Female Managers Ethical

Decision-Making: A
Multidimensional Approach

ABSTRACT. The increasing number and influence of

women in society brings up several issues related to values
and ethics. Looking at business ethics from the gender
perspective made us ponder if it would be fruitful to
analyse the feminine and masculine dimensions of decision-making style. The article follows the research tradition using the multidimensional ethics scale, and it aims at
developing the scale to better include female decisionmaking. We came to the conclusion that, as the multidimensional ethics scale used in measuring managers
moral decision-making is derived from modern ethical
theories focusing on indications of masculinities more
than femininities, the scale leaves feminine decisionmaking dimensions invisible. Our argument is that in
seeking a deeper understanding of (female) managers
moral decision-making, we must find a broader basis for
the analysis and develop the scale further so that it allows
different voices to be heard and different dimensions to be
seen.
KEY WORDS: female ethics, managers moral decisionmaking, multidimensional approach
Johanna Kujala is senior researcher and lecturer at Tampere
University of Technology, Finland. She completed her Ph.D.
thesis concerning Finnish managers stakeholder perceptions
and moral decision-making in 2001. Recently, she co-authored a book for business readers about stakeholder management and corporate responsibility. Her articles have been
published in Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics: A
European Review and International Journal of Value-Based
Management. She is a member of the editorial board of
Business Ethics: A European Review.
Tarja Pietilainen works for Life Works Consulting Ltd in
Tampere, Finland as a senior partner. She is also an active
member of the research group User-Producer Dialogue
(The Academy of Finland and Helsinki School of Economics), which studies cross media service development. Her
Ph.D. thesis from 2002 concerns female entrepreneurship in
the Information and Communication Technology business.

Johanna Kujala
Tarja Pietilainen

Introduction
The increasing number and influence of women1 in
business brings up several issues related to values and
ethics. Business ethics has traditionally been concerned with individual or corporate business actions,
with the attention on their moral rightness or
goodness. Looking at business ethics from the gender
perspective makes one ponder are women managers
making different kinds of ethical decisions than men.
Is the decision-making style linked to the biological
sex of the decision maker? Or would it be more
fruitful to analyse the feminine and masculine
dimensions of the decision-making styles?
Currently, measuring is one of the most important
ways of producing knowledge about human
behaviour. Decision-making affecting peoples
everyday lives at work as well as at home is more and
more frequently based on information gained
through measuring. Measuring is, in fact, so widely
used at present that e.g. national and local authorities, company managers at various positions and even
our next-door grocery seek to base their activities on
this type of information. Considering the deep embeddedness of measuring in our everyday life, we
find it crucial to pay attention to how managers
ethical decision-making is measured and, further,
how it should be measured. We focus in this paper
on the later aspect, and develop the multidimensional ethics scale further in order to better grasp the
diversity of managerial decision-making.
Our original goal was to find out what kind of
ethical2 dimensions female business managers reveal
when they are making moral decisions. We decided
to set off our research process by following the research tradition using the multidimensional ethics
scale originally developed by Reidenbach and

Journal of Business Ethics 53: 153163, 2004.

2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

154

Johanna Kujala and Tarja Pietilainen

Robin (1988, 1990; see also Kujala, 2001b). The

ideas for building up the scale were originally derived from the rationalist moral philosophy literature
whereas the less rational traditions for example
care ethics (Gilligan, 1982) were not taken into
account while developing the scale. Thus, in seeking
a deeper understanding of (female) managers moral
decision-making, we needed a broader basis for our
analysis, which we started to establish by looking at
the principles of female ethics.
The article starts by introducing the research idea
and the research process. Then the basic ideas of
modern ethical theories are briefly described, and the
use of the multidimensional ethics scale in moral
decision-making research is introduced. After that,
we concentrate on showing the main points of the
critique presented by female ethicists regarding
modern ethical theories and summarise the principles
of female ethics as well as the challenges that these
principles present for research on moral decisionmaking. When giving the empirical examples based
on the analysis of three female managers interviews,
we first discuss what the topics are which the managers brought out when they pondered on ethical
ambiguity in their work and then display how the
principles of female ethics are embedded in these
topics in the interviews. Finally, we conclude our
paper by presenting nine operational statements derived from the principles of female ethics and discuss
the usefulness of these statements for further research.

An ongoing research process

Our paper is part of an ongoing research project,
which aims at understanding female managers moral
decision-making. The project adopts the recommendation given in an earlier study by one of the
authors, namely that since female managers share in
business is increasing, it is important to consider how
they understand business morality (Kujala, 2001a).
The study follows a four-stage approach and here
stages one and two are reported. Stage three, testing
the developed multidimensional ethics scale, and
stage four, conducting a survey, will be carried out at
a later date.
In stage one, an extensive review of female ethics
literature was conducted. This review showed that
two main lines of thinking exist. On the one hand,

there was criticism regarding modern ethical theories, which we juxtaposed with Kujalas (2001a)
review of moral theories. On the other hand, there
were suggestions regarding female ethics, which we
merged into three principles of female ethics and
then developed into challenges connected with
measuring managers ethical decision-making.
In the second stage, we proceeded first into the
empirical realm of ethics-in-action to explore the
empirical relevance of the discerned female ethics
principles. To gain insight into the female managers
moral considerations, we chose a qualitative methodology. We took the advice of Denzin and Lincoln
(2000), who recommend qualitative methods when
researchers aim at capturing an individuals own
experiences and point of view and wish to secure
rich descriptions of the social world explored. We
conducted three open-ended interviews with three
female managers holding high positions in the metal
and manufacturing and in food and textile industries.
The interviews lasted from 75 min to nearly two
hours. These were all recorded and fully transcribed,
resulting in 100 pages of text.
The interviews were first analysed using Atlas.ti
software and coded to allow grouping according to
topics (e.g. good experience, troubling experience, issue related to ethics). The interview
fragments were then analysed in detail using discourse analysis to pay close attention to the deliberations and justifications of the interviewees. The
analysis was developed by constantly going back
and forth between the interview fragments and
theoretical considerations (i.e. the female ethics,
principles and related challenges). In reporting the
results of this analysis, interview quotations which
are thick with meanings, that is, they are economically worded but illuminating expressions, are
given as examples. On the basis of the empirical
exploration, we revised some of the challenges and
finally formulated first-round suggestions for new
statements to be included in the multidimensional
ethics scale.

Modern ethical theories and multidimensional

ethics scale in moral decision-making research
Modern ethical theories have four basic assumptions
in common. First, moral judgments about the

Female Managers Ethical Decision-Making

rightness or wrongness of an action are held to be
universally applicable. If an action is right for me, it
is also right for anyone else similarly placed. Second,
moral judgments are more important than any other
considerations. Moral and ethical arguments override all other arguments. Third, ethics is prescriptive,
it tells us what to do and what not to do. Fourth,
modern ethical theories assume ethical autonomy.
Moral judgments are independent of issues outside
of morality. One should do the right thing simply
because it is the right thing to do. (See e.g.
DeGeorge, 1999; Rasmussen, 1997)
These four assumptions have ruled what is expected from a good ethical theory and guided ethical
theorists to seek autonomous and universal imperatives as leading principles of modern ethics. However, although the basic assumptions behind modern
ethical theories are more or less the same, the
principles they suggest vary. The greatest difference
is between consequential and non-consequential (or
deontological) thinking.
Consequential ethics claims that the moral rightness of an action can be determined by looking at its
consequences. The best-known consequential ethical
theory is utilitarianism, which values actions on the
basis of the total amount of utility they produce and
emphasises the best interest of everyone involved
with the action. (See e.g. Lyons, 1997, pp. 640644;
Pearson, 1995, pp. 2930; Stewart, 1996, pp. 7378.)
Ethical egoism is another form of consequential
thinking. If we consider solely the consequences of
an action, ultimately we may ask how to maximise
our own benefits (Aaltonen and Junkkari, 1999, p.
141). Ethical egoism states that one ought to, first and
foremost, benefit oneself (Machan, 1997, p. 194).
Deontological ethics maintains that ones duty is to
do what is morally right and to avoid what is morally
wrong. Deontology requires people to do the right
thing simply because it is the right thing to do and it
is their duty to do it. Hence, actions are morally
right or wrong regardless of their consequences. (See
e.g. DeGeorge, 1999, p. 80; Grace and Cohen,
1995, p. 24.) In addition to duty, rights and justice are
central concepts in non-consequential ethics. Moral
rights are important and justifiable claims that individuals hold, and justice means giving each person
his or her due (DeGeorge, 1999, p. 98, 101). The
ethics of an act is determined by the notion that
equals ought to be treated equally and unequals

155

ought to be treated unequally, with an emphasis on

fairness (Hansen, 1992, p. 525).
Ethical relativism somewhat challenges consequential and non-consequential ethics as it argues
that morality is relative to a particular environment
and that for example cultures, societies or religions
affect moral views and opinions. (See e.g. Beauchamp and Bowie, 1983, p. 10; Grace and Cohen,
1995, p. 32.)
The above-mentioned modern ethical theories are
introduced in most business ethics textbooks (see e.g.
Beauchamp and Bowie, 1983; Boatright, 1993;
DeGeorge, 1999; Green, 1994; Velasquez, 1992).
Furthermore, a lot of attention has been paid to the
extent to which managers use these theories, either
explicitly or implicitly, in their moral decisionmaking (Loe et al., 2000). One of the first attempts to
apply the various ethical philosophies in measuring
and analysing managers moral reactions in morally
problematic situations was made by Reidenbach and
Robin (1988, 1990) who developed a multidimensional ethics scale based on modern ethical thinking
(relativism, egoism, theories of justice, deontology
and utilitarianism). On the basis of a review and
analysis of several studies using the scale, Kujala
(2001b) operationalised the five previously mentioned ethical theories with a 17-item scale (Table I).
In a business context, utilitarianism means maximising the gained benefits and minimizing the harm
done while emphasising things like results and efficiency. Statements like The act is acceptable based
on its consequences and The act leads to efficiency represent utilitarian thinking in the multidimensional ethics scale. Statements such as The act is
in the interest of the company and The act is in the
CEOs own interest represent egoistic thinking in
the scale. It seems to be generally accepted at least to
some extent that people in business life should pursue
their own individual benefits by maximising the
companys profits and managers personal income.
Deontological thinking leads us to ask what the
duties and responsibilities of different actors in
business life are. This idea is present in the multidimensional ethics scale items The CEO obligated
to act this way and The act violates an unwritten
contract. Statements such as The act is just and
The act is fair represent justice thinking. The
principle of When in Rome, do as the Romans
do characterises ethical relativism and has

Johanna Kujala and Tarja Pietilainen

156

TABLE I
Multidimensional ethics scale
Theoretical
background

Operational statements

Utilitarianism

The act leads to efficiency

The act is acceptable on the basis of its
consequences
The act maximises gained benefits and
minimises harm
The act leads to maximal benefit

Egoism

The act is in the interest of the company

The act is selfish
The act is in the CEOs own interest

Deontology

The
The
The
The

Justice

The act is fair

The act is just

Relativism

The act is generally acceptable

I believe the act is accepted by people
close to me
Individually acceptable
The act is according to the CEOs role

act violates an unwritten contract

act violates my idea of fairness
CEO obligated to act this way
CEO acted morally correctly

undoubtedly guided many businesspersons operating

in foreign countries. In the multidimensional ethics
scale, items like The act is generally acceptable
and I believe that the act is accepted by people
close to me represent ethical relativism.
Different forms of the multidimensional ethics
scale have been used in several empirical studies on
business ethics (Cohen et al., 1993; Cruz et al., 2000;
Hansen, 1992; Henthorne et al., 1992; Tsalikis and
Nwachukwu, 1988; Tsalikis and Ortiz-Buonafina,
1990). When the scale was used in an empirical
study comparing male and female students ethical
attitudes, the conclusion was that there is no significant difference between the two groups. Ethical
beliefs of male respondents were very similar to
those of female respondents and the two sexes used
somewhat similar processes to evaluate ethical situations. (Tsalikis and Ortiz-Buonafina, 1990.) In
feminist studies, this kind of research has been criticised for seeing gender as simple female and male
categories into which each respondent easily falls. It
has been argued that a more productive approach is

to consider gender as a culturally embedded construction (Gherardi, 1995). This means that we
should be able to recognise a large variety of indications that are linked to femininities and masculinities in society.
Female ethics challenges moral
decision-making research
Modern ethical thinking has been criticised for being
male centered as it has been developed mostly by
male philosophers. It tends to downplay or even
deny the value of intimate, particular relations, and
focuses instead on relations and actions in accordance with universalisable principles (Koehn, 1998).
The multidimensional ethics scale was originally
derived from business ethics literature focusing on
the discussions of Beauchamp and Bowie (1983),
DeGeorge (1986), and Donaldson and Werhane
(1983), and the scale dimensions consisted of the
following strains of ethical philosophy: deontology,
utilitarianism, egoism, relativism, and justice (Reidenbach and Robin, 1988, p. 873). These dimensions embody the ideas of traditional moral
philosophy literature, whereas the post-modern,
feminine or female traditions in ethics are not represented. Indeed, there is a wide range of womencentered approaches to moral philosophy aiming to
reinterpret and supplement traditional ethics so that
it would include womens as well as mens moral
experiences and perspectives, and value women as
mens moral equals (Tong, 1997, p. 274).
One of the first to point out that there was a strong
sex bias in modern ethical thinking was Gilligan
(1982), who observed a moral orientation towards
caring in her interviews with women facing an
abortion decision. Gilligans ethics of care is based on
care, on responsibility for others and on the continuity of interdependent relationships. The emphasis
on feeling rather than thinking, as the key route to an
ethical life, distinguishes the ethics of care from
modern ethical theories, which rely on rational
thought and the ability to abstract the general from
the specific. The ethics of care argue for the critical
relevance of an emotional basis for ethical decisions.
Rather than trying to create rules for ethical action
that hold in all similar situations, the ethics of care
encourages learning to respond in respect to different
situations and contexts (Derry, 1997).

Female Managers Ethical Decision-Making

Feminist approaches to ethics stress how traditional moral philosophies mirror and maintain systems, structures and patterns of behavior that limit
womens opportunities in society (Tong, 1997, p.
275). Jaggar (1992) has claimed that modern or
traditional ethical thinking contributes to womens
subordination in at least five ways. (1) Traditional
ethics shows little concern for womens interests and
rights. (2) Traditional ethics neglects womens issues
on the grounds that few morally interesting questions arise in womens world, that is in the realm
of dishes and diapers. (3) Traditional ethics frequently operates on the assumption that womens
moral capacities are lower than mens moral capacities. (4) Traditional ethics tends to overvalue traits
that are culturally understood as masculine (e.g.
independence, rationality, autonomy, intellect, will
or hierarchy) and to undervalue traits that are culturally understood as feminine (e.g. interdependence, sharing, emotions, feelings, connection,
community and caring). (5) Traditional ethics devalues womens moral experience by favoring masculine ways of thinking that focus on rules,
universality and impartiality over feminine ways of
thinking that focus on relationships, particularity and
partiality (Derry, 1997). Jaggar (1993) suggests a
process of practical moral dialogue as a way of
solving moral conflicts. In this process, we should be
duly aware of the ways in which the process may fail
to be fair, for example, it may fail to ensure that all
points of view are actually given equal consideration.
According to Koehn (1998) there are six key
principles in the tradition of female ethics. (1) The
relational self. The female ethicist takes the self to be
relational, rather than discretely individualistic. (2)
Benevolent concern for the vulnerable. Given that
the self is relational, relations between family
members or among friends are appropriate paradigms for thinking about ethically good behavior. (3)
The publicness of the private. Female ethics treat the
so-called private realm of familial and household
relations as being of public significance. (4) The
importance and value of difference. While male
ethics often presupposes or posits a completely
impartial rational being to be representative of all
members of the community, female ethics see no
particular virtue in consistency. Respect for difference is seen to be ethically important. (5) Emphasis
on imaginative discourse. Imagination plays an

157

important role in our ability to relate to our fellow

human beings and in our characterisation of the
various practical problems and choices we daily
confront. (6) Making a difference by changing the
world. Since their ethical concerns are ignored or
dismissed as irrational, female ethicists are very
attuned to power dynamics within society.
Derry (1996) argued that our current understanding of business ethics is gender biased and based
on traditional ethical thinking, which relies heavily
on the principles of rationality and justice fostered by
male researchers, philosophers and managers. She
continues that we should recognize the ways in
which women have been constrained by business
organizations, for example the limitations imposed
on the access of women to positions and promotions
on the basis of merit, or the effects on women of the
devaluation of their work. In addition, we should
find morally justifiable ways of resisting contemporary practices and establish new standards and set
examples for new ways of doing business. All in all,
Derry sets a goal of finding morally desirable alternatives that promote womens emancipation for female business ethics.
Understanding the power dynamics of our society
and organisations seems to be one of the main
principles of female ethics. When trying to measure managers ethical decision-making, this means
that we must recognise power issues by being
sensitive to voiced and unvoiced interests of others
and ones own. This means valuing differences and
respecting diversity. It also means that the measurement should allow respondents to show their
respect for equal opportunities for all people and
their emphasis on making a difference by change
and development.
The principle of relational understanding means
seeing oneself as connected, in relationship with
others, rather than primarily seeing oneself as separate from others and autonomous. (Dobson and
White, 1995.) In measuring ethical decision-making,
this means that we must try to understand the role of
relations at both on the private and the organisational level. In addition, we should try to emphasise
continuity and the process of negotiating. In principle, this means that we should accept the existence
of different values and multiple voices and foster
practical moral dialogue as a way of dealing with
moral dilemmas. Relational understanding includes

Johanna Kujala and Tarja Pietilainen

158

also the idea of interdependency within and between

organisations.
Female ethics pays a lot of attention to emphasising
experiences and valuing feelings and emotions as a
source of useful information. In measurement, this
means that we should also try to display the existing
variety of views and give room to the importance of
identifying others experiences and perceptions.
Table II depicts the above-presented principles of
female ethics and outlines the challenges these
principles set in the measurement of ethical decisionmaking.

Empirical examples of the principles of female

ethics
In this section, we will present examples of the three
principles by explaining how the challenges they
create for ethical decision-making research were
represented in the interviews. All of these challenges
were found in the empirical data, but as we have
limited space, we will give just one example of each
of the principles. Regarding the principle of power
dynamics, we have chosen the challenge of
Recognising power issues by being sensitive to
voiced and unvoiced interests of others and ones
own. Regarding relational understanding, we

focus on Understanding the meaning of relations at

both the private and the organisational level. And,
regarding the principle emphasis on experience
we discuss Valuing feelings and emotions as a
source of useful information.
When the managers were invited to give an
interview, we told them that the broad topic of the
interviews was ethical issues in their everyday work.
We said that we were interested in hearing in their
own words about concrete situations and incidents,
which had given rise to moral considerations and
how they had dealt with these situations. The interviewees responded to the request by giving rich
descriptions of their experiences.
A central topic, which the managers related to
ethical issues, was employee relations in times of
restructuring business operations. It was an experience, which all the interviewees shared, although in
different settings. The manager representing the
metal and manufacturing industry talked about employee issues mainly in the context of severe
downsizing. The food industry manager had faced
these issues when it had been decided to outsource
some operations due to the development of concentration in the industry. The manager from the
textile industry expressed her thoughts concerning
employee issues in relation to the demands of
globalization and relocating manufacturing to low-

TABLE II
The principles of female ethics and their challenges in measuring managers ethical decision-making
Principles

Challenges in measurement

Power dynamics

Recognising power issues by being sensitive to voiced and unvoiced interests of

others and ones own.
Valuing differences and respecting diversity.
Aiming at equal opportunities.
Making a difference by changing the world.

Relational understanding

Seeing oneself as existing in relation to others.

Understanding the meaning of relations at both the private and the organisational
level.
Emphasising continuity and the process of negotiating.
Accepting the importance of multiple values and multiple voices and fostering
practical moral dialogue.
Seeing the interdependency within and between organisations.

Emphasis on experience

Valuing feelings and emotions as a source of useful information.

Identifying others experiences and emphasising others perceptions.
Displaying the existing variety of views.

Female Managers Ethical Decision-Making

cost countries. In addition, the interviewees linked
supplier, customer and subcontractor relations with
ethical issues in business.

Power dynamics
In the managers discussions, power issues were
linked to the various interested parties in the
companies. The multitude of interests was especially
articulated in times when there was, from the
managers point of view, a pressing need for
change. When the interviewees pondered on these
situations, they had no difficulty in naming various
parties involved in the issues and analysing their
particular interests. It was, moreover, very clear to
them that frequently these interests were equally
legitimate, although in conflict, and that there was
no easy way of reconciling them. In sum, the interviewees showed considerable sensitivity regarding the interests of others. Weighing different
interests was in fact so easy to the managers that it
indicates that for them it is a fundamental task in
managerial work to recognise the multitude of
interests involved in business issues, to be able to
distinguish various viewpoints and interests and to
find a way of navigating towards the best possible
solution.
The next quotation adds yet another aspect
regarding what it means to be sensitive to others
interests. The extract is part of a lengthy discussion
in which the interviewee describes how she dealt
with the problem of continuing the family business
in a situation where there was no candidate for
successor in the family.
Well, after outsourcing three product lines, we were
left with the fourth one and we decided to go for
organic production. Frankly, I was not the first one to
start thinking about organic food. It wasnt my idea;
instead, one of our product managers at that time came
to me with samples she had made herself of organic
ingredients. And then we checked up how organic
food was in Europe and how the prospects were and
saw that it was worth giving a try. It proved to be a
very successful decision both in personal and in competitive terms.

What is surprising in the description is the ease with

which she accepts a suggestion about the companys

159

future line of production from some one in a position

of lower authority and not belonging to the owner
family. The context of decision-making she reflected
on is in the research literature defined as strategic, i.e.
she discussed deciding about the companys future
direction (see e.g. Johnson and Scholes, 1999).
Strategic management research advances the idea that
it is the top managements privilege to decide about
the companys future direction (Lehtimaki, 2000).
Some authors go even further and suggest that there
is an unspoken tendency in the research to perceive
the top management as possessing unique knowledge
and competence to identify innovative solutions for
the companys future (Alvesson and Willmott, 1995).
Contrary to this belief, the female manager was ready
to forsake her authority for a moment, to give room
to an employee to offer a solution and then, even
more importantly, to follow the opportunity opened
up through this idea. Her experience illustrates that
being sensitive to others interests is one step. Acting
on the knowledge gained from this sensitivity is another.

Relational understanding
The interviewees made no clear distinction between
private and business issues when talking about their
daily work as managers. They intertwined issues
from these two spheres of life with no hesitation,
indicating that they were more prone to consider
them interlinked than totally separated. Blurring of
the boundary was evident both at the personal and
the organisational level. The interviewees were open
in referring to their personal relationships with
spouses and children as a source of valuable support
and, some times, business advice. At the organisational level, the managers told about their daily work
in ways, which depict it as taking place in relations
to, for example, customers, colleagues, employees
and business partners. In the next quotation, the
manager working in the metal and manufacturing
industry discusses relations embedded in HRM
work:
There might be pressure when the job applicant is a
young fellow. Well, he might not have the skills we
require, so we dont take him. But, although I explain
the situation, he might not necessarily understand it. It

160

Johanna Kujala and Tarja Pietilainen

often happens that the parents become angry and call

me, asking why their son was not recruited. I mean
that the pressure comes from the applicants background group. Mostly they are young men and then
the mother or father calls. And of course they would
like to see their son to get a job and to move out and
quit lying around the house. Then I refuse to take him
and there you are.

to understanding what constitutes the ethical question in their experiences. In other words, the feelings
and emotions were symbolic direction signs
which acted to direct attention to important information. The next quotation is from the interview
with the textile industry manager. She was concerned about the changes taking place in the whole
line of business due to globalisation.

What is interesting is that the manager presents it as

taken for granted that peoples multiple relations are
also present in the work context and that these interdependencies have also a bearing on her managerial work. Then, she takes this assumption as a
starting point to display her own work-related
ambiguities, which, in fact, emerge from the multiple relations of people. Her approach reveals that
for her the HRM work is infused with relationships,
which people maintain inside and outside the
company. Accordingly, considering relational complexity becomes an essential part of the managerial
work. Her description enriches the picture painted
of HRM by the research literature, which suggests
that HRM practices enhance, above all, business
objectives laid out by the strategic management
(Legge, 1995). Undeniably, strategic management
considerations are present in the competence
requirements for the applicants. Nevertheless, it is
not the whole picture. The interviewee opts to
express her own ambivalent feelings when she seeks
to balance company objectives (to recruit people
with the required competence) and peoples personal
circumstances. The act of balancing reveals a tendency to take diverse relationships into consideration
and discern what rational behavior is in them, also
when this means being a target for anger and frustration.

When we talk about ethics, so it is exploitation from

our point of view that manufacturing is relocated and
here jobs disappear, but again these people work in
sweat shops for nothing in rough circumstances. They
produce for the better-off contingent, it cant be that
right. Then if we look at childrens toys. Some twothree-year-old girl sews a football on the other side of
the globe for another two-three-year-old here. It cant
be right, either. Well, the toy industry is even worse
than textiles. Some defend child labor because they
wouldnt have even that much without work. But
how could we balance out globalization so that these
people could have circumstances, which are normal to
them. And all this would be based more on adult than
child labor.

Emphasis on experience
Feelings and emotions were richly described in the
interviews. That is not to say that the managers talk
was emotionally loaded. It is to say that the interviewees opted to express feelings associated with the
situations they talked about. The managers reflected
on experiences of ethically demanding decisionmaking by lying bare how they felt about the issues
involved. This wording of emotions paved the way

The interviewees pondering on globalising business

brings to mind vivid pictures of people working in
questionable working conditions, and her description of small girls sewing toys is especially powerful.
She produces an emotional response to globalization,
which in turn makes it possible to identify with the
lives of strangers. This way of discussing globalization provides very different information about the
process and consequences of globalization than what
is suggested for example in international business
research, which focuses more on improvements in
the competitive advantage of Western companies
(see e.g. Oviatt and McDougall, 1994). However,
tapping emotions and intuition makes it evident that
there is great variation in experiences and perceptions of globalisation, and that many of them have
remained unheard.

Developing the multidimensional ethics scale

in the light of female ethics
Our theoretical discussion shows that the multidimensional ethics scale derived from modern ethical
theories focuses on indications of masculinities. Also,

Female Managers Ethical Decision-Making

161

TABLE III
The operational statements derived from the principles of female ethics
Principles

Operational statements

Power dynamics

The act leaves important interests outside

The act jeopardises important relations involved in the issue
The act is one-minded

Relational understanding

The act affects negatively relations of the parties

I believe that further negotiations would lead to a better solution
I believe that a more satisfactory solution would follow from fresh insights

Emphasis on experience

I believe that the acts effects on the parties emotions are not recognised well enough
The act does not recognise valuable experience
The act does not respect differing views

the empirical exploration shows that female managers ethical decision-making includes indications
linked to femininities and female ethics, which the
prevailing dimensions of the multidimensional scale
would leave invisible. This means that the scale
needs to be developed to recognize indications that
are linked both to femininities and masculinities in
society. On the basis of our analysis, we discussed the
three principles of female ethics thoroughly and arrived at our preliminary suggestion for operational
measures of the principles of female ethics
(Table III).
It is suggested that the principle of power
dynamics should be measured with the statements
The act leaves important interests outside, The
act jeopardizes important relations involved in the
issue and The act is one-minded. We believe
that these three statements can help to recognise the
respondents sensitivity regarding voiced and unvoiced interests of others and ones own, as well as
their willingness to value differences and respect
diversity and to strive for equal opportunities.
We suggest that relational understanding could
be captured with the statements The act affects
negatively the relations of the parties, I believe
that further negotiations would lead to a better
solution and I believe that a more satisfactory
solution would follow from fresh insights. These
statements allow the respondents to see themselves
in relation to others and to show their understanding
for interdependency. They also help to emphasize
continuity and the process of negotiating.
To measure the principle of emphasis on experience, we suggest the following statements: I

believe that the acts effects on the parties emotions

are not recognised well enough, The act does not
recognise valuable experience and The act does
not respect differing views. These statements
should help the respondents to show their respect for
feelings and emotions as a source of important
information, as well as their empathy for others
experiences and perceptions.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, this
is a work in progress and our intention is to test the
statements presented above before using them to
measure managers moral decision-making. In the
final survey questionnaire, the new statements will
be combined with the statements derived from
modern ethical theories, since we believe that this
kind of combination will help us to capture the
diversity in managers moral decision-making.

Notes
1

In Finland, a high proportion of women are in

employment. Approximately 70% of Finnish women are
active on the labor market, while the figure for men is
82%. In a typical Finnish family, both the husband and the
wife will be working away from home. Another notable
characteristic of the Finnish labor market is, that most
women are working full time: in 2001, only 14% of
Finnish women were working part time. (Employment
Outlook, 2002.) Finnish women are steadily increasing
their influence in Finnish business, although their
advancement to managerial positions has been slow and
only few women have made it to the highest ranks.
Statistics show that women hold 25% of all managerial
positions in Finland, and 23% of the chief executives are

162

Johanna Kujala and Tarja Pietilainen

women (Vanhala, 1999). A recent survey also revealed

that 11% of Finnish firms have female board members
(Lilius, 2003).
2
Several definitions to the basic concepts of this study,
morality and moral, ethics and ethical can be found in the
literature, but these concepts can briefly be understood as
follows (see e.g. Airaksinen, 1987, pp. 921; Beauchamp
and Bowie, 1983, pp. 12; Lammi, 1989, p. 133;
Sillanpaa, 1990, p. 2): (1) Morality is a phenomenon
existing in reality, such as religion, art or education.
Morality distinguishes between good and bad, right and
wrong. (2) Moral refers to morality. For example Only
human beings can be moral means that only humans
have the ability to understand and distinguish between
right and wrong, and animals are amoral means the
opposite. (3) Ethics is a science studying morality, as
aesthetics studies art. Morality is a pragmatic concept and
ethics a theoretical one. Moral philosophy is often used as
a synonym to ethics. (4) Ethical refers to ethics, for
example ethical theories. This division is quite strict, and
in general discussion, ethics and morality are often
considered synonyms and no clear rules exist to define
their use in different situations (see e.g. Guy, 1990, p. 5).
In this study, we try to use these concepts with the aboveexplained meanings, and as we talk about managers
decision-making, it is reasonable to talk about morality
rather than ethics, although the field of this study is
business ethics and the theoretical concepts are referred to
as ethical ones.

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Johanna Kujala
Industrial Management,
Tampere University of Technology,
P.O. Box 541,
FIN-33101 Tampere,
Finland
E-mail: johanna.kujala@tut.fi
Tarja Pietilainen
Life Works Consulting,
Helsinki School of Economics,
Erkkilankatu 11 A, 7th floor,
FIN-33100 Tampere,
Finland
E-mail: tarja.pietilainen@lifeworksconsulting.net