Abstract
A recent contribution to the moral decision-making literature argues that individuals' moral behavior is partially shaped by the amount of moral approbation they expect to receive from their moral referent groups (Jones and Ryan, 1997). This paper examines the nature and content of these previously underexamined sources of moral guidance. In an open-ended empirical test of undergraduate business students (n = 369), we found that 1) significant differences exist between individuals' moral referent groups and work-related referent groups, 2) females were more likely than males to include themselves in their moral referent groups, 3) females were more likely than males to be designated as moral referents, and 4) females were more likely to be included in moral referent groups than in work-related referent groups. The paper also includes a general description of the membership of these business subjects' moral referent groups and presents a variety of suggestions for future research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blasi, A.: 1984, ‘Moral Identity: Its Role in Moral Functioning', in W. M. Kurtines and J. L. Gewirtz (eds.), Morality, Moral Behavior, and Moral Development ( John Wiley and Sons, New York), pp. 128–139.
Bornstein, R. F.: 1997, ‘Long-term Retest Reliability of Interpersonal Dependency Inventory Scores in College Students,' Assessment 4, 359–364.
Bornstein, R. F., S. C. Rossner and E. L. Hill: 1994, ‘Retest Reliability of Scores on Objective and Projective Measures of Dependency: Relationship to Life Events and Interest Interval’, Journal of Personality Assessment 62, 398–415.
Bronfenbrenner, U.: 1962, ‘The Role of Age, Sex, Class, and Culture in Studies of Moral Development,' in S. W. Cook (ed.), Review of Recent Research Bearing on Religious and Character Formation (Religious Education Association, New York), pp. S3-S17.
Cohen, B. P.: 1962, ‘The Process of Choosing a Reference Group', in J. H. Criswell, H. Solomon and P. Suppes (eds.), Mathematical Methods in Small Group Processes (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA), pp. 101–118.
Denzin, N. K.: 1966, ‘The Significant Others of a College Population’, Sociological Quarterly 7, 298–310.
Edwards, A. L.: 1959, Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (Manual) (Psychology Corporation, New York).
Epstein, S.: 1973, ‘The Self-concept Revisited: Or a Theory of a Theory’, American Psychologist 28(5), 404–416.
Franke, G. R., D. F. Crown and D. F. Spake: 1997, ‘Gender Differences in Ethical Perceptions of Business Practices: A Social Role Theory Perspective’, Journal of Applied Psychology 82, 920–934.
Glover, S. H., M. A. Bumpus, J. E. Logan and J. R. Ciesla: 1997, ‘Re-examining the Influence of Individual Values on Ethical Decision Making’, Journal of Business Ethics 16, 1319–1329.
Henry, R. M.: 1983, The Psychodynamic Foundations of Morality (S. Karger, New York).
Hirschfeld, R. M., G. L. Klerman, H. G. Gough, J. Barrett, S. J. Korchin and P. Chodoff: 1977, ‘A Measure of Interpersonal Dependency’, Journal of Personality Assessment 41, 610–618.
Hoffman, M.: 1979, ‘Development of Moral Thought, Feeling, and Behavior’, American Psychologist 34: 958–966.
Hyman, H. H.: 1980/1942, The Psychology of Status (New York Times Company, New York).
Jones, T. M. and L. V. Ryan: 1997, ‘The Link between Ethical Judgment and Action in Organizations: A Moral Approbation Approach’, Organization Science 8, 663–680.
Jones, T. M. and L. V. Ryan: 1998, ‘The Effect of Organizational Forces on Individual Morality: Judgment, Moral Approbation, and Behavior’, Business Ethics Quarterly 8, 431–445.
Kelley, H. H.: 1952, ‘Two Functions of Reference Groups', in G. E. Swanson, T. M. Newcomb, and E. L. Hartley (eds.), Readings in Social Psychology (Henry Holt, New York), pp. 410–414.
Kohlberg, L.: 1969, ‘Stage and Sequence: The Cognitive-developmental Approach to Socialization', in D. A. Goslin (ed.), Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research (Rand McNally, Chicago), pp. 347–480
Kulik, C. T. and M. L. Ambrose: 1992, ‘Personal and Situational Determinants of Referent Choice’, Academy of Management Review 17, 212–237.
Lau, R. R.: 1989, ‘Individual and Contextual Influences on Group Identification’, Social Psychology Quarterly 52(3), 220–233.
Malinowski, C. and K. A. Berger: 1996, ‘Undergraduate Student Attitudes about Hypothetical Marketing Dilemmas’, Journal of Business Ethics 15, 525–535.
Merton, R. K.: 1957, Social Theory and Social Structure (Free Press, Glencoe, IL).
Murgatroyd, D. and E. I. Gavurin: 1975, ‘Comparisons of Edwards Personal Preference Schedule Norms with Recent College Samples’, Journal of Psychology 91, 71–76.
Nadler, A.: 1997, ‘Personality and Help Seeking: Autonomous versus Dependent Seeking of Help', in G. R. Pierce, B. Lakey, I. G. Sarason and B. R. Sarason (eds.), Sourcebook of Social Support and Personality (Plenum Press, New York), pp. 379–407.
Newcomb, T. M.: 1950, Social Psychology (Dryden Press, New York).
Randall, D. M. and A. M. Gibson: 1990, ‘Methodology in Business Ethics Research: A Review and Critical Assessment’, Journal of Business Ethics 9, 457–471.
Rest, J. R.: 1986, Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory (Praeger, New York).
Ryan, L. V. and C. M. Riordan: 2000, ‘The Development of a Measure of Desired Moral Approbation’, Educational and Psychological Measurement 60, 448–462.
Sexton, D. L. and N. Bowman-Upton: 1990, ‘Female and Male Entrepreneurs: Psychological Characteristics and Their Role in Gender-related Discrimination’, Journal of Business Venturing 5, 29–36.
Shah, P. P.: 1998, ‘Who are Employees' Social Referents? Using a Network Perspective to Determine Referent Others’, Academy of Management Journal 41, 249–268.
Thoma, S. J. and J. R. Rest: 1986, ‘Moral Judgment, Behavior, Decision Making, and Attitudes', in J. R. Rest (ed.), Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory (Praeger, New York), pp. 133–175.
Thorson, J. A. and F. C. Powell: 1992, ‘Vagaries of College Norms for the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule’, Psychological Reports 70, 943–946.
Waterman, A. S.: 1988, ‘On the Uses of Psychological Theory and Research in the Process of Ethical Inquiry’, Psychological Bulletin 103(3), 283–298.
White, F. A.: 1996a, ‘Sources of Influence in Moral Thought: The New Moral Authority Scale’, Journal of Moral Education 25(4), 421–439.
White, F. A.: 1996b, ‘Family Processes as Predictors of Adolescents' Preferences for Ascribed Sources of Moral Authority: A Proposed Model’, Adolescence 31(121), 133–144.
Williams, M. A.: 1970, ‘Reference Groups: A Review and Commentary’, Sociological Quarterly 11, 545–554.
Young, J. W. and L. R. Ferguson: 1979, ‘Developmental Changes through Adolescence in the Spontaneous Nomination of Reference Groups as a Function of Decision Content’, Journal of Youth and Adolescence 8(2), 239–252.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ryan, L.V., Ciavarella, M.A. Tapping the Source of Moral Approbation: The Moral Referent Group. Journal of Business Ethics 38, 179–192 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015729231274
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015729231274