We develop a model of ethical decision making that integrates the decision-making process and the content variables considered by individuals facing ethical dilemmas. The process described in the model is drawn from Janis and Mann’s [1977, Decision Making: A Psychological Analysis of Conflict Choice and Commitment (The Free Press, New York)] work describing the decision process in an environment of conflict, choice and commitment. The model is enhanced by the inclusion of content variables derived from the ethics literature. The resulting integrated model aids in understanding the complexity of the decision process used by individuals facing ethical dilemmas and suggests variable interactions that could be field-tested. A better understanding of the process will help managers develop policies that enhance the likelihood of ethical behavior in their organizations. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007decision making, ethical framework, ethics, process, stress,

Given the widespread use and success of cross-functional teams in industry and the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business's focus on the importance of interdisciplinary education, many business schools have incorporated interdisciplinary elements into their curricula. This study examined current student and alumni perceptions of the value of interdisciplinary, teamtaught, undergraduate business courses.Of specific concern was the impact of perceived integration. Overall, the courses were perceived to have value. In addition, the more integrated the course, the more positively it was evaluated on every dimension. Practical and research implications are discussed.

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A series of experiments provided evidence that the representational structure of categories comprising dot patterns is based on pattern parts and pattern configuration rather than on pattern elements. We found that similarity judgments and postacquisition classification data could not be explained in terms of element-level perceptual units, even for categories of dot patterns with seven of their eight dots in the exact same relative location. The importance of higher order perceptual units was indicated by evidence that the long-term retention of information specific to previously learned category exemplars, which is typical of natural objects, can also be obtained for artificial dot patterns, providing their structure reflects the perceptual characteristics identified in Tversky and Hemenway's (1984) study of natural objects: Members of the same category had to be perceptually distinctive at the level of pattern configuration and perceptually similar at the level of pattern parts. The level of within-category similarity for a set of categories (relative to between-categories similarity) did not predict whether item-specific information would be retained; long-term retention appears to require both within-category similarity and dissimilarity, but at different levels of perceptual structure.