Abstract

In response to a perceived moral crisis throughout American society, widespread focus has centered upon the examination of moral development, moral values, moral reasoning, and moral behavior. In that process, a national interest in moral education, business ethics, family values, and political honesty has flourished. ;This research investigates the moral development of upper-division business students during the Anticipation Stage with their moral reasoning during the Involvement Stage, and their moral conduct during the Behavior Stage. ;Subjects from two business classes at a northwest university participated in the study with the understanding that individual scores from The Commons Game would be substituted for a required class paper. Subjects were advised that participants scoring in the upper 50 percentile would receive full credit for the paper and remaining participants would receive 90% of the total points. One hundred and eighteen subjects participated in the study. ;Subjects completed the Defining Issues Test from which Average DIT scores and P scores were calculated for each subject. These scores represented the level of participant's moral reasoning during the Anticipation Stage. ;Subjects also completed the Participant Reasons Per Round while participating in The Commons Game. The Participant Reasons Per Round provided a forced-choice inventory explaining participant color selection during The Commons Game and yielded scores representing each subject's moral reasoning during competition . Scores from The Commons Game and the MRC were analyzed with demographic factors and DIT scores to investigate relationships between moral development, moral reasoning, and moral behavior during a competitive activity. ;The analyses found that the research sample scored significantly lower than college students in general on the DIT. In addition, the analyses found no significant differences between the moral development, moral reasoning, or moral conduct by gender. Furthermore, the study found that demographic variables did not strongly influence moral conduct during the process of The Commons Game, whereas moral reasoning during competition was affected by point rewards and the moral reasoning employed during previous rounds