Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 17, 2006

Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting

Studying Moral Reasoning in Business Settings
A New Methodological Approach

A new instrument, The Moral Reasoning Inventory, designed to measure moral reasoning responses to moral dilemmas within a business setting is the subject of this paper. The instrument consists of two moral dilemma scenarios with eight moral reasoning statements. Two measurement scales were used for rating responses on the strength of belief in the reasons and the importance of the reasons for resolving the dilemma. Data analysis clearly supported the effectiveness of the instrument to differentiate patterns of consistency in moral reasoning within decision groups.