Contact: Phil Hearn
A Mississippi State management researcher is conducting a pilot study to determine how Christian beliefs affect individual judgments and decisions about business ethics issues in the work place.
Tim Barnett, an associate professor in the department of management and information systems, is using a $4,000 grant from the university's privately endowed J.W. Criss Fund to conduct a yearlong study titled, "Christian Self-Identity and Individuals' Ethical Decision-Making in an Organizational Context."
"Although there are many published studies of individual ethical decision-making within the business context, very few have examined the potential influence of individuals' personal religious beliefs on business ethics," Barnett explained in his grant proposal.
His goal: to empirically test hypotheses drawn in a 2002 study by Gary R. Weaver and Bradley R. Agle, suggesting "that the cognitive and behavioral role expectations associated with self-identification as a Christian may have a major impact on individuals' ethical decision-making in the organizational context." Weaver and Agle are business researchers at the universities of Delaware and Pittsburgh, respectively.
Barnett, whose department is a part of MSU's College of Business and Industry, currently is analyzing data from a pilot study conducted with a sample of MSU business majors. The students--all volunteers--anonymously completed questionnaires designed to assess their Christian self-identity.
"Students read three business scenarios containing actions that may raise ethical or moral issues," said Barnett. "They indicated the degree to which they recognized the actions in the scenarios as comprising an ethical issue, their ethical judgment about the action represented and the likelihood that they would engage in similar actions."
Results from the pilot study will form the basis of a nationwide survey of marketing managers, including about 1,000 members of the American Marketing Association. Analyses of the data will be conducted August-September, with findings to be submitted for scholarly publication in December.
Garry Smith, professor and head of the management and information systems department, said ethics studies have become increasingly important in the business world.
"In the last couple of years, several major firms have failed or have been seriously hurt by a lack of ethics in decision-making," he said. "Dr. Barnett is a leading publisher in the area of business ethics and this work may provide us with insight into the complicated mechanics of how individuals form their opinions of what is 'right' and what constitutes ethical thought."
Barnett, who holds a doctorate in business administration from MSU, taught at Louisiana Technological University before returning to the Starkville campus last year.
"Generally speaking," Barnett said, "one would expect the more salient one's self-identity as a Christian, the stronger the linkage between the role expectations associated with Christianity and ethical decision-making.
"The planned research will provide an empirical study, grounded in theory, of the effect of Christian self-identity on individuals' judgments and intentions regarding business ethics issues," he added.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Dr. Barnett at (662) 325-3928 or tbarnett@cobilan.msstate.edu.