Ethical decision making and the law

This paper will examine the effects of gender, age, work experience, academ ic status and legality on certain ethical decisions. Six scenarios represen ting ethical dilemmas were presented to both undergraduate and MBA students in an attempt to determine if various demographic factors influenced ethic al decision making. While some past studies have suggested that gender has an important effect on ethical decision making, this study does not complet ely support this conclusion and suggests that age and/or length of work exp erience should be included in any study of ethical decision making. The legality of the decisions was determined and compared to the reason giv en by the students for their decisions. In some cases the choice made by a majority of the students was not the one that was supported by the legal au thorities which suggests that there may be conflicts between the ethical sy stem of the respondents and the behavior expected of them by society.