Original scientific paper
Influencing collective moral judgement by changing ethical culture in tourism industry: The case of Slovenia
Tanja Šalamon
; C2P ltd., Celje, Slovenia
Marko Koščak
orcid.org/0000-0002-2332-5639
; University of Maribor, Faculty of Tourism, Brežice, Slovenia
Borut Vojinović
orcid.org/0000-0002-6417-6166
; University of Maribor, Faculty of Tourism, Brežice, Slovenia
Abstract
Moral reasoning is a process of determining what is wrong and what is right from a moral point of view. Four components of moral reasoning are: moral sensitivity, moral judgement, moral motivation and moral character. Our research presented here is focused on the second component – moral judgement. Moral judgement refers to reaching an appropriate decision from the moral perspective in response to a given situation or a problem. Individuals can decide between focusing on themselves (egoistic moral judgement) or others (benevolence – disposition to be good) in their decision-making process. While the environment influences us, individuals differ within this spectrum. Thus, the prevalent collective moral judgement in any given company is under the influence of company characteristics and its ethical culture. This paper examines the effects of the ethical culture of Slovenian companies in the tourism industry on the collective moral judgement of their employees and identifies those ethical culture dimensions that could alter the collective moral judgement of the employees in the tourism industry. The results were collected through quantitative empirical research. The research was conceptualised and analysed with reference to Kaptein's (1998) Corporate Ethical Virtues Model, comprised of seven ethical culture dimensions: clarity, congruency, feasibility,
supportability, transparency, discussability and sanctionability. Results of our research have shown that if these dimensions of ethical culture are expressed more highly, collective moral judgement tends to increase its focus on how decisions will affect others. Suggestions for the management of tourist companies, as well as the Slovenian national tourist organisation (STO), have been proposed on the basis of the results of this paper.
Keywords
ethics; tourism; ethical culture; moral judgement; benevolence; Slovenia
Hrčak ID:
160525
URI
Publication date:
28.6.2016.
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