The moral bases of the triple bottom line: implications for business education

Graduation Date

2014

Document Type

Project

Program

Other

Program

Project (M.B.A.)--Humboldt State University, Business Administration, 2014

Committee Chair Name

David Sleeth-Keppler

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Triple bottom line, Education, Moral foundations, Humboldt State University -- Projects -- Business, Ethics, Business, Morals, Students, Sustainability, Morality

Abstract

I investigate whether variations in profit orientation compared to triple bottom line orientation have an explicit moral foundation among business students. An alternative view would be that morality plays no role in support for sustainable business among business students, simply because sustainability is a trend that should be followed, regardless of notions of right and wrong. I define morality in terms of the 5 dimensions put forth by Haidt and Joseph (2007): Harm/Care, Fairness/Reciprocity, Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect and Purity/Sanctity. Haidt and Joseph argue that morality is a multi-construct phenomenon with each dimension of morality having roots in an evolutionarily-derived adaptive problem. Applied to sustainability, I predict that the dimensions of harm/care and fairness/reciprocity represent moral intuitions that systematically relate to endorsement of triple bottom line practices among business students. Ultimately, my goal is to facilitate a more targeted use of moral appeals in business education programs designed to foster sustainable business practices. My findings suggest that the connection between moral intuitions and their endorsement of the triple bottom line are highly correlated with the dimensions of harm/care and fairness/reciprocity instead of the others. I also find that students who plan to work for a non-profit organization after they graduate score highly on the harm/care and fairness/reciprocity dimensions, compared to students who intend to work in a for-profit context.

https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/8p58pg63w

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