This study profiles managers according
to the ethical criteria they bring
to their managerial decision making.
Profiling was based on exploratory
cluster analysis of responses
of academics & students and small
business managers to a multidimensional
questionnaire. The data were
collected through a self-reporting
survey (n=82) administrated to
the two cohorts. An agglomerative
hierarchical cluster analysis was
then performed to the two groups
separately on the 8 ethical subscales
from the Managerial Ethical Profile
(MEP). Between-groups linkage
method and squared binary Euclidean
distance measures were used
to cluster groups in the given data
sets. Five clusters were found as an
optimal number for the given data
set for one cohort and four for the
other cohort. Four clusters were
common to both cohorts. The study
concluded that a cluster analysis
was useful method for finding the
natural grouping of not well understood
influences of ethical principles
in decision making, and their representativeness
with common practice.
Further study with a larger sample
on identifying distinct variables that
defined clusters will provide better
understanding of ethical principles
influencing managerial decision
making.