Influence of Personality Variables in Ethical Decision Making

We often face situations in which we have to make complex ethical decisions. For example, telling your boss that the decline in the sales was because of your flawed promotion strategy. Whenever, we have to make such decisions our personality variables like our emotions, attitude, Values and beliefs, influence our behaviors and actions. One more personality variable that has been found to influence ethical decision making is Locus Of Control (LOC).

Locus of Control refers to the extent to which individuals believe that events are under their control. It is also based on whether an individual believes there is a causal relationship between his decisions and the potential consequences of his decisions. There are two types of Locus Of Control; Internal Locus of Control and External Locus of Control.

Individuals with Internal Locus of Control are called Internals. Internals believe that there is a causal relationship between their actions and the consequences of those actions. They believe that whatever they face in their lives is directly related to the decisions they make and the actions they take. Internals are more likely to take responsibility of their actions as they believe that whatever happens is linked to their decisions.

On the other hand, Individuals with External Locus of Control are called Externals. They believe that there is less or no causal relationship between their actions and the consequences of those actions. They believe that events are under the control of fate, luck and powerful others. Since they don't believe in any cause and effect relationship between their actions and potential outcomes of those actions, they are less likely to accept responsibility of their actions.

Studies have found that individuals with internal LOC report more ethically sensitive responses than individuals with external LOC. Internals believe that there is a link between their attitudes, actions and subsequent outcomes of those actions which is why they are expected to give more ethically sensitive responses.