Attitude towards business ethics after the Arab Spring: Influence of Religiosity, Gender and Political Affiliatio

Abstract

In the last two decades, business ethics has drawn increased interest from academicians as well as practitioners. While some of this interest has resulted in investigating employees’ perception of ethics, their ethical beliefs, ideologies, and business practices, research investigating adolescents’ ethical beliefs after the Arab Spring have not been touched fully. This exploratory study aims to explore the influence of religiosity, gender and party belongingness on attitude of Lebanese adolescents towards business ethics after the Arab spring. The scale of Attitude Towards Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) was adapted. To test for differences on intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of religiosity the Religious Commitment Inventory Scale (RCI-10) was used. Results showed that intrapersonal religiosity was a significant determinant to attitude towards business ethics but interpersonal religiosity was not. Comparisons were also made across several demographic characteristics with regards to business ethics. There was no significant difference between genders. Significant difference was found in business ethics across different party belongingness.