Societal-Level Versus Individual-Level Predictions of Ethical Behavior: A 48-Society Study of Collectivism and Individualism

  • David A. Ralston
  • , Carolyn P. Egri
  • , Olivier Furrer
  • , Min Hsun Kuo
  • , Yongjuan Li
  • , Florian Wangenheim
  • , Marina Dabic
  • , Irina Naoumova
  • , Katsuhiko Shimizu
  • , María Teresa de la Garza Carranza
  • , Ping Ping Fu
  • , Vojko V. Potocan
  • , Andre Pekerti
  • , Tomasz Lenartowicz
  • , Narasimhan Srinivasan
  • , Tania Casado
  • , Ana Maria Rossi
  • , Erna Szabo
  • , Arif Butt
  • , Ian Palmer
  • Prem Ramburuth, David M. Brock, Jane Terpstra-Tong, Ilya Grison, Emmanuelle Reynaud, Malika Richards, Philip Hallinger, Francisco B. Castro, Jaime Ruiz-Gutiérrez, Laurie Milton, Mahfooz Ansari, Arunas Starkus, Audra Mockaitis, Tevfik Dalgic, Fidel León-Darder, Hung Vu Thanh, Yong lin Moon, Mario Molteni, Yongqing Fang, Jose Pla-Barber, Ruth Alas, Isabelle Maignan, Jorge C. Jesuino, Chay Hoon Lee, Joel D. Nicholson, Ho Beng Chia, Wade Danis, Ajantha S. Dharmasiri, Mark Weber

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

74 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Is the societal-level of analysis sufficient today to understand the values of those in the global workforce? Or are individual-level analyses more appropriate for assessing the influence of values on ethical behaviors across country workforces? Using multi-level analyses for a 48-society sample, we test the utility of both the societal-level and individual-level dimensions of collectivism and individualism values for predicting ethical behaviors of business professionals. Our values-based behavioral analysis indicates that values at the individual-level make a more significant contribution to explaining variance in ethical behaviors than do values at the societal-level. Implicitly, our findings question the soundness of using societal-level values measures. Implications for international business research are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)283-306
Number of pages24
JournalJournal of Business Ethics
Volume122
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Collectivism
  • Cultural values
  • Hierarchical linear modeling
  • Individualism
  • Influence ethics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business and International Management
  • General Business,Management and Accounting
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Law

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