The Ethical Issues Rating Scale: An Instrument for Measuring Ethical Orientation of College Students toward Various Business Practices

Abstract

The present study presents efforts to establish evidence for the construct validity of scores on the Ethical Issues Rating Scale, an instrument designed to measure respondents' assessment of the importance of various ethical issues. Factor-analytic results using data from a sample of students enrolled in university business courses (n = 213) supported the existence of five constructs: personal integrity issues, corporate integrity issues, individual rights issues, environmental issues, and international issues. Suggestions regarding the usefulness of the instrument and procedures for its further refinement are offered.