Abstract:
The objective of the study was to examine the effect of cognitive moral development on
ethical attitudes, in the presence of reward consequences, under conditions of moral
ambiguity. The study is based on business stakeholders under conditions of strategic
business competition. The intention of the study is to explore and understand the
predictors of ethical behaviour.
The participants of the experimental study were 2012/13 GIBS MBA business students
with real managerial experience. They were randomly assigned to different stakeholder
roles in a controlled business simulation game called the Execugame, with varying
treatments of reward consequences and a strategic competitor bluff.
The study sought to determine whether Reward Consequences (RC) will be a stronger
predictor of Attitude towards the Ethicality of Competitor Bluffing (ATECB) amongst
Stakeholder Role Players (SRPs) than their Level Cognitive Moral Development as a
predictor of Attitude towards the Ethicality of Competitor Bluffing (ATECB). Overall the
results didn’t find evidence to support the research hypotheses. Hence the research
failed to prove a relationship and did not find evidence to support a relationship.
