Morality and Moral Reasoning in the Banking Industry: an Ethical and Cognative Moral Development Examination

This work examined certain key characteristics of the banking employee that may make him/her a more ethical and moral decision-maker based on Kohlberg's Cognitive Moral Development theory. This study attempted to answer the salient question: Can ethics courses and/or training help develop a more moral employee in the banking industry? The answer to this key question led to answers to other related ethical issues in the banking industry. To facilitate this examination, the Defining Issues Test (DIT) was used. James R. Rest was the developer of this testing format, which ascertains the level of moral maturity on the Kohlbergian scale. The study thus focused on determining whether or not banking employees who had taken ethics courses and/or training possess higher moral maturity and thus may make for more moral decision-makers, or whether ethics courses and/or training make no difference to the banking employees' moral maturity levels, and consequently have no influence in their moral decision-making. The study, also, explored any relationships among moral maturity and age, gender, and the educational level of the banking employees.