Abstract

Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study was, first, to identify the corpus of expert ethicists' opinions as to which specific character traits, values, and behaviors are deemed important or essential in defining a positive American work ethic. Second, the study sought to determine if differences exist between two groups of expert ethicists, one academic, the other managers in business and industry, as to which specific character traits define a positive American work ethic. Third, an effort was made to determine the relationships between specific character traits, values, and behaviors within the group of ethics experts representing business and industry. Finally, an effort was made to determine the relationships between specific character traits, values, and behaviors within the group of ethics experts representing academia. ;Each Delphi group was made up of 15 persons. Each person responded to three rounds of questionnaires. The qualitative data were analyzed using frequency distributions and content analysis. After the third round, the Likert Attitude Scale data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson's "r" Product Moment Correlations. ;Findings and conclusions. There is much concern in American society about the work ethic. The reindustrialization in the past three decades has brought about great change, often referred to as "decline" in the work ethic. The idea of a declining work ethic was not conclusive in this study. ;The final round of this study produced a list of 91 character traits, 84 values, and 80 behaviors which the study participants concluded should be given consideration in a definition of a positive American work ethic. From this list of traits in particular, 34 were common to both groups of participants. Of the 34, the business and industry representatives rated 30 of them more highly than did the representatives from academia. ;The correlation analysis found strong support evident for the idea that as a definition of a positive American work ethic is sought, consideration should be given to character traits, values, and behaviors together rather than as individual items