Theory of Moral Development in Chinese University Students

Abstract

There is wide-spread concern about the ethical behavior of university business students. Research shows that ethical decision making by business students is heavily influenced by self-interest—more so than any other academic major. The moral development of business students is a global conundrum where universities from North America to Asia are searching for ways to increase ethical decision making of their students and decrease unethical behaviors of their graduates. This research elaborates a recent model of how universities influence the moral development of business undergraduates by including a Chinese university study.
This research explores the ethical system and its influencers as perceived by the Chinese business student. These findings corroborate the original model presenting six factors that provide input into the students’ ethical decisions, emanating from their moral code: institutional moral reinforcement, business moral reinforcement, service activities, moral amplifiers, experiential challenges, and moral cultural identity (Hanson & Moore, 2014). Our findings point to the fact that Chinese students actively are developing a sense of moral cultural identity and internalizing their moral codes. Very effective influencers in the life of the Chinese business students are their teachers, volunteer student clubs, and business supervisors. The Chinese study provides new insights in how each of these factors are lived out in a collective society, notably the collective identity while at the university, the centrality of relational harmony and the importance of workplace experience.
We conclude by recommending that universities develop intentional and programmatic experiential learning bridges with the business community. These efforts would seek to apply ethical core values into the workplace.