Resumen de La intensidad moral y la toma de decisiones éticas individuales en los negocios
The study of the process of ethical decision making in business includes the different aspects that influences on the moral thinking and behavior of the individuals in corporations: personal factors as the education, the moral responsibility, and the attitudes, or situational influences (as the corporate culture, or the rewards and incentives), among others. It¿s a complex subject, however is relevant because by understanding it is possible to enhance individual¿s ability to analyze situations that jeopardize the integrity of their organizations, and to take correct and sustainable actions. This dissertation proposes that moral consciousness and moral judgment can be enhanced if the information about the dilemma is presented in a way that underlies its ethical characteristics. The Moral Intensity Variables, proposed by Jones (1991) has the role to activate ¿ethical cues¿ in the situation in such a way that people generates a higher disposition to think ethically and to take more complex decisions. Such variables include the magnitude of the consequences, the social consensus, the probability of effect, the temporal immediacy, the concentration of effect, and the proximity with the people involved or affected by the circumstances. The state of the art in Moral Intensity research is presented and followed by an analysis of their influence in the process of ethical decision making (moral awareness, judgment, intention and behavior). The author identifies controversial issues in the Moral Intensity theory and emphasizes the need for more objectives measures to assess the impact of the moral issues. A model is proposed to depict the mental operations included on the process of ethical decision making in business, which may allow a deeper and more systematical study in this area of research, and to define more operational and specific variables (and their interactions) for a better understanding of moral issues, and the development of training programs. The methodological section included three research designs with the aim of verify the assumptions of the first steps of the model. A series of studies was developed among working-adult and MBA students in business schools in Peru. The results show that Moral Intensity enhances moral awareness, promotes deeper levels of moral analysis of the information, as more complex moral judgments. The perception of the moral intensity variables was organized in two clusters, as in the previous literature: the perceived potential of damage, and the perceived social pressure. The idea that moral idealism constitutes a strong cognitive framework during the first stages of moral decision making is also sustained, and that high moral intensity facilitates its activation. However, in contrast with the previous studies in Anglo-Saxon cultures, the high moral intensity produces an enhanced attention on social information and social relationships in the Peruvian population. The methodological findings included evidence concerning the possibility to develop measurements of moral awareness free of the biases of the self-reports, and evidence of the influence of the limited working-memory capacity on the processing of the moral intensity information, and its effects. Finally, a general discussion is proposed about this model of ethical decision making and its practical implications.
