RT Article
T1 Vignette themes and moral reasoning in business contexts: the case for the defining issues test
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 181
IS 4
SP 979
OP 995
A1 Mudrack, Peter E.
A1 Mason, E. Sharon
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1826775927
AB Some researchers interested in assessing moral reasoning among business practitioners or students have developed their own vignettes or scenarios set in business contexts, based on assumptions that the situations presented in the often-used Defining Issues Test (DIT) will somehow be inappropriate for these specific types of respondents. This paper is the first to examine in depth both the actual details contained in these business-oriented scenarios and empirical findings emerging from them. Among this paper’s conclusions are: (1) assumptions underpinning the presumed superiority of business-oriented vignettes have yet to be tested; (2) the DIT possesses considerable advantages unavailable in alternative measures; (3) many business-oriented scenarios have underlying Dilemma themes that seem inherently ambiguous and thus of questionable relevance for assessing moral reasoning; (4) these scenarios have no obvious equivalent in the DIT and thus cannot definitively be placed under the umbrella of the latter’s demonstrated construct validity; and (5) meaningful empirical findings have not clearly emerged from investigations using business-oriented vignettes. In light of these conclusions, we recommend that investigators interested in moral reasoning advance knowledge in a coherent and unified way by using the DIT that seems entirely appropriate for use among respondents with business experience or training. Although alternative measures may have value for assessing ethical judgments, evidence of their validity as a measure of moral reasoning is lacking.
K1 Appropriate vignette content
K1 Construct Validity
K1 Defining Issues Test
K1 Moral Reasoning
K1 Aufsatz in Zeitschrift
DO 10.1007/s10551-021-04944-8