STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL COREVALUES, ETHICS, CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS: INITIAL ANALYSIS

Donna Coelho

Western Connecticut State University Quinnipiac University

Ronald Drozdenko Fred Tesch

Western Connecticut State University 

ABSTRACT

Studies by Jin, Drozdenko, and collaborators found that organizations having organic core values (democratic, informal, collaborative) had stronger levels of ethical behavior and corporate social responsibility as compared to organizations maintaining mechanistic (bureaucratic, formal, centralized) core values. This study applied the basic theoretical framework for those studies to a sample of business students. The objective is to determine if students having a preference for either organic or mechanistic core values would exhibit differences in survey responses to corporate social responsibility and business ethics scenarios. An analysis of an initial sample suggests that students reporting a preference of organic core values also generally exhibit a greater commitment to corporate social responsibility and ethics. Preliminary findings on gender and age variables are also presented. The findings are discussed in light of past research and further analyses of the current data are proposed.