Organizational loyalty and personal ethics: The moral priorities of Chinese cadres

International Journal of Public Administration

Volumn 20, Issue 10, 1997, Pages 1791-1820

  Cooper, Terry L ^a   Wehrly, Mark ^a   Bao, Yongjian ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84937261436     PISSN: 01900692     EISSN: 15324265     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01900699708525275     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. Berger, Peter, and Luckman, Thomas. 1967. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, 65–66. New York: Anchor Books. See the discussion of the process and use of “recipe knowledge”.42
2. Whyte, William H., Jr. 1956. The Organization Man, New York: Simon & Schuster. Milgram, Stanley. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View, Harper & Row, New York, 1974; Scott, William G., and Hart, David K. Organizational America, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1979; Ramos, Alberto, G. The New Science of Organizations: A Reconceptualization of the Wealth of Nations, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 198 1; Jackall, Robert. “Moral Mazes: Bureaucracy and Managerial Work.” Haward Business Review 5 (Sept.-Oct. 1983): 118-130
3. This project is being coordinated by Terry L. Cooper, but being carried out by scholars in each location. As of the date of this paper two samples had been obtained from scholars in Beijing and Shanghai through inservice training programs at universities in each location. The Hong Kong component of the project was in the data collection stage under the direction of Ms. Terry Lui at the University of Hong Kong.
4. Clark, John. 1965. A Preliminary Investigation of Religion and the Moral Standards of American Businessmen, Los Angeles: University of California. Unpublished doctoral dissertation The authors learned of Clark's questionnaire in 1991 through an unpublished paper, “The Ethical Standards of Business People: Results of an Empirical Study and a Plea for Additional Research,” University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles, California, 90024- 148 1; Posner, Barry Z. and Schmidt, Warren H. “An Updated Look at the Values and Expectations of Federal Government Executives.” Public Administration Review 54 (January/February 1994): 20-24
5. A professor from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan and another Fudan University, Shanghai, PRC were both present at the University of Southern California for extended periods and provided advice and translation. One of the coauthors of this article, Yong-jian Bao, a doctoral student from Shanghai, has been of enormous help throughout the project, including the analysis and interpretation of the data. Another doctoral student, Thomas Huang, from Taiwan, also provided significant assistance in the early stages of the project. In Hong Kong Terry Lui has administered a version of the questionnaire with appropriate revisions to fit the context there. Since management level public administrators in Hong Kong are fully bilingual, she is using English. Professor Boywe Lee has administered a Chinese version of the questionnaire appropriate for Taiwan in three regions of that country.
6. Tests of significance are not included in this article for three reasons. First, as indicated in Table I, the numbers of respondents in the primary age categories was not large, meaning that many cells on many of the survey items had very small cell sizes. Second, the data were drawn from a "convenience sample" --for the reasons discussed above. Finding a truly random sample of public administrators in China is difficult to impossible. Third, it was not important for purposes of such a preliminary study to make generalizable statements about the broad population of Chinese administrators. In sum, the data were not well adapted to parametric tests, and non-parametric tests and other corrections for small cell sizes are of limited utility given the type of available data. The descriptive data presented provide, we think, a substantial basis for further research with respect to the differences among age cohorts of Chinese public administators.
7. Moore, Joan. 1973. Social Constraints on Sociological Knowledge: Academics and Research Concerning Minorities. Social Problems, 21 Summer: 65–77. He pointed out the problems of cross-cultural research two decades ago, and argued that cross-cultural research teams were essential to the generation of valid data and the development of sound conclusions
8. In evaluating the importance of "Marxism-Leninism, " the mean responses of the four age groups ranged from 3.9 to 4.6 on a 7 point scale, all equivocal scores. With respect to "one central point and two basic points and four insistences," a standard formulation of Deng's doctrine, the mean scores ranged from 2.1 to 3 indicating that this official party principle was considered unimportant.
9. Tests for homogeneity of variance approached significance for one question (question no. 12, discussed below on p.; Cochran's C =.355 1, p =.095) and was significant for one question (question no. 18, discussed below on p.; Cochran's C=.4242, p-.012). We will argue that the reason for the seeming heterogeneity of variance between age groups is a unique set of experiences undergone by the 46-50 age group.
10. Tests of significance were not run on these scores since they would be inappropriate for a non-random sample of this lund.
11. Clark used the first five vignettes to compute a "personal ethics subscale" and the second five for a "social responsibility subscale. " Our reliability analyses of responses to these two sets of responses showed low reliability for the personal ethics subscale and moderate reliability for the social responsibility subscale. Consequently, we did not use these scales to characterize our respondents as a group, but only for purposes of comparing responses of subgroups with our sample on each individual case.
12. In these instances the mean scores of the forty-six through fifty age group were second highest after those of the over fifty group. This is different from the previously discussed dominant pattern of falling just behind the younger groups. The reason for this exception is not obvious, but may reflect the ability of the older group to identify certain kinds of conduct as clearly unacceptable without having a clear notion about the specific ethcal principles that are being violated. In other words, they may have learned to reject some actions as corrupt without having developed the ability to reason ethically about them.
13. In the fifth vignette this group had the second hghest standard deviation, indicating considerable disagreement within the group. The reason may have been that this vignette was the only one which had a degree of ethical ambiguity. From the perspective of teleological ethical thinking (concern for consequences) one might have justifiably approved of the conduct exemplified in the case, while one viewing it from a deontological (duty to principle) viewpoint might have deemed the action taken unacceptable.
14. Again, as is typical, the 46-50 group was second to the youngest group which expressed the least approval of the course of action described in the case.
15. Gold, Thomas B., 1985. After Comradeship: Personal Relations in China Since the Cultural Revolution. The China Quarterly, 104 December: 657–675. Pye, Lucian W. “Reassessing the Cultural Revolution.” The China Quarterly 108 (December 1986): 597-6 12. According to these articles, one result of the Cultural Revolution may have been a reversion to some aspects of traditional Chinese culture without any deep commitment to their foundations, for example in Confucianism.
16. Womack, Brantly. 1991. Review Essay: Transfigured Community: Neo-Traditionalism and Work Unit Socialism in China. The China Quarterly, 126 June: 313–332. This is consistent with Brantly Womack's observations. He argues that public confrontation in Chinese work groups becomes a political act with uncertain and risky consequences
17. After Mao, in the 1980s, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party adopted a theory of two-stage socialism, elementary and advanced. The Central Committee also adopted fundamental principles for the party and its members at the elementary stage of socialism: "one central point, two basic points, and four insistences. " The importance of this formula is not its specific meanings, but that it symbolizes the program of Deng. The one central point is economic development; the two basic points are support for a reform and open door policy, and adherence to four "insistences." These four insistences are: insisting on leadership by communists; insisting on the road of socialism; insisting on Marxism, Leninism, and Mao Zetong's ideas; and insisting on the people's democratic autocracy. Deng advanced this doctrinal formula of the party's fundamental beliefs which took on a quasi-constitutional status. It is interesting to note, however, that one of the authors of this paper had to make ten telephone calls to persons from the PRC to check the specifics of this doctrinal formula. Only one was confident about its specific content although most had worked for the central government of the PRC and had responsibility for educating others about its meaning. These principles have been advocated so frequently and intensively in newspapers and other media that they apparently have become abstract symbols associated with Deng's general policies for most people in the PRC.
18. Berger, Peter, Berger, Brigitte, and Kellner, Hansfried. 1973. The Homeless Mind: Modernization and Consciousness, New York: Vintage Books.
19. Stewart, Debra, and Sprinthall, Norman. 1994. Handbook of Administrative Ethics, Edited by: Cooper, Terry L., 325–348. New York: Marcel Dekker. Lawrence Kohlberg identified six stages of cognitive moral development ranging from a pleasure-pain orientation to ethical decision making to one rooted in universal ethical principles. He believed moving through these stages was sequential and cross-cultural. Stewart and Sprinthall provide a good introduction to Kohlberg's theory and empirical research, as well as an instrument adapted to the management context for assessing the stages of subjects