Business Ethics Perceptions of Public and Private Sector Respondents in Pakistan

Pakistan is a developing economy and it has been a country in the forefront of ethical crossroads in todays challenging workplace. This research surveyed 232 citizens, managers, and employees in Pakistan to measure their Personal Business Ethics Scores (PBES) to see if age, gender, education, management experience, and government work experience makes a difference in making more ethical decisions. This study contributes to the theory of moral development. The results suggest that age and more years of management experience do lead to higher scores in moral maturity, but the results are not statistically significant. Gender is not a factor in the ethical maturity scores. Higher levels of education did not lead to higher scores. However, statistically significant differences were found for respondents with little or no government experience and those with two or more years of government work experience. Unexpectedly, those without any government work experience had significantly higher ethical maturity scores. Kohlbergs moral development theory regarding ethical maturity is partially supported since those who were older and with more years of management experience do have higher business ethics scores.