Influences upon Managerial Moral Decision Making: Nature of the Harm and Magnitude of Consequences

Business ethics research typically emphasizes the influence of personal and organizational forces upon ethical decision making. While accepting these forces as important, Collins (1989) and Jones (1991) suggest that the moral issue and its intensity may also influence individuals' resolution of an ethical dilemma. Utilizing a sample of 259 managers and a modified Moral Judgment Interview survey, this research reports that the type of harm, that is, the nature or kind of harm, and the magnitude of the consequences, that is, the degree or extent of the harm affecting the victim, influence the moral reasoning criteria evoked to resolve the dilemmas, as predicted by Collins and Jones. This finding has significant theoretical, empirical, and practical implications, as discussed in the paper.