RELIGIOUSNESS AND BUSINESS ETHICS

There is strong theoretical support for a relationship between various characteristics of religiousness and attitudes towards business ethic s. This paper examines three frequently-studied dimensions of religiou sness (fundamentalism, conservatism, and intrinsic religiousness) and their ability to predict students' willingness to behave unethically. Because prior research indicated a possible relationship between the r eligious affiliation of an institution and its members' ethical orient ation, we studied students at universities with three different types of religious affiliation: evangelical, Catholic, and none. Results of the study lend support to a negative relationship between the above-me ntioned dimensions of religiousness and willingness to behave unethica lly. In addition, students at the Evangelical university were far less willing to engage in unethical behavior than were students at either the Catholic or the unaffiliated institutions.