Moral Philosophy Orientations of the Primary School Teachers
Author(s):
Özgür Önen (presenting / submitting) Yasar Kondakci
Conference:
ECER 2013
Format:
Paper

Session Information

ERG SES C 04, Philosophy and Ethics in Education

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-09
11:00-12:30
Room:
A-104
Chair:
Marit Honerød Hoveid

Contribution

Ethical decision making in organizations is an important concept in management literature (Trevino, 1986). There are different models that investigate the nature of the ethical decision making in organizational settings (e.g., Trevino, 1986; Ferrell and Gresham, 1985; Ferrell,Gresham and Fraedrich, 1989;  Hunt and Vitell, 1986;2006). These models advance different theoretical discussions which explain the role of various constructs in ethical decision-making. Personal moral philosophy, as a key factor in ethical decision making, is one of the constructs shaping ethical decision making (references). Hunt and Vitell (1986) defined personal moral philosophy as a two dimensional construct; deontological and theological views. Likewise, Forsyth (1980) utilized two dimensions in analyzing personal moral philosophy orientations; however, the author advanced totally different labels to these two sub dimension; relativism and idealism. Hunt and Vitell (1986) and Forsyth (1992) propose that personal moral philosophy orientations of employees’ are predictors of the ethical decision making in organization setting

Forsyth (1980) explains relativism as rejecting universal values while judging the consequences of the moral actions and defines idealism as referring moral absolutes while making decisions on ethical issues. Forsyth (1980) proposes that one can posit himself/herself on ones of these ideologies at differing degrees.

Ethical decision making is an issue in organizational processes in educational setting as well. However, there are seldom empirical studies on the issue. In most cases teachers find themselves in a situation where they have to make ethical decisions. Tirri (1999) posits that teachers live various problems regarding to their works and students. She also adds that teacher usually have an intention to solve problems by themselves. Hence understanding how they give decisions in these kinds of situations is really very important. Demonstrating just and ethical conduct is closely related to the teachers’ moral philosophical orientations. Understanding of teachers moral philosophical orientation, contribute to our understanding of how teachers give ethical decisions and this study adds on theoretical discussions and practical models of ethical decision making in educational organizations.

Method

This study was designed as a descriptive study in order to understand the personal moral philosophy orientations of the primary school teachers. Survey method is applied as data collection method. The sample of study consists of 176 teachers that work in 18 different public schools in Ankara, Turkey. For measuring the personal moral philosophies, Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) is used. EPQ was developed by Forsyth (1980) and it was adopted into Turkish by Marta et. al. (2012) after getting permission from the co-author, Burnaz, EPQ administered to teachers in the 2012 summer seminar term. First factor analysis is conducted on data. After removing the eight items (items; 7, 8, 9,10, 11, 18, 19 and 20) that have low factor loadings (below .30) the scale was finalized. Factor analysis results yielded two factor solution as proposed by Forsyth (1980). Two factors, in total, explained 51.316 % of the variance. The internal consistency reliability coefficients for the first dimension was good (α= 81.7) and acceptable for the second dimension (α= 77.7). Later, the data were analyzed with paired sample t-test in order to investigate if there is significant differences exist between teachers’ on relativism and idealism dimensions.

Expected Outcomes

Analysis yielded that Teachers has significantly higher points on idealism dimension. However their points in relativism dimension also in the middles. It can be thought that teachers fall in to absolutist category according to the Forsyth’s taxonomy (1992). In addition, in order to understand if gender, age, levels of teaching and the years of experiences has effect on relativism and idealism dimensions, MANOVA analysis is conducted. However results yielded no significant differences between these two dimensions. It can be said that in general Turkish teachers has significantly higher points on idealism dimension and demographic variables (gender, age, levels of teaching and the years of experiences) seems to have no significant effect on this categories.

References

Ferrell, O. C. & Gresham, L. G. (1985). A Contingency Framework for Understanding Ethical Decision Making in Marketing. Journal of Marketing. 49 (Summer). 87–96 Ferrell, O.C., Gresham, L.G., & Fraedrich, J. (1989). A synthesis of ethical decision models for marketing. Journal of Macromarketing, 11, 55-64 Forsyth, D. R. (1980). A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38 (1), 175–184. Forsyth, D. R. (1992). Judging the morality of business practices: The influence of personal moral philosophies. Journal of Business Ethics, 11(May), 461–470. Hunt, S. D., & Vitell, S. J. (1986). A general theory of marketing ethics. Journal of Macromarketing, 8 (Spring), 5–16. Hunt, S.D., & Vitell, S. (2006). The General Theory of Marketing Ethics: A Revision and Three Questions. Journal of Macromarketing, 26(2). 1-11 Marta, A., Singhapakdi, A., Lee, D. J., Burnaz, S., Topcu, Y. İ, Atakan, M. G. S., & Özkaracalar, T. (2011)The Effects of Corporate Ethical Values and Personal Moral Philosophies on Ethical Intentions in Selling Situations: Evidence from Turkish, Thai, and American Businesspeople. Journal of Bussiness Ethics. 106(2). 229-241 Singhapakdi, A., Vitell, S. J., & Leelakulthanit, O. (1994). A Cross-cultural Study of Moral Philosophies, Ethical Perceptions and Judgements: A Comparison of American and Thai Marketers. International Marketing Review. 11(6). 65 - 78 Tirri, K. (1999). Teachers' Perceptions of Moral Dilemmas at School. Journal Of Moral Education, 28(1), 31-47. Trevino, L. K. (1986). Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: A Person- Situation Interactionist Model. The Academy of Management Review. 11 (3). 601-617

Author Information

Özgür Önen (presenting / submitting)
Middle East Technical University
Educational Sciences
Ankara
Middle East Technical University
Department of Educational Sciences
Ankara

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