Predictors, consequence, and measurement of ethical judgments: Review and meta-analysis

a r t i c l e i n f o As a central construct in theories of ethical decision making, ethical judgments have been the subject of more than one hundred empirical studies. Despite its size, the ethical judgments literature seems to lack clarity in three areas. First, empirical results are sometimes inconsistent or contradictory across studies. Second, a broad array of diverse measures of ethical judgments raises concerns about research validity. Third, differences in sample composition may affect comparability of study results. To help resolve these issues, this study conducts a review and meta-analysis of the ethical judgments literature. The results offer insights in all three areas. They help resolve some of the inconsistencies in the relationships between ethical judgments and certain theoretical antecedents; they support the use of diverse measures of ethical judgments; and they offer caution in the use of student samples in ethical judgments research. The ethical judgments construct occupies prominent theoretical and empirical roles in the business ethics literature. Ethical judgments is central to major theories of ethical decision making (i. and appears in well over one hundred empirical studies. Despite its size and level of development, the ethical judgments literature seems to lack clarity in some important respects. First, empirical research on theoretically important correlates of ethical judgments frequently appears to be inconsistent with theory and occasionally contradictory of other empirical research. Second, great diversity exists in the measurement of ethical judgments. Studies of ethical judgments employ single-and multi-item measures with varied means of scaling responses. Yet these widely different measurement approaches purport to operatio-nalize the same construct. Third, differences in sample composition across studies can attenuate effect sizes and inhibit the comparability of results. Collectively, these issues may limit research generalizability and hinder the testing of ethical decision making theories. In light of these conditions, the time seems opportune for a meta-analytic review of the ethical judgments literature. Unlike narrative literature reviews, meta-analyses permit researchers to quantitatively summarize findings across studies and establish the generalizability of reported relationships. Additionally, meta-analyses help resolve inconsistent findings by evaluating the effects of study characteristics on empirical results. Therefore, this study reports the results of a meta-analysis of the ethical judgments literature to address the areas of needed clarity described above. To help resolve inconsistent or conflicting results, this study reviews the literature to identify relevant antecedents and a consequence of ethical judgments, develops hypotheses about …