Ethical judgement in UK business students: Relationship with motivation, self-compassion and mental health
Open accessAbstract
Business ethics have come under increasing scrutiny recently due to various corporate scandals. This has prompted a need for research into the characteristics of people drawn to the business world and the education they receive. This study (i) evaluates the levels of ethical judgement, mental health, motivation, and self-compassion in 144 UK business students and (ii) assesses the relationships between these variables. A high proportion of respondents (i) believed that other students would behave unethically, whilst they themselves would not, and (ii) had a high level of anxiety, extrinsic motivation and self-compassion. Extrinsic motivation was associated with participants’ belief that others would behave unethically, whilst intrinsic motivation was associated with strict ethical judgement and self-compassion. Extrinsic motivation and self-compassion were significant explanatory variables for students’ ethical judgement, and self-compassion was a significant explanatory variable for mental health symptoms. This study is unique in examining the facets of ethics, mental health, self-compassion and motivation in business students. Findings have implications for both educators and practitioners since improving ethical behaviour in the future workforce may be achieved by augmenting future employees’ levels of self-compassion and intrinsic motivation, rather than solely administering “ethics training” that has been found to be of limited value. Findings also indicate that such an approach may have utility for improving business students’ mental health.
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References 80 · Cited by 45
Research works printed but not linked: 4
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- Authors
- Kotera, Y., Conway, E., & Van Gordon, W.
- Affiliations
- University of Derby (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Kotera, Yasuhiro
- Venue
- International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
- Published
- 2018-11-30
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1132-1146
- ISSN
- 1557-1874 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-1882
- OpenAlex
- W2902531020
- Cited by
- 45
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 3.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- University of Derby Online Research Archive. (University of Derby) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Derby
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Keywords
- moral judgment, business students, self-compassion, motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, mental health, anxiety, business ethics, moral behavior, ethics training, corporate scandals
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