The influence of industrialisation on ethical ideology of managers in the People’s Republic of China

An individual’s ethical ideology has been identified as one of the key components in fluencing ethical decision making in organisations. The Ethics Position Questionnaire is designed to measure ethical ideology in relation to two dimensions, namely Idealism and Relativism. This study investigates the factor structure of this measure in a sample of Chinese managers, and compares the dimensions found to those found in the original study. In addition, a regional comparison is under taken and the results show that there are significant differences in ethical ideology across different regions in China. These results are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.