STUDENT’S ATTITUDES TOWARD BUSINESS ETHICS: A COMPARISON BETWEEN INDONESIA AND LESOTHO

In this technology era and globalization age, business ethics has received an increased attention as the strongest asset to create, sustain and enhance goodwill and customer loyalty. Recently, Business ethics has great part in managerial decision making process. The purpose of this study is to investigate Indonesia and Lesotho management students’ attitudes towards business ethics with different levels of religiosity and gender in preferences to three business philosophies: Machiavellianism, Social Darwinism and Moral Objectivism. In this case, business students as future drivers of the economic and social engine of the society, as prospective managers and potential employees, became the main target of this study. Data was collected from both Indonesia and Lesotho undergraduate students using (ATBEQ) questionnaires. The total questionnaires that were distributed were 300, however out of those questionnaires returned only 229 were completed. The results indicate that there are significant differences across countries and I find that Indonesia and Lesotho students show no differences attitudes towards Social Darwinism and Moral Objectivism; while Lesotho students show more favorable attitudes towards Machiavellianism than Indonesia students. For Machiavellianism the results are consistent whereas with Moral Objectivism and Social Darwinism the results show no differences. Results indicate that students who do not practice religion (non-practicing religion) were found to have a better assessment on the dimensions of Machiavellianism and Moral Objectivism, meanwhile both Indonesia and Lesotho students did not show any differences in relation to Social Darwinism. Inconsistent with religion practicing business students prefer Moral Objectivism in business ethics more than non-practicing business students was found. The results indicate that gender does not influence preferences for the three business philosophies