The influence of issues on moral judgment: A comparison of college students and business practitioners in the Republic of Croatia

Abstract

Given recent lapses in business decision making the development of business moral judgment has become a central issue in the United States and around the world. Our paper surveyed 171 students and 59 business practitioners in the Republic of Croatia to identify the influence that an issue's contours have on Rest's second psychological construct, Moral Judgment. Issue context—business or student sample—found that business practitioners demonstrated superior moral reasoning. Issue content—specific nature of the issue at hand—showed richness of moral reasoning varied with the specific subject of the issue for both students and business practitioners. And stability across issues—consistency in moral judgment—found students far more uniform in their reasoning than business practitioners. It follows that (1) lessons learned in the business community may better inform instruction at the collegiate level, (2) cultural peculiarities impact moral reasoning, and (3) transitioning economies offer challenges. Future researchers may wish to explore the decline in moral judgment exhibited by Millennials, possible bifurcated reasoning in other social groupings, and public policies needed to improve moral judgment.