Abstract—A vignette study was undertaken to examine if
cynical attitudes predicted unethical intentions among Indian
managers when faced with a range of ethical dilemmas.
Cynicism—the belief that others are engaging in unethical acts
or that unethical behavior is common or normal—has been
found to predict unethical intentions. The study is an empirical
evidence of the hypothesis that general and organizational
cynicism influence ethical intentions. Hierarchical regression
analysis on a sample of 199 Indian managers from different
organizations provides strong evidence for the assumption of
this study, i.e., the moderating role of level of management
between organizational cynicism and ethical intentions. A
three-way interaction effect was found, whereby managers
working at middle and senior level management positions at
higher levels of organizational cynicism were less unethical than
managers at the junior management positions.
Index Terms—general cynicism, organizational cynicism,
Indian managers, ethical intentions, level of management.
Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras.
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Cite:Priya Nair and T J Kamalanabhan, "The Impact of Cynicism on Ethical Intentions of Indian Managers: The Moderating Role of Their Level Of management," International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance vol.1, no.2, pp. 155-159, 2010.