It’s not inter-religiosity but intra-religiosity that really matters in attitude towards business ethics. Evidence from India

• Pages: 167-184
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOES-10-2018-0153
• Date: 02 January 2020
• Published date: 02 January 2020
• Author: Puneeta Goel,Rupali Misra
• Subject Matter: Economics,Social economics

It’s not inter-religiosity but

intra-religiosity that really

matters in attitude towards

business ethics

Evidence from India

Puneeta Goel and Rupali Misra

Amity College of Commerce and Finance, Amity University, Noida, India

Abstract

Purpose –Given the strong religiousbackground of India, it is quite surprising that the countryis ranked

as the most corrupt nation in the Asia Pacific regionin 2017. This prompts the authors to investigate the role

of religiosityin shaping an individual’s preference for ethicalbehavior. The purpose of this paper is to explore

the conceptual linkage between religiosityand attitude towards business ethics (ATBE) and also assess the

role of gender and professionin shapingit.

Design/methodology/approach –Using a cross-sectionalsurvey on two divergent professional groups,

management students andworking professionals, this study explores the causal role of religiosityon ATBE

using pre-validated religious commitment inventory (RCI-10) and ATBE through multiple regression. The

difference betweenATBE owing to the difference in gender and profession is investigated using independent

sample t-testand Levene’sF-test. Multiple analysis of varianceand multiple analysis of covariance are used to

test the differencein ethical business philosophies.

Findings –The findings of the study indicate that genderand profession do not influence ATBE, though

religious individuals have an ethical approach towards business issues. The significant causal relationship

between composite religiosityand ATBE is documented. Further, assessing the predictor roleof intra- and

inter-personal religiosity on ATBE, the authors see that only intra-personal religiosity, which measures

individual’smeta-physical belief is found as a significant predictor of ATBE.

Practical implications –Individuals withhigher intrapersonal religiosity would exhibitsuperior ethical

conduct. For a developing country like India, such conduct at both private and public organizations would

lead to reduced scams or frauds,stimulating economic growth.

Originality/value –Religion plays a significant role in the life of Indian people but its meaning and

understanding differ from person to person. Evidence supports that people with strong religious beliefs

whether management students or working professionals, tend to have a strong ethical attitude towards

differentsituations in decision-making.

Keywords Religiosity, Attitude towards business ethics,

Intra-personal and inter-personal religiosity

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Religion imbibes the values that often build the basis of deciding right and wrong.

Religion describes the formal and informal norms that give freedom or constraints to

people to act within acceptable boundaries. Most of the religions provide codified rules

for ethical behavior. Religion defines the core values of society and regulates their daily

activities. Researchers have documented the influence of religious belief on people’s goals

and decisions, which further controls their attitude and ethical behavior (Zimbardo a nd

Attitude

towards

business ethics

167

Received29 October 2018

Revised13 November 2018

11December 2018

8 January2019

27February 2019

17July 2019

Accepted16 November 2019

InternationalJournal of Ethics and

Systems

Vol.36 No. 2, 2020

pp. 167-184

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2514-9369

DOI 10.1108/IJOES-10-2018-0153

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

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Ruch, 1979;Foxall and Goldsmith, 1994). The link between religion and ethics is quite

obvious (Tittle and Welch, 1983;Weaver and Agle, 2002). However, it has been noticed

that many religious countries have witnessed a series of corporate and financial scandals.

The fundamental reason behind these scandals is not lack of intelligence but it is a lack of

ethics on part of this leadership (Giacalone, 2004). Innumerable scams flooding media

every day are nothing but the manifestation of falling ethical business conduct. It is been

established that unethical practices of organizations were heavily responsible for the

recent financial crisis (Sedmak and Nastav, 2010). Most recently, the number of corporate

scandals such as Satyam, Punjab National Bank, Vijay Mallya, Sahara and many others

have been unearthed in India. This is quite surprising for a religious country like India

with deep-rooted dogma and ritualistic traditions. This contradictory evidence led us to

the primary research question being investigated in this study, that is, is there any

linkage between religiosity and ethical attitude of a person?

Kant’s theory of rational behavior givescategorical imperatives, which states that every

individual is a free rational being and one’s decision of any action to be morally right or

wrong does not depend on any external source, not even God (Choudhury, 2016). Every

person is his or her own legislator and can derive his or her own independent meaning of

morality and ethics. This morality is shaped by interactions with multiple endogenous

variables such as religious doctrines,social norms, legal structure and alike, providing inter-

causal explanations that enable interdisciplinary embedding. Ethical behavior is based on

the degree of complementarities that exist between these variables (Silvia and Alam

Choudhury, 2006). In this paper, we explore ethical decision-making or attitude towards

business ethics (ATBE) as a function of the inter-variable relationship between ethics and

religion.

Religiosity is an external socio-cultural expression comprising of acts of devout,

commitment, faith and belief,which guide internal deliberations and choice behavior (Spilka

and Schmidt, 1983;Kaiser, 1991). Ellis (2009)systems model is apt to explain socio-cultural

influence as an observation-perception-action loop where human surveys the world

(observation) and develops conceptual, practical, policy-oriented and value-based

understanding (perception).This perception guides his next action, which is performedback

on the world (action). This observation-perception-action is iterative, occurring in the all-

pervading macrocosmic consciousness, which shapes a person’s ethical perspective based

on phenomenological experiences. To put things in perspective, systemic learning and

learnings of decision agents are explainedby interactions between endogenous variables (of

the world), which are inter-dependent and evolve dynamically by relational learning (Silvia

and Alam Choudhury, 2006). Socio-cultural and religious overtones in decision-making are,

therefore, evidenced. Religious activities in India are not limited to celebrating festivals

alone but have become a part of daily life routine, influencing the socio-cultural fabric of the

nation. This presents an interesting background for exploring the conceptual linkage

between religiosityand ethical attitude.

Though the concept of religiosity has a general appeal with individuals of a particular

religion who exhibit seemingly similar characteristics, yet it has unique ramifications for

every adherent extending to meta-physical plane, understanding of religious narrative or

intra-religious pluralism and involvement in rituals and traditions (Misra et al.,2019).

Accordingly, religiosity has been deconstructed by many researchers into intra, innate or

intrinsic religiosity and external or inter-religiosity. Participatory behavior in religious

activities such as taking part in rituals, attendance at holy places; and knowledge of

religious history, ideology andrituals are understood as external or inter-religiosity.While,

epistemological understanding of religion, meta-physical explanations, subjective

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