cullen: 1988, ‘The Organizational Bases of Ethical Work Climates’, Administrative Science Quarterly 33, 101–125.
Victor, B., J. Cullen, and A. Boynton: 1993, ‘Toward a General Framework of Organizational Meaning Systems’, in C. Conrad (nted.), The Ethical Nexus (Ablex, Norwood, NJ).
Victor, B. and C. Stephens: 1994, ‘Baseness Ethics: A Synthesis of Normative Philosophy and Empirical Social Science’, Business Ethics Quarterly 4(2).
Wartick, S. and P. Cochran: 1985, ‘The Evolution of the Corporate Social Performance Model’, Academy of Management Review 10(4), 758–769.
Weaver, G. and L. Trevino: 1994, ‘Normative and Empirical Business Ethics’, Business Ethics Quarterly 4(2).
Weber, J.: 1993, ‘Emphasizing the Ethical in Ethical Work Climates’, Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Atlanta, GA.
Weber, J.: 1995, ‘Influences upon Organizational Ethical Subclimates: A Multi-Departmental Analysis of a Single Firm’, Organization Science 6(2).
Weber, M.: 1904 (1949), ‘Objectivity in Social Science and Social Philosophy’, in Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social Sciences(Free Press, New York).
Weber, M: 1917 (1949), ‘The Meaning of Ethical Neutrality in Sociology and Economics’, in Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social Sciences(Free Press, New York).
Weber, M.: 1922 (1968), Economy and Society (Bedminster Press, New York).
Williamson, O.: 1985, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism(Free Press, New York).
Wimbush, J.: 1993, ‘The Behavioral Impact of Ethical Climate’, Presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Atlants, GA.
Wimbush, J. and J. Shephard: 1994, ‘Ethical Climates and Behavior: An Agenda for a Neglected Area of Research’, Journal of Business Ethics 13(8), 637–648.
Wood, D.: 1991, ‘Corporate Social Performance Revisited’, Academy of Management Review 16(4), 691–718.
Wood, D.: 1994, Business and Society(Harper Collins, New York).
Wood, D. and A. Detwiler: 1994, ‘Apple Juice’, in D. Wood (nted.), Business and Society(Harper Collins, New York).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vidaver-Cohen, D. Moral Climate in Business Firms: A Conceptual Framework for Analysis and Change. Journal of Business Ethics 17, 1211–1226 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005763713265
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005763713265