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Numerous researches exist in the field of business ethics. Most of the studies, however, have focused on finding factors which have impacts on ethical judgments and ethical behaviors. Still others are trying to develop ethical decision-making models. In another word, the relationship between ethical decisions and personal consequences has rarely been exlored. It is hard to ask employees to take business ethics seriously under current performance evaluation systems and standard accounting principles of an organization. Therefore, personal consequences encountered after ethical decision making situations would be more likely to persuade employees implementing the principles of business ethics in daily operations. The motive of this thesis is to explore the impact of stressing business ethics on personal consequences. From literature reviews, individuals will usually experience cognitive dissonance when encountering with ethical decision making situations. Cognitive dissonance will, in turn, affect personal health both psychologicallyand physically Furthermore, personal satisfaction after resolving ethical situations will probably be related with cogrnitive dissonance. In addition, how much cognitive dissonance an individual experiences is contingent upon(1)individuals''s moral development stageand (2) the magnitude of reward or punishment inherent in the ethical decision making situations. This study, therefore, hypothesize the followings: 1. The degree of cognitive dissonance after resolving ethical decision making situations is affected by (1) the way the situation is managed; (2) the magnitude of reward or punishment inherent in the situations;and (3) individual''s moral development stage. 2. A negative relatioship exits between the degree of cognitive dissonance and personal satisfaction after resolving the situation. This study has surveyed business employees who attended graduate classes of business administration offered by Tamkang University One hundred and ninetyeight subjects were included in this study from classes held in Taipei, Shin-Chu, and Kao-Shiung. ANOVA and regression analysis are employed to analyze the data Results partially supported the first hypothesis and fully supported the second hypothesis.
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