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The impact of intrinsic and extrinsic
religiosity on ethical decision-making in
management in a non-Western and
highly religious country
Tariq, Samia and Ansari, Nighat G. and Alvi, Tariq Hameed
Institute of Administrative Sciences, University of the Punjab,
Lahore, Pakistan., Institute of Administrative Sciences, University of
the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan., Business School, University of
International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing, China
23 October 2019
Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/96971/
MPRA Paper No. 96971, posted 16 Nov 2019 10:59 UTC
1
The Impact of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religiosity on Ethical
Decision-Making in Management in a Non-Western and Highly
Religious Country
Samia Tariq, ORCID: 0000-0001-6505-7655
Lecturer
Institute of Administrative Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
samia.ias@pu.edu.pk
Dr. Nighat G. Ansari
Assistant Professor
Institute of Administrative Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
ngansari@yahoo.com
Tariq Hameed Alvi (corresponding author), ORCID: 0000-0002-0001-3739
Business School, University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing,
China
alvi.research@gmail.com
Note. The paper is based on the Mphil dissertation of the first author under the supervi-
sion of second author. The paper has been published in Asian Journal of Business Ethics
(AJBE). The final version as published in AJBE can be found at
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-019-00094-3.
2
Abstract
The primary purpose of this study was to explore the indirect effect of intrinsic religiosity
and extrinsic religiosity on ethical intention through ethical judgment. A review of the
literature shows the need for more research at the intersection of religiosity and ethics,
especially in non-Western, highly religious contexts. This research, therefore, addresses
the research question: Do intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity indirectly impact
ethical intention through influencing the ethical judgment of management professionals?
Data were gathered from members of the Management Association of Pakistan through a
questionnaire. Pearson correlation results show the overall trend between the constructs
of interest. Multiple regression results show that both intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic
religiosity are significant positive predictors of ethical judgment. Ethical judgment was
also found to be a significant, positive predictor of ethical intention. The main
contribution of the study is evidence that ethical judgment acts as a mediator between
religiosity (whether intrinsic or extrinsic) and ethical intention in a non-Western highly
religious context. This research also found that intrinsic religiosity impacts ethical
intention directly as well as indirectly through ethical judgment, but extrinsic religiosity
influences ethical intention only through its effect on ethical judgment. We discuss our
results along with practical and research implications, and limitations of this research are
highlighted to guide future research.
Keywords Religiosity · Intrinsic religiosity · Extrinsic religiosity · Ethical decision-
making · Non-Western highly religious contexts · Indirect effect
3
Introduction
To add to the religion-ethics literature in general and non-Western highly religious
context ethics literature in particular, this study reveals evidence that intrinsic religiosity
and extrinsic religiosity significantly influence ethical intention through the ethical
judgment of management professionals faced with ethical decision-making.
The last few decades have witnessed an increased emphasis on ethics, potentially
because of business scandals in the corporate sector, and this focus has led researchers to
investigate the phenomenon of ethical decision-making (EDM) in greater detail. A review
of the literature confirms that EDM is a highly researched specialized area. This stream
of research has investigated individual factors such as demographics, personality, cultural
values, value orientation, personal values, decision styles, cognitive moral development,
religiosity, and spirituality. Organizational factors studied include rewards, ethical
culture, code of ethics, organization culture, subjective norms, organization size,
competitiveness, policies, and procedures; moderators and mediators have also been
investigated (Craft 2013; Lehnert et al. 2015). However, researchers have not sufficiently
investigated the factors mentioned above, especially in non-Western highly religious
contexts. These contexts, therefore, provide an opportunity for research contributions.
Although ethics research in non-Western contexts is gaining momentum (Chan et al.
2016), publications relating to highly religious, non-Western contexts remain limited.
Furthermore, Western and less-religious countries have witnessed more research
at the interplay of religion and ethics than their highly religious, non-Western
counterparts. Relationships of religion and ethics may differ across the spectrum of
highly religious to less-religious countries, and this potential inspires research to be
4
conducted in highly religious countries followed by cross-cultural research (Oumlil and
Balloun 2009; Parboteeah et al. 2008). The steady increase in the religiosity of people
around the world (CIA 2007, 2012, 2014; Moghadam 2004) has prompted researchers to
study the impact of religious beliefs on the EDM of managers, and how such religiosity
could reduce unethical behavior in the corporate world (Singhapakdi et al. 2013).
Religiosity, in contrast to religion, includes different religious activities, the
degree of dedication, and the belief in religious principles (Craft 2013). One factor which
has not received much attention in non-Western, highly religious contexts is the role of
religiosity in EDM despite the importance of religion in these contexts and the general
public belief that religion is a prerequisite for morality, a belief reported by the Pew
Research Institute (Pew Global Attitudes Project 2007). The limited research and the
mixed findings regarding the relationship between religiosity and EDM (Lehnert et al.
2015; Parboteeah et al. 2008) suggest that this relationship is complicated (Weaver and
Agle 2002). This complexity should motivate investigations of the relationship,
especially in different contexts, so that the phenomenon can be understood and explained
more clearly.
In order to achieve this objective, we consider religiosity from a two-dimensional
rather than a one-dimensional perspective; we look at the dimensions of intrinsic
religiosity and extrinsic religiosity, with the divergent focuses of living the religion vs.
using the religion, respectively (Allport and Ross 1967). With this approach, we
investigated the respective influence of each dimension on EDM. Religiosity means a
person’s belief in God and the degree to which the path prescribed by God is being
5
followed (McDaniel and Burnett 1990). Intrinsic religiosity reflects the inner spirit of the
religious tradition reflected in the dominant motivations of the person. It indicates a
commitment to the religion’s inherent principles and involvement in serving the religion
(Singhapakdi et al. 2013). Extrinsic religiosity denotes the utilitarian use of religion for
selfish motivations such as social approval or to gain personal benefits (Singhapakdi et al.
2013). The context of this research is Pakistan, with its profoundly religious population,
and we undertook this work with the hope that it might provide a better explanation of the
relationship between religiosity and ethical intention in this context, different from the
existing evidence from studies conducted mostly in Western and secular or less-religious
countries.
This study is significant from three standpoints: it is practical, it provides a
theoretical rationale, and it is based on an empirical study. The Pakistani public at large
believes that a person cannot be moral without a belief in God (Pew Global Attitudes
Project 2007). Our study aims to empirically test this using survey of managers in
corporate Pakistan, measuring their religiosity, ethical judgment, and ethical intentions
through their responses to four business ethics scenarios. We also utilize a theoretical
perspective by using the premier H-V model of ethics, wherein religion forms an
essential part of cultural environment and personal characteristics, theorizing that religion
can influence EDM (Hunt and Vitell 1986, 1993, 2006).
Additionally, there has been a significant number of calls to research the interplay
of religion and ethics because prior studies, especially in under-investigated contexts,
have not consistently captured the role of religiosity in that interplay. These calls have
6
emphasized the need to carefully investigate the relationship between religious self-
identity and ethical behavior (Weaver and Agle 2002), the importance and role of
particular religious viewpoints (Craft 2013), and a better understanding of the role of
religious values in EDM (Lehnert et al. 2015). We anticipate this study to be a fruitful
effort toward realizing the above objectives because the context of this research, Pakistan,
brings into consideration religious viewpoints different from those already studied in
Western and secular or less-religious contexts.
This research also helps to identify whether the mainstream constructs apply to
non-Western, highly religious contexts or need adaptation. Specifically, we investigated
the relationship between two dimensions of religiosity (intrinsic and extrinsic) and ethical
intention through ethical judgment in the context of a highly religious, non-Western,
developing country. This work strives to provide another perspective (ethical judgment as
a mediator of religiosity and ethical intention) on the mixed findings on the relationship
between religiosity and ethical judgment or intention. Such mixed findings have been
reported by studies that have been conducted mainly in Western contexts. Such Western
contexts are quite different from their non-Western counterparts in terms of religious
orientation and religious adherence.
Literature review
This section provides an overview of the existing literature, covering studies investigating
the relationship between religiosity and EDM, mixed findings on religiosity, the two-
dimensional nature of religiosity, and the relationship between ethical judgment and
ethical intention.
7
Earlier studies on the relationship between religiosity and EDM
Earlier experimental studies (Hegarty and Sims 1978, 1979) intending to find the
relationship between religious orientation and EDM (in particular, acceptance or rejection
of a kickback) did not find a significant relationship between the two. McNichols and
Zimmer (1985) found a significant correlation between strong religious beliefs and
negative attitudes towards the acceptability of unethical behaviors in eight out of ten
scenarios among undergraduate students. Kidwell et al. (1987) found no relationship
between denomination or church attendance and perception of what is ethical. Hegarty
and Sims (1978, 1979) and Kidwell et al. (1987) found no significant relationship
between religious orientation and EDM, and that finding was widely accepted for quite
some time.
Later, however, religiosity was found to be significantly related to the perception
of an ethical problem (Barnett et al. 1996). Afterward, a study investigating the
relationship between religiosity and ethics found a marginally significant positive
relationship in three of four scenarios, with p < 0.10, between the perception of an ethical
problem and religion (Singhapakdi, Salyachivin, et al. 2000). In another study,
individuals with strong religious beliefs were found to be less likely to assess an unethical
act as being fair (Wagner and Sanders 2001).
Literature reviews of research on religiosity in EDM
In a comprehensive literature review spanning 1996 to 2005 on the “management,
spirituality, and religion domain,” Dean and Fornaciari (2007) called for further
innovative and interdisciplinary empirical research on religion and ethical behavior in
organizations owing to the paucity of research in this particular domain. In another
8
Academy of Management study, Weaver and Agle (2002) reported that there have been
relatively few empirical studies delineating the interaction of religion and business ethics,
and they even went on to assert that inability to discover clear connection between
religious role expectations and ethical behavior is analogous to a failure to analyze
religious role expectations sufficiently. They further emphasized the importance of
detailed analysis in this regard.
In another comprehensive literature review of EDM, spanning the years 2004 to
2011, two studies (Kurpis et al. 2008; Oumlil and Balloun 2009) were noted to have
investigated religion as a predictor of EDM, and the reviewer highlighted that the role of
religiosity in ethical decisions had not been consistently captured (Craft 2013). The first
study found that commitment to moral self-improvement is a better predictor of ethical
behavioral intentions than religiosity (Kurpis et al. 2008). In contrast, the second study
above found mixed results while examining the relationship between religiosity and
ethical intentions with US and Moroccan managers as respondents (Oumlil and Balloun
2009). In a following review built on and extending the aforementioned review, Lehnert
et al. (2015) highlighted two studies (Oumlil and Balloun 2009; Rawwas et al. 2006)
which found that religion was not an important factor in the context of EDM, while four
studies found a significant and positive relationship between them (Fernando and
Chowdhury 2010; Ho 2010; McCullough and Faught 2005; Vitell et al. 2009), and some
studies reported mixed results (Bloodgood et al. 2008; Ibrahim et al. 2008). The reviews
emphasized investigating the relationship between religion and EDM while taking into
account contingency factors (moderators and mediators) and noted that the decades of
investigations have not been able to clarify the relationship.
9
Mixed findings on the relationship between religiosity and EDM and the
multidimensional nature of the religiosity scale
Research on the relationship between religiosity and ethics has achieved mixed results
and no conclusive evidence, thus showing that the relationship between religion and
ethics is more nuanced than many researchers assumed (Barak-Corren and Bazerman
2017). These mixed findings necessitate testing this relationship in under-researched
contexts and unearthing the underlying and contingent mechanisms of the relationship. In
contrast to these mixed findings, the influence of religiosity on EDM is widely
acknowledged due to the analysis of models considering religion as a factor affecting
EDM (Bartels 1967; Bommer et al. 2013; Hunt and Vitell 2006). Additionally, a stream
of empirical studies has also found a positive relationship between the two (Hunt and
Vitell 1993; Rallapalli 1995; Singhapakdi et al. 2013; Singhapakdi, Marta, et al. 2000;
Walker et al. 2012).
Empirical studies also converge on the assertion that religiosity is best represented
by both its intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions (Cooper and Pullig 2013). Table 1 lists
selected literature works which employ multidimensional religiosity scales in EDM along
with their specific religiosity findings showing the relationships between religiosity
dimensions, ethical beliefs, and ethical intention.
***********************************************************************
Insert Table 1 here.
************************************************************************
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The relationship between ethical judgment and ethical intention
Since ethical judgment appeared to be the most significant predictor of ethical intention
or behavior in almost all studies (Craft 2013; Ford and Richardson 1994; Lehnert et al.
2015; O’Fallon and Butterfield 2005), we use ethical judgment as a predictor of ethical
intention. This idea is in line with almost all EDM models (Dubinsky and Loken 1989;
Ferrell and Gresham 1985; Fritzsche 1991; Hunt and Vitell 2006; Jones 1991; Trevino
1986).
Ethics research in under-researched contexts
Ethics research has been pervasive in the US but lacking in other countries (Marta et al.
2004). A recent citation analysis of business ethics research from a global perspective
(Chan et al. 2016) revealed a trend that US institutions may be replaced by European
institutions when it comes to the impact of business ethics research. Asian geographical
regions that lead in this research area include Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and South
Korea. The other regions of Asia should be the focus of more ethics research, especially
because of the high incidence of ethical transgressions in those regions. Notably, non-
Western, highly religious countries are underrepresented in research at the intersection of
religiosity and ethics (for exceptions see Kashif et al. 2017; Marta et al. 2004;
Singhapakdi, Salyachivin, et al. 2000).
The context of this study, Pakistan, has been the focus of very little research on
religion and ethics. As an exception, Kashif et al. (2017) found that religiosity moderates
the relationship between injunctive norms and behavioral intention and between
perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention. Empirical researchers have paid
11
little attention to how religiosity influences ethical intention indirectly through ethical
judgment, though this idea agrees with the H-V model discussed in the next section.
The above review shows that the literature has not consistently captured the
relationship between religiosity and ethical intention, and therefore, there is a research
gap. The next section methodically develops the argument that religiosity influences
ethical intention through the mediating mechanism of ethical judgment.
Theory
The Hunt-Vitell theory, also known as the H-V model (Hunt and Vitell 1986, 1993,
2006), guides this study because of its extensive use in studying EDM, its role both as a
normative and positive theory of EDM, and its applicability both in professional and
research contexts. This theory includes ethical judgment, intention, and behavior as its
core constituents, all of which are closely linked with the constructs of interest in our
study. The subsequent discussion is divided into three subsections: “Religiosity as a
predictor of ethical judgment,” “Ethical judgment as a predictor of ethical intention,” and
“Religiosity as an indirect predictor of ethical intention through ethical judgment.”
Religiosity as a predictor of ethical judgment
In most EDM theories, religion forms an essential part of the cultural environment
(Bommer et al. 2013; Ferrell and Gresham 1985; Hunt and Vitell 1986). In the revised H-
V theory, religion also constitutes an important part of personal characteristics that
ultimately influence various components of the EDM process (Hunt and Vitell 2006).
The literature contends that religion and religious values predominantly determine ethical
judgment whether through a direct route (Razzaque and Hwee 2002; Tse and Au 1997;
12
Wagner and Sanders 2001; Wimalasiri et al. 1996) or indirect route of religiosity to
deontological consideration to ethical judgment (Hunt and Vitell 2006). These theorists
contended that:
Unquestionably, an individual’s personal religion influences ethical decision-making.
A priori, compared with nonreligious people, one might suspect that (1) highly
religious people would have more clearly defined deontological norms and that (2)
such norms would play a stronger role in ethical judgments (Hunt and Vitell 2006, p.
4).
We propose the idea that religiosity is a determinant of ethical judgment. The H-V
model proposes that religiosity can impact ethical intention through ethical judgment as
part of an element of the cultural environment and personal characteristics. A manager
facing an ethical dilemma can form an ethical judgment on the situation based on
deontological evaluation (a strict universal truth standpoint) or teleological evaluations (a
utilitarian perspective). Almost all previous empirical studies conducted have found that
the most significant predictor of ethical intention is ethical judgment. Therefore, we argue
that religiosity is an indirect predictor of ethical intention through ethical judgment. This
approach, though consistent with the theory, is contrary to some studies that have
undertaken a direct approach of testing religiosity with ethical intention (Kurpis et al.
2008; Oumlil and Balloun 2009; Singhapakdi et al. 2013).
The previous section reviewed the literature on the relationship between
religiosity and EDM based on data from respondents mostly belonging to Western
contexts. We suspect that religiosity will exhibit a relatively stronger relationship with
13
ethical intention through ethical judgment in the part of the world having populations
with stronger religious affiliations than less-religious Western contexts. Because this
study’s respondents live in a country where religiosity is on the higher end of the
spectrum, the extent of the relationship between religiosity and EDM is likely to be more
profound, and thus could show a clearer picture of that relationship. Owing to the
complexity of the religiosity variable, H-V theorists (Hunt and Vitell 2006) have called
for using multidimensional religiosity scales to empirically test the relationship between
religiosity and EDM and thereby know more about the impact of religion on EDM. One
multidimensional scale was previously proposed by Allport and Ross (1967), who
considered intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity.
People having strong intrinsic religiosity will likely have more stringent and
clearly defined moral principles because their main motivation is following a religion,
which means they abide by the religion in all walks of their lives at any cost, internalizing
the doctrine, and living by the religion. These clear principles based on religious tradition
will help form their ethical judgments based on deontological considerations impacted by
their religious traditions. Therefore, we hypothesize that:
H1: There is a positive relationship between intrinsic religiosity and ethical
judgment in managers making decisions that have ethical content.
On the other hand, an “extrinsically motivated person uses his religion” (Allport
and Ross 1967, p. 434) for the individual’s own benefit, compared to the person high in
intrinsic religiosity who lives the religion. Similarly, an “extrinsic type turns to God, but
without turning away from self” (Allport and Ross 1967, p. 434). Such people exhibit
14
instrumental utilitarian motivations for religious behaviors, seeking social approval and
furthering of their business interests. Managers high in extrinsic religiosity do not always
make ethical principles based on their moral identity (Vitell et al. 2009). Since a manager
high in extrinsic religiosity uses the religion and does not live it, this instrumental
motivation will more likely lead to unethical judgment, so we contend:
H2: There is a negative relationship between extrinsic religiosity and ethical
judgment in managers making decisions having ethical content.
Ethical judgment as a predictor of ethical intention
According to H-V theory, ethical judgment is formed based on both the deontological and
teleological evaluation of the ethical problem at hand. Deontological evaluation, a
normative ethical position focused on duty, obligation, or rule-based ethics, largely
hinges on deontological norms that are essentially Kantian ethics and require that a
person should act morally in all circumstances. Teleological evaluation, also known as
consequentialist ethics, is essentially a means-ends theory advocating that ends can
justify means, and that the ends are more important than the means. Ethical judgment
stemming from deontological and teleological evaluation gives rise to intention that
finally translates into behavior. We consider the ethical judgment of the respondents to be
a black box (without investigating the underlying deontological and teleological
evaluations) and argue that it is a predictor of ethical intention.
Additionally, this argument is also in agreement with published research in which
ethical judgment has been found to be the most significant predictor of ethical intention,
as is the case for almost all empirical studies in comprehensive EDM literature reviews
15
(Craft 2013; Ford and Richardson 1994; Lehnert et al. 2015; O’Fallon and Butterfield
2005). Based on the above theoretical arguments and the findings of the empirical
studies, we formulate the following hypothesis:
H3: There is a positive relationship between ethical judgment and ethical
intention in managers making decisions having ethical content.
Religiosity as an indirect predictor of ethical intention through ethical
judgment
As already discussed, previous empirical studies have not been able to delineate the
relationship between religiosity and ethical intention despite the calls for discovering that
connection (Weaver and Agle 2002). Craft (2013) implicitly and Lehnert et al. (2015)
explicitly have called for research to examine mediating variables that can influence the
causal sequence of relationships in the EDM process. The finding of little or no
relationship between religiosity and ethical intention in some studies could be rooted in
the inability of religiosity to influence ethical intention directly. Guided by the H-V
model, we propose that religiosity does affect ethical intention but does so through the
indirect route of religiosity to ethical judgment to ethical intention. As already described,
we consider religiosity from a multidimensional perspective, splitting it into intrinsic
religiosity and extrinsic religiosity. A person whose main motivation is religion
internalizes and follows the religion and its principles at any cost (Allport 1950; Allport
and Ross 1967). Thus, such people are likely to form ethical intention through ethical
judgment either directly due to the overpowering influence of religion in their life
(religiosity→ethical judgment→ethical intention) or indirectly through the formation of
deontological norms (Barak-Corren and Bazerman 2017; Piazza and Landy 2013) as
16
dictated by the religion (religiosity→deontological norms→ethical judgment→ethical
intention). Additionally, a symbolic-interactionist perspective of religiosity and
awareness-judgment-intention-behavior process in organizations also contends that the
relationship between religiosity and ethical intention depends on the salience of the
religion for the focal decision maker (Weaver and Agle 2002). Thus, managers who are
religiously intrinsically motivated will likely exhibit positively influenced ethical
intention through the formation of strong ethical judgment due to the salience of their
religious principles.
We, therefore, propose the following hypothesis:
H4: Intrinsic religiosity positively influences managers’ behavioral intentions
through ethical judgment formed in decision-making situations having ethical
content.
On the other hand, their instrumental approach towards religion will likely make
managers high in extrinsic religiosity have teleological dispositions leading to serving
themselves and using religion as a means, instead of having deontological dispositions.
Such managers do not make religious principles part of their identity (Vitell et al. 2011)
and use religion as a means to further their business and social approval. These managers
will likely be low on deontological norms, but high on teleological evaluations focused
on self-interest, subsequently displaying low ethical judgment, and therefore, low ethical
intention. Therefore, we propose the hypothesis:
17
H5: Extrinsic religiosity negatively influences managers’ behavioral intentions to
act ethically through the formation of low ethical judgments in decision situations
having ethical content.
In essence, we propose that both dimensions of religiosity—intrinsic and
extrinsic—influence ethical intention through ethical judgment, the former positively and
the latter negatively. The following is a schematic diagram of the theoretical framework.
************************************************************************
Insert Figure 1 here.
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Methods
The basic purpose of the study was to test hypotheses centered on the relationship
between ethical judgment, intrinsic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, and ethical intention.
In this investigation, correlations are hypothesized between the predictors and outcome
variables in order to gain an understanding of the general trend of the analysis. The extent
of researcher interference is minimal, as this study has just measured the variables as they
are. We manipulated neither the variables of interest nor the setting, so the study setting
was non-contrived. The unit of analysis was the individual, each of whom was a
management professional. This cross-sectional study aimed to measure individual-related
concepts (such as ethical judgment, intrinsic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, and ethical
intention).
18
Research setting
Despite an increase in secular orientations, especially among advanced societies of the
world, people with traditional religious views still constitute the vast majority of the
world population (Anheier and Isar 2007). In a 2010 estimate, nonreligious people
accounted for 9.66% of the world population while atheists constituted 2.01%, and
people adhering to some religion made up 88.33% of the world population (CIA 2014).
Estimates for 2009 were similar: 2.04% atheist, 9.42% non-religious, and 88.54%
religious (CIA 2012). Comparing these two estimates with a 2004 estimate, where
atheists were 2.32% of the world population, non-religious 11.77%, and religion-adherent
people 85.91%, an upward trend in religious adherence is evident (CIA 2007). This trend
holds in other years as well, except for a 2010 estimate, where a slight decrease of 0.22%
was witnessed from the 2009 estimate in overall adherence to a religion (CIA 2012).
According to The World Christian Encyclopedia (WCE), Pakistan, until 1970, was 0%
atheist, but that figure has risen to 0.1% in recent years. Despite this slight increase,
almost all of Pakistan’s population remains religiously orientated (Moghadam 2004). A
more recent world report stated that as of 2010, Pakistani people unaffiliated with any
religion make up less than 0.1% of the population (Hackett and Grim 2012). Pakistan is
also among the group of nations where more than 9 out of 10 respondents consider
religion to be “very important” (The Pew Global Attitudes Project 2008). Specifically,
almost all Pakistanis (98%) consider religion to be important (95% consider it “very
important,” and 3% consider it “somewhat important”). In research by the Pew Research
Center USA, Pakistan ranked quite high in religiosity with a score of 2.5 on a continuum
of 0 to 3. The cohort of countries that have scored 2.5 or higher includes Nigeria, Jordan,
Senegal, Indonesia, and Kuwait in addition to Pakistan. The general public in Pakistan
19
(88%) hold that one must believe in God to be moral (Pew Global Attitudes Project
2007). This great emphasis on religion and the belief that religiosity is a prerequisite for
morality should prompt researchers to empirically investigate the interplay of religiosity
and moral decision-making in these highly religious countries. For these reasons, we
chose Pakistan as our research setting.
This study is positioned along the lines of studies conducted in non-Western
(Fernando and Jackson 2006; Marta et al. 2004; Phau and Kea 2007) but highly religious
contexts (Oumlil and Balloun 2009). We were not able to find any study investigating the
relationship between religiosity and EDM in highly religious countries. Thus, this study
fills this gap.
The Sample
The study population consisted entirely of management professionals working in various
organizations in Pakistan. Because of the absence of a population frame of all
management professionals, it was impossible to draw a random sample from the
population. Therefore, we used the Management Association of Pakistan (MAP) as the
sampling frame. MAP, founded in 1964, is the largest and oldest representative and
professional body of management professionals in Pakistan. It has close relationships
with other international management bodies. It is a full member of the Asian Association
of Management Organizations, has signed an MOU with the All India Management
Association, and has a country representative in Pakistan from the Asian Institute of
Management (an organization based in the Philippines). The Lahore chapter of MAP has
about 250 institutional and 495 individual members. A census approach was employed to
solicit responses from the individual members of this MAP chapter.
20
Data collection method
We designed a questionnaire by adopting and adapting measures as listed in the
following “Measures and instrument” section. Questionnaires, along with a cover letter
and postage-paid envelope, were mailed to 307 members who were in good standing1 out
of the 495 individual members of the Lahore MAP. We strove to maintain anonymity due
to the sensitivity of the topic of research, as the respondents were more likely to give
candid and impartial responses in the absence of the researcher. After three months of
rigorous follow-up, we received 109 usable responses, a response rate of 35%, which is
acceptable in mailed questionnaire studies. Many articles in organizational research
mention response rates running from 30% to 94%, as can be seen in an Academy of
Management Review paper which examined published articles in the years 1979-83
(Mitchell 1985). A more recent study that examined survey response rates in articles
published in 17 refereed journals from 2000 to 2005 found an average response rate of
52.7% with a standard deviation of 20.4 where the survey was conducted with individuals
(Baruch and Holtom 2008). In Baruch and Holtom’s study, possible reasons for the low
rate of response, despite rigorous efforts to improve it, were suggested: the busy schedule
of the professionals, the length of the questionnaire, and the sensitivity of the topic of
research. Respondents in our study were clearly quite concerned about the authenticity of
the lead researcher and anonymity of their responses, which was reflected by the multiple
phone calls received by the lead author from various respondents.
Measures and instruments
1 “In good standing” means these members maintain their membership with MAP and regularly attend
MAP’s seminars and events.
21
The questionnaire items for the current study were adopted and adapted from two
different sources. Appendix 1 shows the four scenarios and ethical judgment/intention
items followed by the scales of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity items. A seven-point
Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” was employed to
measure the constructs concerned. The following paragraphs present a brief account of
the measures and instrumentation.
Religiosity
We follow one of the existing research streams (see Allport and Ross 1967; Cooper and
Pullig 2013; Singhapakdi et al. 2013) for the two-dimensional conceptualization of
religiosity. Our study, however, differs from the study of Singhapakdi et al. (2013) in that
our survey’s respondents work in many business function areas, not just marketing, and
four scenarios are used rather than just one. To be consistent with the theory, we
investigate the impacts of both intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity on ethical
intention through ethical judgment.
For the religiosity measure, we employ the widely used scale of Allport and Ross
(1967) to measure both intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. The Allport scale is considered
a valid and reliable measure and has a reported reliability of 0.88 for the intrinsic
dimension and 0.70 for the extrinsic dimension (Singhapakdi et al. 2013). The original
scale, especially its extrinsic dimension, is not directly applicable to Pakistan due to the
wording of some of its items. Thus, we adapted the scale, as shown in the “Factor
analysis” section. Modifying the existing instruments is desirable if it tests different
aspects of EDM (Craft 2013). The advantage of using a multidimensional scale of
religiosity is that it gives a clearer picture of a person’s religiosity and wards off any
22
potential cancellation effect of intrinsic vs. extrinsic religiosity, such as happens in scales
that consider religiosity to be single-dimensional; such cancellation might lead to
insignificant or only somewhat significant results.
EDM
For measuring ethical judgment and ethical intention, we used scenarios
developed by Fritzsche and Becker (1983) owing to their broad and generic applicability
in ethics research. We also adopted one scenario from Singhapakdi et al. (2013).
Ethical judgment. Ethical judgment can be defined as the “perceived degree of
ethicalness of a particular action for solving an ethical problem” (Singhapakdi et al. 2013,
p. 184). We measure ethical judgment using business ethics scenarios, as is customary in
EDM research (Dubinsky and Loken 1989; Fritzsche and Becker 1983; Singhapakdi et al.
2013). Measurement proceeded by asking respondents to express their degree of
agreement or disagreement with the action in the scenario. The ethical judgment item is
“I consider the action taken to be ethical.”
Ethical intention. Ethical intention can be defined as “an individual’s readiness
or willingness to engage in a particular action” (Kish-Gephart et al. 2010, p. 2). In the
current study, ethical intention is measured using business ethics scenarios, as discussed
in the above paragraph. The item for ethical intention is “I would be likely to take the
same action in this situation.”
Ethical behavior. Ethical behavior is the actual behavior undertaken by a person
in a decision-making situation. Ethical behavior is defined as a behavior that is both
“legal and morally acceptable to the larger community” (Jones 1991, p. 367). Since it is
23
difficult to gauge actual (un)ethical behavior due to its sensitive nature and the lack of
access to actual decision situations in the referent organizations, ethical intention is used
as a proxy for ethical behavior, as is customary in ethics research. This approach is also
in line with the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen 1985, 1991, 2011). Apart from using
ethical intention as a proxy of ethical behavior, ethical behavior could also be considered
an outcome variable which was not measured.
Analyses
We employed correlation analysis and multiple regression to analyze the data. The
correlation data was used to understand the association between the study’s constructs,
while OLS linear regression was used to test the hypotheses. Mediation was tested using
the bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval mediation analysis.
Results
This section discusses the demographic profile of the respondents, factor analysis to
ascertain the validity of the constructs, reliability analysis, and correlation analysis
followed by the results of the hypothesis testing.
Demographic profiles of the respondents were collected, including gender, age,
and qualifications, along with responses on the variables of interest. The following table
summarizes the demographic data.
************************************************************************
Insert Table 2 here
************************************************************************
24
Factor analysis
We employed valid and reliable scales to measure study concepts. These scales claim to
be neutral and independent of a culture or a country setting but, to make sure that these
scales are equally applicable in Pakistan, factor analysis was conducted to ascertain their
validity in Pakistan. The religiosity scale needed slight adaptation for the Pakistani
setting because Muslims offer their prayers five times a day with Friday prayer being the
largest meeting, and the term “religious service” used in previous studies is not often
used for regular prayers. Therefore, “religious service” was further qualified by putting
the phrase “(for example, Jumma / Sunday service)” after it. Table 3 below shows only
the five adapted items out of the original seven scale items. The item “Prayer is for peace
and happiness” was split into two items, “Prayer is for peace” and “Prayer is for
happiness,” for clarity. This also avoids a double-barreled item that is potentially
problematic since respondents may wish to respond differently for the terms “peace” and
“happiness.”
**********************************************************
Insert Table 3 here.
**********************************************************
The need to adapt the scale was recognized when the original scale was
administered to 60 MBA Muslim Pakistani students with more than 50 students enquiring
about exactly what we meant by “religious service.” On closely interviewing those
students, it was revealed that the items in question need to be adapted for the local
setting. Subsequently, the items containing “religious service(s)” were rephrased and
25
improved and a subsequent administration to these students and another group of 40
students revealed no issues with the new items.
Like other statistical techniques, factor analysis can be performed if the data
meets certain prerequisite assumptions. Thus, necessary assumption testing for each scale
was performed, revealing that all factor analysis assumptions were met (see section B of
Appendix 2).
The ethical intention was measured by soliciting behavioral intentions of each
respondent for four different scenarios having ethical content. The ethical content varied
from one scenario to another, and it was foreseen that respondents might have replied
differently to each scenario, which might have resulted in too much variation. Thus, a
factor analysis of all the varying responses was required to ascertain whether an
aggregate score (i.e., ethical intention construct) of each of the four ethical intention
items, corresponding to each of the four scenarios, is warranted. The same rationale
applies to ethical judgment, whose factor analysis results are described next because the
same set of scenarios was used to gauge ethical judgment. For ethical intention, all the
factor loadings were higher than 0.67 for all four scenarios, thus confirming that
aggregate scores of all these scenarios can be used as a composite measure of ethical
intention. In the case of ethical judgment, all four items (corresponding to the four
scenarios) had loadings higher than 0.75 on a single factor, thus validating aggregate
ethical judgment as a composite scale to measure it.
Factor analysis of intrinsic religiosity revealed that all the items had loadings
greater than 0.75, thus validating the scale. Factor analysis of extrinsic religiosity,
26
however, showed that three items—“I go to religious services (for example, Jumma /
Sunday service) mainly because it helps me to make friends.”; “I go to religious services
(for example, Jumma / Sunday service) mostly to spend time with my friends.”; and “I go
to religious services (for example, Jumma / Sunday service) mainly because I enjoy
seeing people whom I know.”—had poor loadings of -0.11, -0.10, and -0.09, so these
items were deleted from the analysis. For the other items—“Prayer is for peace.”; “Prayer
is for happiness.”; “What religion offers me the most is comfort in times of
trouble/sorrow.”; and “I pray to gain relief and protection.”— the loadings were at least
0.839, with an average of 0.90.
Reliability Analysis
Reliability was measured through Cronbach α, Omega, and Greatest Lower Bound
(GLB). Omega and GLB2 were used owing to a host of criticisms of Cronbach α and the
fact that Omega and GLB have been demonstrated to better measure internal consistency
and scale reliability (Peters 2014). All the constructs have reliabilities higher than 0.8,
except for ethical intention, which has Cronbach α = 0.6, Omega = 0.6, and GLB = 0.7,
primarily because of varying responses of respondents to the ethical situation in each
scenario.
Three items of extrinsic religiosity (discussed above) were negatively correlated
with its other items and factor analysis showed them to be a separate factor. Reliability
statistics improved as well when those items were deleted from the scale (see end of
Table 4 for improvement in reliability scores).
2 These two statistics, Omega and GLB, were calculated using the R statistical programming language
package called “userfriendlyscience” which was created by Peters (2014).
27
*****************************************************************
Insert Table 4 here
******************************************************************
Correlation
Correlation analysis was used to identify the association between the constructs
concerned. As can be seen from Table 5 below, overall, these correlation results show
significant positive correlations between intrinsic religiosity, extrinsic religiosity, the
mediating variable ethical judgment, and the outcome variable ethical intention. Intrinsic
religiosity, however, correlates more significantly than extrinsic religiosity with ethical
judgment and ethical intention. This implies that intrinsic religiosity is more instrumental
than extrinsic religiosity in forming ethical judgment and intention.
******************************************************************
Insert Table 5 here.
******************************************************************
Hypothesis testing
Multiple regression was employed to test the hypotheses. Specifically, bias-corrected
bootstrap confidence interval mediation analysis (Hayes 2013) was used to test for the
mediation by running two mediation models while controlling for the demographics and
the other religiosity dimension. For instance, to test the mediation model, intrinsic
religiosity→ethical judgment →ethical intention, we controlled for demographics
(gender, age, and qualification) and extrinsic religiosity.
28
As can be seen from Table 6, the regression model is significant since F = 12.79
with p < 0.001, and intrinsic religiosity describes 38% of the variance in the outcome
variable ethical judgment since R2 = 0.38. Specifically, intrinsic religiosity is a significant
positive predictor of ethical judgment, B = 0.55 with p < 0.001, partialing out the effect
of demographics and extrinsic religiosity. This evidence supports hypothesis H1 wherein
a positive relationship between intrinsic religiosity and ethical judgment was
hypothesized. Similarly, from Table 7, extrinsic religiosity was also found to be a
significant positive predictor of ethical judgment, p < 0.05. This result does not support
H2, in which we proposed a negative relationship between the two.
******************************************************************
Insert Table 6 and Table 7 here.
******************************************************************
To test H3, which proposed a positive relationship between ethical judgment and
ethical intention, we look for evidence in both Table 6 and Table 7, which show results
from the mediation models for intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity respectively.
Tables 6 and 7 show that ethical judgment is a significant positive predictor of ethical
intention as expected, B = 0.73 p < 0.001, so this evidence supports H3.
We tested mediation for the following two models3, partialing out the effects of
demographics (gender, age, and qualification) and the other dimensions of religiosity:
3 A single composite model could have been used to test for the mediation. We used two separate models
because we are interested in estimating the individual (total, direct, and indirect) effect of each dimension
of religiosity on ethical intention through ethical judgment. For potential dangers of including multiple
predictors in a mediation model, please see Hayes (2013).
29
1. Intrinsic religiosity → ethical judgment → ethical intention
2. Extrinsic religiosity → ethical judgment → ethical intention
For model 1 above, a simple mediation analysis using ordinary least squares path
analysis shows that intrinsic religiosity indirectly influenced intentions to act ethically
through its effect on ethical judgment. As can be seen from Table 6, the findings suggest
that intrinsic religiosity could influence their ethical judgment (a = 0.55), and managers
having high ethical judgment in an ethical decision situation are more likely to form the
intention to act ethically (b = 0.73). A bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the
indirect effect (ab = 0.40) using 10,000 bootstrap samples was completely above zero
(0.27 to 0.53). Intrinsic religiosity was also able to directly influence ethical intention
independent of ethical judgment (c’ = 0.16, p < 0.001). This evidence supports H4, which
proposed an indirect relationship between intrinsic religiosity and ethical intention
through ethical judgment.
For model 2, a simple mediation analysis using ordinary least squares path
analysis shows that extrinsic religiosity indirectly influenced intentions to act ethically
through its effect on the ethical judgment. As can be seen from Table 7, the findings
suggest that extrinsic religiosity can influence ethical judgment (a = 0.18), and managers
having high ethical judgment in an ethical decision situation are more likely to form the
intention to act ethically (b = 0.73). A bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the
indirect effect (ab = 0.13) based on 10,000 bootstrap samples was entirely above zero
(0.03 to 0.23). Extrinsic religiosity was not able to directly influence ethical intention
independent of its effect on ethical judgment (c’ = -.00, p = 0.88). These results show that
extrinsic religiosity positively influences ethical intention through ethical judgment. This
30
counter evidence does not support H5 that proposed an indirect negative relationship
between extrinsic religiosity and ethical intention through ethical judgment such that high
extrinsic religiosity results into low ethical judgment which in turn corresponds to low
ethical intention.
In sum, the results of this study show that both intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic
religiosity can positively influence ethical intention via ethical judgment, although to a
lesser degree in the case of extrinsic religiosity than intrinsic religiosity. As already
discussed, another relevant finding is that intrinsic religiosity can directly influence
ethical intention independent of its effect on ethical judgment, but extrinsic religiosity is
unable to directly influence ethical intention independent of its effect on ethical
judgment.
Discussion
In the previous section, intrinsic religiosity was found to be a significant positive
determinant of ethical judgment as theorized in H1. This finding agrees with the H-V
model (Hunt and Vitell 2006) and empirical studies (Fernando and Chowdhury 2010;
Walker et al. 2012). This finding also shows the role of religious commitment in forming
an ethical judgment in the case of managers high in intrinsic religiosity, as they place
religion highest, above all other callings. Such managers’ moral judgment can be further
developed through ethics training focused on religious principles, with the obvious caveat
that secular or atheist managers should not be intimidated.
Contrary to the hypothesized relationship in H2 (extrinsic religiosity as a negative
predictor of ethical judgment), extrinsic religiosity was found to be a positive predictor of
31
ethical judgment although of lesser magnitude than intrinsic religiosity. This finding
contradicts some previous evidence (e.g., Walker et al. 2012) which found individuals
high in extrinsic religious orientation endorse questionable behavior, but agrees with
research showing that personally oriented extrinsic religiosity (“Ep”) undermines
unethical intentions (Chen and Tang 2013). It is also important to note that some research
in a consumer ethics setting (Vitell et al. 2005) has not found any relationship between
extrinsic religiosity and considering questionable behaviors as wrong.
A potential explanation for the positive relationship between extrinsic religiosity
and ethical judgment is that our study used a highly religious and non-Western context
where the general public considers religion to be a prerequisite for morality; such a
context might have peculiarities when it comes to extrinsic religiosity. For instance, the
instrumental motivation in using religion might have been significantly reduced due to
increased salience of religion in such contexts. Another explanation could be that the
three items deleted due to the factor analysis pertain to extrinsic religiosity about “Es”
(socially oriented extrinsic religiosity) while the other “Ep” items are personally oriented
(Gorsuch and McPherson 1989). Specifically, managers high in personal extrinsic
religiosity (high on “Ep” items) practice religion to gain what they believe their religion
offers them: peace, happiness, relief, protection, and comfort in the times of sorrow or
trouble. The “Ep” extrinsic religiosity, though using religion to seek positive outcomes
and to avoid adverse personal outcomes, may not be detrimental for EDM. This partially
explains the positive relationship between extrinsic religiosity and ethical judgment we
found in this study. However, “Es” items are more instrumental and utilitarian than the
“Ep” items due to their focus on using religion for building social relationships, gaining
32
social approval, and thus furthering one’s business. We, therefore, suggest that future
research to be undertaken to have more granular hypotheses and analysis by further
dividing extrinsic religiosity into extrinsic social (Es) and extrinsic personal (Ep)
religiosity to understand the underlying dynamics of extrinsic religiosity and EDM.
Our empirical study did not support H5’s claim that extrinsic religiosity is a
significant negative predictor of ethical intention through ethical judgment. On the
contrary, this study’s evidence showed that extrinsic religiosity, like intrinsic religiosity,
significantly and positively influences ethical intention through ethical judgment. This
positive effect of extrinsic religiosity necessitates future research to ascertain whether this
finding is specific to Pakistan or also applies to other highly religious, non-Western
contexts. As we suggest above, future research should decompose extrinsic religiosity
into “extrinsic social” and “extrinsic personal” to shed light on this finding. At least for
this study context, we can safely say that extrinsic religiosity—extrinsic personal (Ep) to
be more precise—helps to foster EDM through an indirect positive mechanism operating
from extrinsic religiosity to ethical intention through ethical judgment.
In line with current theory and literature, we found ethical judgment to be a
significant positive predictor of ethical intention as hypothesized in H3. Ethical intention
was used as a proxy of ethical behavior because it is challenging to observe (un)ethical
behavior due to lack of access to the actual decision-making settings, the arbitrary nature
of decisions, and time constraints. It is a common observation that people act according
to their intentions, which are formed based on their attitude towards behavior that, in
turn, is contingent on their cognitive beliefs. We assume this observation is true and this
study showed that respondents formed intentions in line with their judgments: the
33
management professionals high in ethical judgments were more likely to form ethical
intentions commensurate with their judgments. Thus, organizations wanting to inculcate
EDM among their employees should foster ethical judgment through ethics training.
We argue that religious beliefs are an essential constituent of cognitive beliefs and
people high in religiosity see things through a religious lens, which in turn can influence
ethical judgment, consequently influencing intentions to act ethically in organizational
settings. This is reflected in this study because religiosity was found to be a significant
determinant of ethical intention through ethical judgment. Intrinsic religiosity influences
ethical decisions of the managers more than extrinsic religiosity because the former
involves religious values being deeply inculcated, and the religion is practiced in its true
spirit due to a strong commitment to that religion. Based on our study results, it is natural
for a manager high in intrinsic religiosity to have ethical intention via two routes (indirect
and direct): First, religion guides one to form ethical judgment which in turn influences
ethical intention; and second, religion directly influences a person to form intention to act
ethically in a situation having ethical content. Based on the findings of this research, we
conclude that managers high in intrinsic religiosity are more likely to form ethical
judgment and, in turn, ethical intention as hypothesized in H4. They are also able to form
intentions directly to act ethically independent of ethical judgment, thus showing the
great power of intrinsic religiosity.
This study using respondents from corporate Pakistan substantiates the Pakistani
public contention that one cannot be moral without the religion. Therefore, we can
conclude that a manager high in intrinsic religiosity is less likely to form behavioral
intentions to perform unethically. Extrinsic religiosity was also found to be a positive
34
determinant of ethical intention, though only through ethical judgment; not directly. This
finding implies that people high in extrinsic religiosity are also likely to make ethical
decisions in a non-Western and highly religious context, such as that of this study. This
finding contradicts previous empirical evidence that people high in extrinsic religiosity
are likely to form unethical intentions due to their focus on religiosity as an instrument. A
possible explanation of this disagreement is that the utilitarian perspective of extrinsic
religiosity reflected in socially oriented extrinsic religiosity (i.e., “extrinsic social”) does
not mesh with personally oriented extrinsic religiosity, at least in Pakistan.
Additionally, our results show that although extrinsic religiosity cannot directly
influence ethical intention independent of ethical judgment, we can conclude that
extrinsic religiosity does play a role in forming judgments and subsequent ethical
intentions. We suggest that this is a result of personally oriented extrinsic religiosity. In
Western societies, people high in extrinsic religiosity might go to religious services to rub
shoulders and to network with people. Typically, there is just one major weekly service
(with smaller, less-attended midweek options), whereas in a Muslim society like
Pakistan, people go for their prayers five times a day; any utilitarian motive might be
significantly reduced due to this higher frequency. These findings may also imply that
intrinsic religious motivation is higher and extrinsic religious motivation lower in
Pakistan than in Western less-religious countries. For this implication to be corroborated,
however, there is a need for cross-cultural research covering other highly religious, non-
Western contexts and less-religious Western contexts.
Research implications
35
The only previous study investigating the direct relationship between religiosity and
EDM in Pakistan is a recent study of banking personnel (frontline and managers) wherein
religiosity was found to moderate the relationship between (1) injunctive norms and (2)
perceived behavioral control and behavioral intentions to act ethically as an outcome
variable (Kashif et al. 2017). We believe that our study better captures ethical judgment
and intention constructs by using four different scenarios, two dimensions of religiosity,
and diverse respondents, a set of managers who are members of the Management
Association of Pakistan. We hope that this current study will pave the way for future
studies focusing on non-Western, highly religious countries and highlighting the role of
extrinsic religiosity. This research would contribute to cross-cultural religion-ethics
research comparing Western less religious and non-Western, highly religious contexts.
We recommend that research building on this paper should solicit responses from other
professional bodies, including the Marketing Association of Pakistan, Pakistan Society
for Human Resource Management, Institute of Chartered Accounts of Pakistan, Institute
of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMA Pakistan), and Chartered
Financial Analysts (CFAs). Using these professional bodies as the sampling frame will
enable understanding of EDM in different professions (Rest 1994) and elucidate the
religion-ethics relationship.
As already described, this study found extrinsic religiosity to be significantly and
positively related to ethical intention via ethical judgment. In contrast, previous research
had found no relationship with ethical judgment in consumer ethics settings (Vitell et al.
2005), a negative relationship with ethical intention (Singhapakdi et al. 2013), and a
positive relationship between personally oriented extrinsic religiosity (“Ep”) and ethical
36
intention (Chen and Tang 2013). This research contributes to the literature by identifying
the indirect relationship between extrinsic religiosity and ethical intention through ethical
judgment, thus partially explaining these mixed results. The intuitive reasons for this are
described in the Discussion section; however, informal discussion with a handful of
respondents after the study was concluded and the results tabulated, showed that
utilitarian motives towards religion are not very profound and therefore are not
detrimental to EDM, at least in Pakistan. This finding calls for qualitative research to
ascertain why this is so. We also believe that there might be a need to revise the extrinsic
religiosity scale, at least for highly religious countries (Islamic countries in particular),
provided the suggested qualitative research points in this direction.
Future research is also needed to understand why intrinsic religiosity can influ-
ence ethical intention directly. Our results show that extrinsic religiosity influences ethi-
cal intention only indirectly through ethical judgment, whereas intrinsic religiosity has
both direct and indirect effects.
Managerial recommendations
Because ethical judgment was found to be the most significant predictor of ethical
intention, we join prior research in recommending that organizations should inculcate
such judgments in their employees through ethics training programs to foster EDM. Our
findings suggest that managers high in intrinsic religiosity are more likely to undertake
EDM as intrinsic religiosity can influence ethical intention through ethical judgment due
to the heightened deontological norms and can directly influence ethical intention as well.
We do not suggest that organizations should endeavor to hire only religious people, but,
if an organization has employees who are high in both dimensions of religiosity, this can
37
relieve the organization and other stakeholders from the detrimental effects of unethical
decisions. We also suggest that religion-oriented ethics training can also be conducted to
further strengthen the ethical judgment of managers, at least in contexts such as Pakistan,
where religiosity has been shown to play a substantial role in ethical decision-making.
Limitations
The most significant limitation of this study was the unavailability of a sampling frame of
all management professionals in Pakistan. To mitigate this limitation, we used members
of the Management Association of Pakistan as respondents. This association, though a
representative body of management professionals of the country, does not have all
management professionals in Pakistan as its members. Another limitation of the research
was the low response rate despite the concerted efforts of the lead researcher to remind
the respondents to send back the completed questionnaires. A better response rate would
have resulted in better generalizability of the results. One other limitation is that variables
other than the controls might influence the outcome variable of ethical intention.
However, we were constrained by the parsimony principle of the research. Future
research should also try to understand the actual (un)ethical behavior rather than just the
(un)ethical intention.
Conclusion
Ethics is an essential area of concern for both researchers and practitioners. The role that
religion plays in EDM in non-Western and highly religious countries is an understudied
38
domain. Two dimensions of religiosity, called intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, were
found to play decisive roles to inculcate ethical judgment that influences ethical intention.
This research contributes to the understanding of the relationship between religiosity and
ethics by showing how both dimensions of religiosity influence ethical intention through
the mediating mechanism of ethical judgment. The research has important implications
for managers. For example, organizations should provide ethics training programs, with
or without religious teaching, so that the ethical judgment of managers can be raised and
subsequently EDM can be promoted. Continuing research on the interaction of religion
and ethics is needed, especially in highly religious and non-Western countries other than
Pakistan, and we also call for cross-cultural research in such contexts. We suggest repli-
cating this study in professions other than management so that a broader understanding of
the role of religion in ethics can be determined.
39
Appendix-1
SCENARIOS
Scenario 1
The pricing committee of a large video game marketer suggests that prices be raised 20–
30 % during the holiday season and that a highly popular game be kept in short supply.
Action: The vice president of marketing decides that this is a good idea since consumer
demand indicates that consumers will be likely to pay the higher prices.
Scenario 2
XYZ Company has been barred from entering the market in a large Asian country by
collusive efforts of the local bicycle manufacturers. XYZ could expect to earn 500
million rupees per year from sales if it could penetrate the market. Last week a
businessman from the country contacted the president of XYZ and stated that he could
smooth the way for the company to sell in his country for a price of Rs. 50,000,000 (50
million).
Action: The president of XYZ pays the Rs. 50,000,000 (50 million).
Scenario 3
Mr. A has recently accepted a job with a new, vigorous microcomputer manufacturer.
Microcomputer manufacturers are engaged in intense competition to become the market
leader with a software package which utilizes the English language and thus is easily
used by the average consumer. Mr. A's former employer is generally known to be the
leader in this software development. When Mr. A was hired, he was led to believe that
his selection was based upon his management potential. The morning beginning the third
week on the new job, Mr. A received the following memo from the president:
Please meet with me tomorrow at 8:15 AM for the purpose of discussing the
developments your former employer has made in microcomputer software.
Action: Mr. A reveals the new product developments made by his former employer.
Scenario 4
Ted Jones, senior editor of J & P Publishing Company, has just received a manuscript
from one of his most successful authors. It provides the most authoritative account yet
published of the history of the development of the atomic bomb. However, the final
chapter contains a detailed description of how the bomb is made. Jones has tried to
convince the author to omit the last chapter stating that such information should not be
made readily available to the mass market in paperback form. The author believes the
chapter is critical to the success of the book and thus will not agree to its deletion.
Action: Ted Jones publishes the book.
40
Note: All the responses to the following items were sought on a Likert scale ranging
from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree).
Ethical judgment and ethical intention items
For each of the four scenarios above, managers respondents were asked right after each
scenario:
• I consider the action taken to be ethical. (ethical judgment item)
• I would be likely to take the same action in this situation. (ethical intention item)
Intrinsic religiosity
I enjoy reading about my religion.
It doesn’t matter what I believe in as long as I am fair in my dealings. (Reverse coded)
It is important for me to spend time in private worship, for example Salaat or prayer.
I always have a strong sense of God’s presence.
I try to live all aspects of my life according to my religious beliefs.
My whole approach to life is based on my religion.
I believe in my religion but many other things are more important in life. (Reverse coded)
Extrinsic religiosity
I go to religious service (for example, Jumma / Sunday service) mainly because it helps
me to make friends.*
Prayer is for peace.
Prayer is for happiness.
I go to religious services (for example, Jumma / Sunday service) mostly to spend time
with my friends.*
I go to religious services (for example, Jumma / Sunday service) mainly because I enjoy
seeing people whom I know.*
What religion offers me the most is comfort in times of trouble/sorrow.
I pray to gain relief and protection.
* deleted items
41
Appendix-2
Section A: Data processing and assumption testing of parametric data
The responses from the usable questionnaires were initially input into an Excel sheet. In
SPSS 21, appropriate variable names along with their titles were defined, specifying their
data types and sets of permissible values. The data was then entered into the data view of
SPSS. Since the scenarios each contain an ethically questionable action by a manager, the
items essentially measure (un)ethical judgment and (un)ethical intention. Each item’s
score, as provided by the respondent, was reverse coded by subtracting each item score
from the highest permissible value + 1. For instance, if an item response is 2, recoding it
produced 6 on a scale from 1 to 7 achieved through 7+1-2 = 6. Missing value analysis
revealed the following pattern.
*********************************************************
Insert Table 8 here
*********************************************************
This table indicates that missing values constitute only 0.09% of all the values;
thus dictating no need to compensate for them. The missing values analysis proceeded by
calculating the average score for each construct. Correlation, multiple regression, and
mediation analysis were then run on these average scores only.
In order to perform parametric tests on the data collected, a multi-pronged
approach was applied whereby visual tools (P-P plots) along with normality tests (using
1-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests [K-S]) were undertaken to check for the normality
of the data. This procedure revealed that the outcome, ethical intention, D(109) =1.20, p
42
> 0.05, is significantly normal. Ethical judgment, D(109) = 1.25, p > 0.05, and intrinsic
religiosity, D(109) = 1.09, p > 0.05, all appeared significantly normal. Extrinsic
religiosity, however, D(109) = 2.04, p < 0.001, showed nonnormality, probably owing to
the sensitivity of 1-sample K-S, but the normal P-P plot of extrinsic religiosity clearly
showed normality. For brevity, we have not shown the normal P-P plots for the variables
of the study. The individual values, however, converge to the normal line that pictorially
depicts that the data is normal in all cases. This observation is also in agreement with the
1-sample K-S statistic described above except for extrinsic religiosity.
Assumption testing for generalizing multiple regression model
In order to generalize the findings of the sample to the population, the regression models
should meet certain assumptions. The subsequent discussion will highlight how the data
of this study show these assumptions are met. After performing case-wise diagnostics, the
assumptions of nonzero variance, normally distributed data, no perfect multicollinearity,
homoscedasticity, independent errors, normally distributed errors, independence, and
linearity were checked.
Outlier treatment. The case-wise diagnostics were performed by computing the
standardized residual value, Cook’s distance, average leverage value, and Mahalanobis
distance for identifying outliers. Based on these statistics, no case unduly influences the
regression model, and thus, no case was identified as an outlier.
Nonzero variance. All the predictors have nonzero variance, as can be seen
through their mean and standard deviation values. All the predictors and the outcome
variable follow a normal distribution, as discussed at the start of this appendix.
43
Multicollinearity. In the case of multiple regression, all the tolerance statistics—
0.63, 0.67, and 0.93 in case of ethical judgment, intrinsic religiosity, and extrinsic
religiosity respectively—were well above 0.2, indicating that there was no severe
problem of multicollinearity as Menard (1995) suggests that only values below 0.2 are of
concern.
Homoscedasticity. This assumption requires that at each level of the predictor
variable, the variance of the residual terms should be constant. The scatterplot for each
model shows that all the values are evenly distributed around 0, so the homoscedasticity
assumption holds.
Independent errors. This assumption requires that residuals be uncorrelated.
This assumption can be tested using the Durbin-Watson (D-W) test statistic that should
produce a result between 1 and 3. In the case of multiple regression model, the D-W
value was 1.5, showing that the independence of errors can be assumed.
Normally distributed errors. This assumption requires that the residuals in the
model be random and normally distributed with a mean of 0. To check this assumption,
standardized residuals were generated when running the regression model, and the
residuals were found to form a normal distribution, as shown in the P-P plots. Also, the 1-
sample K-S test statistic was nonsignificant, p > 0.05, thus showing residuals to be
normally distributed in all models.
Independence. This assumption requires that the values of the outcome variable
are independent. Each value comes from a separate entity, the respondent, so
independence can be assumed owing to the correlation design of the study.
44
Linearity. The scatter plots depict linear relationships between all the predictors
and ethical intention, the outcome variable.
Section B: Factor analysis assumption testing
******************************************************************
Insert Table 9 here
******************************************************************
45
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Ethical intention
(EI)
Ethical judgment
(EJ)
Intrinsic religiosity
(INT)
Indirect effect (INT-EJ-EI): H4 (+)
H3 (+)
H1 (+)
Ethical intention
(EI)
Ethical judgment
(EJ)
Extrinsic religiosity
(EXT)
Indirect effect (EXT-EJ-EI): H5 (-)
H3 (+)
H2 (-)
Fig. 1
The conceptual model
52
Table 1 Selected studies using multidimensional religiosity scales
Reference
Context
Religiosity measure
Findings
Singhapakdi,
Marta, et al.
(2000)
EDM of
marketing
professionals
(American
Marketing
Association)
Religiosity
dimensions: church
attendance; perceived
importance of religious
values; and confidence
in religious values
(Wilkes et al. 1986)
Religiosity (the composite of 3 dimensions)
was a significant predictor in one scenario
while it was a marginally significant (p <
0.10) predictor of ethical intention in three
scenarios.
Singhapakdi,
Salyachivin,
et al. (2000)
EDM of Thai
managers
enrolled in
executive and
special MBA
programs
Same as above
Religiosity was a significant predictor of
ethical intention in two of four scenarios.
Vitell and
Muncy (2005)
Consumer
ethics setting
(undergraduate
student
consumers)
Religious orientation
scale (Allport and Ross
1967) wherein
religiosity has two
distinct dimensions:
intrinsic dimension and
extrinsic dimension
Intrinsic religiosity explained consumer
ethical beliefs to view the questionable
consumer behaviors as wrong for three out of
the four dimensions.
Extrinsic religiosity did not significantly
explain any of the four dimensions of the
consumer ethics scale.
Vitell et al.
(2009)
Undergraduate
business
students
Same as above
Intrinsic religiosity played a role in
counterbalancing the negative impact of
extrinsic religiosity on both dimensions of
moral identity (internalization and
symbolization).
Singhapakdi
et al. (2013)
EDM in
marketing
(marketing
managers)
Same as above
Intrinsic religiosity was found to be a positive
predictor of ethical intention.
Extrinsic religiosity was found to be a
negative predictor of ethical intention.
53
Table 2 Demographic profile of the sample
Gender
Male 81.6%
Female 18.4%
Academic Qualification
Doctorate / Postdoctorate 0%
Master’s / MS / M. Phil (Minimum 17 years schooling) 55.2%
Bachelor (Hons) / Master’s (16 years schooling) 37.9%
Bachelor’s (14 years schooling) 6.9%
Age
Mean 30.54 years
Median 29 years
25th percentile 26 years
50th percentile 29 years
75th percentile 34 years
54
Table 3 Extrinsic religiosity scale adaptation
Original item
Adapted item
I go to religious service because it helps me to make friends.
I go to religious service (for example, Jumma /
Sunday service) mainly because it helps me to
make friends.
Prayer is for peace and happiness.
Prayer is for peace.
Prayer is for happiness.
I go to religious services mostly to spend time with my
friends.
I go to religious services (for example, Jumma /
Sunday service) mostly to spend time with my
friends.
I go to religious services mainly because I enjoy
seeing people I know there.
I go to religious services (for example, Jumma /
Sunday service) mainly because I enjoy seeing
people whom I know.
Table 4 Reliability analysis
Construct
No. of
Items
Cronbach α
Omega
Greatest
Lower
Bound
(GLB)
Ethical intention (EI)
4
0.63 ≈ 0.6, CI: [0.48, 0.73]
0.63 ≈ 0.6, CI: [0.49, 0.73]
0.65 ≈ 0.7
Ethical judgment (EJ)
4
0.84 ≈ 0.8, CI: [0.79, 0.89]
0.85 ≈ 0.9, CI: [0.79, 0.89]
0.86 ≈ 0.9
Intrinsic religiosity
(INT)
7
0.91 ≈ 0.9, CI: [0.87, 0.93]
0.91 ≈ 0.9, CI: [0.87, 0.93]
0.93 ≈ 0.9
Extrinsic religiosity
(EXT) [original scale]
7
0.73 ≈ 0.7, CI: [0.64, 0.8]
0.80 ≈ 0.8, CI: [0.72, 0.85]
0.91 ≈ 0.9
Extrinsic religiosity
(EXT) [final scale]
4 (three
items
deleted due
to negative
loadings)
0.92 ≈ 0.9, CI: [0.88, 0.95]
0.92 ≈ 0.9, CI: [0.86, 0.95]
0.92 ≈ 0.9
55
Table 5 Pearson correlation
95% CI
Measure
1
2
3
4
M
SD
LL
UL
1
Ethical
intention
4.56
1.09
4.34
4.79
2
Ethical
judgment
0.91***
4.18
1.19
3.95
4.42
3
Intrinsic
religiosity
0.64***
0.57***
4.26
1.22
4.03
4.50
4
Extrinsic
religiosity
0.22*
0.25**
0.08
4.61
1.42
4.31
4.87
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001; CI = Confidence interval, LL = Lower limit, UL = Upper Limit
56
Table 6 Coefficients for the mediation model [the effect of intrinsic religiosity (INT) on ethical
intention (EI) through ethical judgment (EJ)]
Consequent
M (EJ)
Y (EI)
Antecedent
Coeff.
SE
p
Coeff.
SE
p
Gender
-0.38
0.24
0.11
-0.00
0.11
0.97
Age
-0.01
0.01
0.70
-0.00
0.01
0.91
Qualification
0.03
0.15
0.83
-0.00
0.07
0.96
EXT
0.18
0.07
0.01
0.00
0.03
0.88
X (INT)
a
0.55
(0.03, 2.81)
0.08
< 0.001
c’
0.16 (0.08, 0.25)
0.04
< 0.001
M (EJ)
—
—
—
b
0.73 (0.65, 0.82)
0.04
< 0.001
Constant
i1
1.42
0.70
0.04
i2
0.80
0.32
< 0.001
R2 = 0.38
R2 = 0.85
F (1, 109) = 12.79 , p < 0.001
F (2, 109) = 96.93, p < 0.001
Controls: gender, age, qualification, and extrinsic religiosity (EXT).
Number of bootstrap samples for bias corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (CI) = 10,000.
57
Table 7 Coefficients for the mediation model [the effect of Extrinsic religiosity (EXT) on ethical
intention (EI) through ethical judgment (EJ)]
Consequent
M (EJ)
Y (EI)
Antecedent
Coeff.
SE
p
Coeff.
SE
p
Gender
-0.38
0.24
0.12
-0.00
0.11
0.97
Age
-0.01
0.01
0.70
-0.00
0.01
0.91
Qualification
0.03
0.15
0.83
-0.00
0.67
0.96
INT
0.55 (0.39, 0.70)
0.08
< 0.001
0.16 (0.08, 0.25)
0.04
< 0.001
X (EXT)
a
0.18 (0.05, 0.31)
0.07
0.01
c’
0.00 (-0.06, 0.07)
0.03
0.88
M (EJ)
—
—
—
b
0.73 (0.65, 0.82)
0.04
< 0.001
Constant
i1
1.42 (0.03, 2.81)
0.70
0.04
i2
0.80 (0.17, 1.44)
0.32
0.01
R2 = 0.38
R2 = 0.85
F (1, 109) = 12.79 , p < 0.001
F (2, 109) = 96.93, p < 0.001
Controls: gender, age, qualification, and intrinsic religiosity (INT).
Number of bootstrap samples for bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (CI) = 10,000.
58
Table 8 Missing Values Analysis
Item title
No. of missing values (Percentage)
Extrinsic religiosity (item 5)
2 (0.09%)
59
Table 9 Factor analysis assumption testing
Assumption
Guideline
Construct
Value
Remarks
Nonexistence of
multicollinearity
Determinant of the correlation matrix
to be greater than threshold value of
0.00001
Ethical intention
Ethical judgment
Intrinsic religiosity
Extrinsic religiosity
0.65
0.19
0.02
0.04
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
Measure of
Sampling Adequacy
(KMO) statistic
KMO statistic to be greater than
threshold value of 0.5. Considered:
- Good, if KMO between 0.7 & 0.8
- Great, if KMO between 0.8 & 0.9
(Kaiser 1974)
Ethical intention
Ethical judgment
Intrinsic religiosity
Extrinsic religiosity
0.71
0.80
0.91
0.84
Bartlett’s Test of
Sphericity
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity to be
significant
Ethical intention,
Ethical judgment,
Intrinsic religiosity,
Extrinsic religiosity
p < 0.001
Factor
analysis is
appropriate
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