THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL AND MORAL INTEGRATION ON ETHICAL STANDARDS - A COMPARISON OF AMERICAN AND UKRAINIAN BUSINESS STUDENTS

This paper examines levels of similarity in ethical outlooks in countr ies where economic and sociocultural values may differ markedly. We co mpared students from a capitalist country, the United States, with stu dents from Ukraine, a country experiencing dramatic ideological confus ion and economic change. We tested the hypothesis that greater social and moral integration, as operationalized by a lack of alienation and by religiousness, will directly affect one's willingness to engage in unethical business practices. The sample was composed of business stud ents in both Ukraine and the United States. The survey instrument cons isted of widely used scales for measuring alienation and religiousness . The measure of ethical standards was a vignette-based quasi-projecti ve technique. Results showed that, for the sample as a whole, willingn ess to engage in unethical business behavior was related to higher lev els of alienation and lower levels of religiousness. The Ukrainians we re also much more willing to engage in unethical behavior than were th e Americans. The explanation for this difference is unclear, however. For the Ukrainians, religiousness and alienation did not explain the p atterns in unethical behavior, and relationships were very weak for th e Americans. There may be some unmeasured factor, such as economic exi gency, that is influencing the results. It simply may be that people c hoose to behave more ethically when they have the luxury to do so.