THE NATURE, MEASUREMENT, AND STABILITY OF ETHICAL JUDGMENTS IN THE WORKPLACE

A basic interest in the rightness and wrongness of actions predates ph ilosophy, and the literature of organizational psychology indicates an increased interest in ethical and unethical decision-making in the wo rkplace. Although several conceptual models of workplace ethical behav ior have been offered, researchers have little guidance and few approp riate constructs for measuring a key component of these models. This p aper focuses on the historical results of the Multidimensional Ethics Scale and construct of an ethical judgment and provides an exhaustive conceptual and empirical treatment of it. This analysis offers evidenc e for a three-dimensional structure underlying ethical judgments commo n to the workplace. The structure of the Multidimensional Ethics Scale is supported through an iterative approach which involves widely vary ing contexts and samples. Results have potential implications for deve loping theories of organizational ethics as well as for employees' psy chological well-being.