Vignette Themes and Moral Reasoning in Business Contexts: The Case for the Defining Issues Test

Peter E. Mudrack () and E. Sharon Mason ()
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Peter E. Mudrack: Kansas State University
E. Sharon Mason: Brock University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2022, vol. 181, issue 4, No 9, 979-995

Abstract: Abstract Some researchers interested in assessing moral reasoning among business practitioners or students have developed their own vignettes or scenarios set in business contexts, based on assumptions that the situations presented in the often-used Defining Issues Test (DIT) will somehow be inappropriate for these specific types of respondents. This paper is the first to examine in depth both the actual details contained in these business-oriented scenarios and empirical findings emerging from them. Among this paper’s conclusions are: (1) assumptions underpinning the presumed superiority of business-oriented vignettes have yet to be tested; (2) the DIT possesses considerable advantages unavailable in alternative measures; (3) many business-oriented scenarios have underlying Dilemma themes that seem inherently ambiguous and thus of questionable relevance for assessing moral reasoning; (4) these scenarios have no obvious equivalent in the DIT and thus cannot definitively be placed under the umbrella of the latter’s demonstrated construct validity; and (5) meaningful empirical findings have not clearly emerged from investigations using business-oriented vignettes. In light of these conclusions, we recommend that investigators interested in moral reasoning advance knowledge in a coherent and unified way by using the DIT that seems entirely appropriate for use among respondents with business experience or training. Although alternative measures may have value for assessing ethical judgments, evidence of their validity as a measure of moral reasoning is lacking.

Keywords: Moral reasoning; Defining Issues Test; Appropriate vignette content; Construct validity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-021-04944-8

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