Manager ethics

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

KOHLBERG'S MORAL STAGES

Slovak University of TechnologyFaculty of Material Science and Technology in Trnava

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987)

Kohlberg was a psychologist who applied the developmental approach of Jean Piaget, who he studied under, to the analysis of changes in moral reasoning.

Influenced by Piaget's concept of stages, Kohlberg's theory was created based on the idea that stages of moral development build on each other in order of importance and significance to the person.

Each stage depends on the other from simple to the complex. Each stage also is more cognitively complex than the previous stages.

STRUCTURALIST APPROACH TO MORAL DEVELOPMENT

UNIVERSAL DEVELOPMENT INVARIANT SEQUENCE OF

STRUCTURES QUALITATIVE DIFFERENCES

BETWEEN STRUCTURES

METHODOLOGY

GIVE A PERSON A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION IN STORY FORM STORY CONTAINS A MORAL DILEMMA

ASK THE PERSON TO JUDGE ANOTHER’S ACTIONS (JUDGMENT)

ASK THE PERSON TO JUSTIFY HIS/HER JUDGMENT WHY DO YOU THINK …?

EXAMPLE OF METHODOLOGY

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION: In Europe, a woman was near death from

cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2,000, ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could get together about half of what it cost.

EXAMPLE OF METHODOLOGY

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION (continued)

He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay it later. But the druggist said, “no.” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife.

MORAL DILEMMA: STEALING VERSUS SAVING A LIFE

JUDGMENT: SHOULD THE HUSBAND HAVE STOLEN?

JUSTIFICATION: WHY DO YOU THINK HE SHOULD HAVE/SHOULD NOT HAVE STOLEN?

Kolberg's theory specifies six stages of moral development, arranged in

three levels.

Level I: Preconventional/Premoral Level II: Conventional/Role Conformity Level III: Postconventional/Self-Accepted

Moral Principles

Level I: Preconventional/Premoral

Moral values reside in external, quasi-physical events, or in bad acts. The child is responsive to rules and evaluative labels, but views them in terms of pleasant or unpleasant consequences of actions, or in terms of the physical power of those who impose the rules.

Level I: Preconventional/Premoral

Stage 1: Obedience and punishment orientation

Egocentric deference to superior power or prestige, or a trouble-avoiding set.

Objective responsibility.

Level I: Preconventional/Premoral

Stage 2: Naively egoistic orientation Right action is that which is instrumental in

satisfying the self's needs and occasionally others'.

Relativism of values to each actor's needs and perspectives.

Naive egalitarianism, orientation to exchange and reciprocity.

Level II: Conventional/Role Conformity

Moral values reside in performing the right role, in maintaining the conventional order and expectancies of others as a value in its own right.

Level II: Conventional/Role Conformity

Stage 3: Good-boy/good-girl orientation Orientation to approval, to pleasing and

helping others. Conformity to stereotypical images of

majority or natural role behavior. Action is evaluated in terms of intentions.

Level II: Conventional/Role Conformity

Stage 4: Authority and social-order-maintaining orientation

Orientation to "doing duty" and to showing respect for authority and maintaining the given social order or its own sake.

Regard for earned expectations of others. Differentiates actions out of a sense of

obligation to rules from actions for generally "nice" or natural motives.

Level III: Postconventional/Self-Accepted Moral Principles

Morality is defined in terms of conformity to shared standards, rights, or duties apart from supporting authority. The standards conformed to are internal, and action-decisions are based on an inner process of thought and judgment concerning right and wrong.

Level III: Postconventional/Self-Accepted Moral Principles Stage 5: Contractual/legalistic orientation Norms of right and wrong are defined in terms of

laws or institutionalized rules which seem to have a rational basis.

When conflict arises between individual needs and law or contract, though sympathetic to the former, the individual believes the latter must prevail because of its greater functional rationality for society, the majority will and welfare.

Level III: Postconventional/Self-Accepted Moral Principles Stage 6: The morality of individual principles

of conscience Orientation not only toward existing social rules,

but also toward the conscience as a directing agent, mutual trust and respect, and principles of moral choice involving logical universalities and consistency.

Action is controlled by internalized ideals that exert a pressure to act accordingly regardless of the reactions of others in the immediate environment.

If one acts otherwise, self-condemnation and guilt result.

Thank you for your attention!

Questions?