Does gender influence managers’ ethics? A cross‐cultural analysis

• Published date: 01 October 2016
• Author: Chung‐wen Chen,John B. Cullen,Kristine Velasquez Tuliao,Yi‐Ying Chang
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12122
• Date: 01 October 2016

Does gender influence

managers’ ethics?

A cross-cultural analysis

Chung-wen Chen

1

, Kristine Velasquez Tuliao

1

,

John B. Cullen

2

and Yi-Ying Chang

1

1. Department of Business Administration, National TaiwanUniversity of Science and Technology,Taipei, Taiwan

2. Washington State University, Collegeof Business, Pullman, Washington, USA

The relationship between gender and ethics has been extensively researched. However, previous studies have

assumed that the gender–ethics association is constant; hence, scholars have seldom investigated factors

potentially affecting the gender–ethics association. Thus, using managers as the research target, this study

examined the relationship between gender and ethics and analyzed the moderating effect of cultural values on

the gender–ethics association. The results showed that, compared with female managers, their male

counterparts are more willing to justify business-related unethical behaviors such as bribery and tax evasion,

and that the gender difference in ethics becomes more pronounced under the cultural dimensions of

collectivism, humane orientation, performance orientation, and gender egalitarianism. This study used data

obtained through surveying 2,754 managers in 27 nations.

Introduction

With the high publicity that corporate scandals have

received in the past decade, business ethics has con-

tinued to attract the attention of researchers and

business practitioners. Among the factors influenc-

ing ethical behaviors, gender is one of the most

widely examined factors in previous studies (e.g.

Robin & Babin 1997, Dalton & Ortegren 2011, Craft

2013). As the number of women graduating from

business schools increases and they advance to top

positions in companies (Ibrahim et al. 2009),

researchers are likely to focus on discussing gender

in business ethics.

However, previous studies on the relationship

between gender and ethics have two major deficien-

cies. First, few researchers investigating the gender–

ethics association have used managers as the

research target. Managers are critical to research on

business ethics because they establish and maintain

an organization’s moral climate (Vidaver-Cohen

1998) and are thus crucial to the success or failure of

organizational ethics (Trevi~

no et al. 2008). Thus,

studies on business ethics must focus on managers.

Second, researchers have not adequately investi-

gated how cultural contexts affect gender differences

in ethics (e.g. Valentine & Rittenburg 2007). Previ-

ous studies have suggested that the ethical differen-

ces between men and women are uniform worldwide.

However, this finding may be inaccurate because

social factors can influence ethical values (Turiel

1994). Because cross-cultural research is crucial to

understanding how ethics vary among countries, fur-

ther research on gender differences in ethics in differ-

ent contexts is necessary (Roxas & Stoneback 2004).

To investigate the gender–ethics association, we

assessed whether male managers are more likely to

be unethical compared with female managers, which

was argued by Gilligan (1982). We also investigated

the influence of cultural values on the gender–ethics

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C2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road,

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doi: 10.1111/beer.12122

345

Business Ethics: A European Review

Volume 25 Number 4 October 2016

association at the individual level. Data were

obtained through surveying 2,754 managers in 27

countries. Because the variables in this study were

measured at different levels, the hierarchical linear

modeling (HLM) approach was adopted for the data

analysis.

Literature review and hypothesis

development

Gender and ethics

Individual ethics are related to moral values, which

guide people’s moral reasoning, judgment, and

behavior. Ethics is crucial for a company’s employ-

ees and particularly critical for managers because it

represents ‘a critical reflexive practice through which

leaders come to understand the effects of their con-

duct’ (Binns 2008: 600). In addition, according to the

World Development Indicators of 2012, the labor

force participation rate of women increased from

45% in 2000 to 50% in 2010 in Europe. Considering

the global trend of increasing female workforce par-

ticipation, female representation in a firm’s decision-

making processes has become more important for

policymakers (Terjesen et al. 2009). Researchers

must study how gender influences an individual’s

perception or decision making regarding ethical

issues to determine what, if any, differences exist in

ethical values between men and women, including

male and female managers.

Proponents of gender identity theory argue that

gender phenomena involve various dimensions

(Spence & Helmreich 1978, Spence 1993) including

biological sex, psychological qualities, and gender-

role attitudes (McCabe et al. 2006). Regarding psy-

chological qualities, women are more expressive,

interpersonally oriented, and caring than men. How-

ever, male behavior is more instrumental or self-

oriented, and men are more likely to be autonomous,

proactive, and confident (Kidder & Parks 2001). The

dimension of gender-role attitudes is associated with

an individual’s beliefs about the roles that women

and men should play in society (McCabe et al. 2006).

Those with more traditional gender-role attitudes

believe that men and women should play mutually

exclusive roles. For example, women should nurture

families and take care of children, whereas men

should provide for and protect families. By contrast,

supporters of egalitarian gender roles argue that men

and women can play similar roles. For example,

both men and women can take care of children and

support a family.

Gender socialization theory posits that social fac-

tors or influences cause distinct moral developments

in men and women; thus, men and women respond

differently to the same situation (Roxas & Stoneback

2004). For men, moral issues are related to rights

and obligations (Gilligan 1982, Smith & Oakley

1997). Gender socialization theory also contends

that men prefer success and competition to following

rules; by contrast, women prefer to perform tasks

properly and maintain harmonious relationships

(Roxas & Stoneback 2004). For women, moral issues

are associated with caring, understanding, and con-

cern for others. Women consider interpersonal needs

and emotional nurturing (Callahan 1990) when mak-

ing moral judgments. In addition, women rely more

on context than men do when making ethical deci-

sions (Borkowski & Ugras 1998). The structural

approach argues that these gender differences result

from socialization at a young age and other per-

ceived gender role requirements. Research has found

that, to survive in the male-dominated workplace,

women become more like men in their working con-

ditions (Betz et al. 1989). Therefore, the gender dif-

ferences resulting from socialization may gradually

decrease in occupational environments.

Empirical findings regarding the ethical differences

between genders are inconclusive (e.g. Bampton &

Maclagan 2009). Barnett and Karson (1989) investi-

gated 513 executives and found no gender differences

in four of sevenethical scenarios relatedto economics.

McCuddy and Peery (1996) surveyed 171 undergrad-

uate studentsin the United States and foundthat gen-

der was unrelated to ethical beliefs. To examine the

impact of gender on ethical attitudes, Roozen et al.

(2001) collected 427 questionnaires in Belgium, but

the results showed no significant association between

gender and ethics. Razzaque andHwee (2002) studied

the ethical decision making of business practitioners

who were faced with purchasing dilemmas in Singa-

pore, and found no gender difference in their ethical

attitudes. However, they argued that their results

were culture-specific. McCabe et al. (2006) treated

gender as a dichotomous biological variable rather

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Volume 25 Number 4 October 2016

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