Religiousness and the Business Ethics of Malaysian Christians in Business

By Wong Hong Meng
B.Econs.(Hons)(Malaya) - 1969
M.B.A.(Cranfield) - 1973
A.C.I.S. - 1972
C.A.(Malaysia) - 1974
F.C.A. (England & Wales) - 1979

International Graduate School of Management
Division of Business
University of South Australia

Submitted on this 11th of September in the year 2006
for the partial requirements of the degree of
Doctor of Business Administration


CONTENTS
PAPER 1 – A REVIEW OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUSNESS AND BUSINESS ETHICS
PAPER 2 – RELIOUSNESS, LOVE OF MONEY, AND ETHICAL ATTITUDES OF MALAYSIAN CHRISTIANS IN BUSINESS
PAPER 3 – THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON THE BUSINESS ATTIUDES OF MALAYSIAN CHRISTIANS IN BUSINESS
Research Paper 1

A Review of Christian Religiousness and Business Ethics


ABSTRACT


This review discusses the relationship between the Christian faith and business ethics, the academic work that had been done to enhance the understanding of this relationship and the opportunity for future research. The objective is to provide a research base for an empirical study on Malaysian Christians in business, their religiousness and ethical attitudes.

Religion is the most important source of a person’s moral norms. Western business ethics is known to have Judeo-Christian roots and started off as an extension of religious ethics (De George 1986). As such the ethics of Christians in business is generally assumed to be consistent with the teachings of the Christian faith. Yet a couple of recent high-profile criminal cases involving prominent self-declared Christians in business surfaced a possible dichotomy between religious faith and business conduct. Therefore can the relationship between the teachings of Christianity and the business ethics of its adherents be assumed?

This relationship had been of increasing interest since Christians in business are more up front and open about their faith in relation to the running of their businesses. There are ample Inspirational writings based on Biblical precepts and principles intended to help Christians in business apply their faith to their business. However, theoretical and empirical research had been lacking. The volume of empirical studies had been very thin and the number of significant findings sparse. (Loe, Ferell & Mansfield 2000). The findings were often inconclusive and sometimes contradictory. “To date, research has failed to provide a clear assessment of the significance of religious values as they may affect ethical attitudes or behavior in business” (Longenecker, McKinney & Moore 2004, p. 373).
Previous research on the relationship between Christian religiosity and business ethics approached the concept of religion from the following angles; intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity after Allports religiosity scale, religious intensity and frequency of religious practices, religious beliefs, Christian upbringing, and religious education. The review surfaced the Love of Money Scale developed by Professor Thomas Li-Ping Tang’s which was founded on Biblical precepts. Since unethical business practices may be motivated by the love of money, the Love of Money Scale may provide new insights into the relationship between religion, love of money and ethical attitudes.

The review shows that important empirical research had been initiated in the study of the relationship between religion and business ethics. Although previous findings had been relatively weak and inconclusive, more recent studies (Conroy & Emerson 2004; Longenecker et al. 2004) had more positive findings. Further research would be helpful to establish the relationship on a more solid footing.

























Introduction


In 2002 two mega scandals shook corporate America. Thousands of investors, employees and others associated with the two organizations suffered billions of dollars of losses. Enron was said to be the biggest bankruptcy in the history of America (Kadlec 2002) and Worldcom its biggest corporate scandal (Ayres 2002). Moral failings in corporate America in recent years had been quite rampant but these two cases had special significance. The key players in these two cases, Kenneth Lay and Bernard Ebbers, were publicly and generally known to be committed and practicing Christians. This highlighted an interesting dichotomy, the clash of assumed faith-based ethical values and corporate misfeasance. These two “godly” men were alleged to have engaged in “ungodly” activities (Parham 2002). They were both indicted in 2004.

Lay was the son of a Baptist minister and he served on the Board of Trustee of his church. (Dolbee 2001; Flynt 2004). He was described as a man of integrity, civic involvement and church leadership. (Parham 2002). He was quoted as an example of a successful Christian businessman who viewed his business as a calling (Novak 1996):

”I grew up the son of a Baptist minister. From this background, I was fully exposed to not only the legal behavior but moral and ethical behavior and what that means from the standpoint of leading organizations and people. I was, and am, a strong believer that one of the most satisfying things in life is to create a highly moral and ethical environment in which every individual is allowed and encouraged to realize their God-given potential.” (Novak 1996, p. 22.)

“Enron Ethics” had gained popularity as an expression of ultimate contradiction between words and deeds. What was happening in the organization was in contradiction to the Christian ethics Lay was professing and indeed preaching (Sims & Brinkmann 2003). The behavior of Enron executives could be viewed as a direct violation of biblical ethics. The greed, selfishness, cheating and the cruel mistreatment of employees could be condemned as biblical sin (Wallis 2002).

Worldcom was alleged to have overstated profits by about $3.5 billion over 15 months. (Ayres 2002). Ebbers was regarded as a devout Mississippi Christian (Ayres 2002) and the “ultimate Christian businessman” (CBC 2002). He declared to his church:

“I just want you to know you aren’t going to church with a crook….No one will find me to knowingly have committed fraud. More than anything else, I hope that my witness for Jesus Christ will not be jeopardized.” (CBC 2002)

On 15 March 2005 Ebbers was found guilty of “…masterminding the US11bil (£6bil) fraud that led to the collapse of telecoms giant WorldCom in the biggest corporate bankruptcy” (Litterick 2005). In reporting his sentencing to 25 years in jail, BBC News on 13 July 2005, included this quote from Ebbers, “I believe God has a plan for people’s lives, and I believe he had a plan for me,” (BBC 2005). Similarly Pravda, the Russian news agency, mentioned in its report,

“The erstwhile personification of the American dream, a successful entrepreneur, a generous philanthropist and ardent Christian, Bernard Ebbers, has been outlawed in a moment” (PRAVDA.Ru 2005).

The primacy of profits in the business world cannot be denied. But enshrined in the Bible are such verses as “You cannot serve both God and Money” (NIV Bible, Luke 16:13), “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (NIV Bible, 1Timothy 6:10) and “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (NIV Bible, Mathew 8:36). Some of these biblical precepts have acquired popular usage in the American culture. It is therefore not unreasonable for society to expect that the ethics of business people with self-declared religious commitment would be consistent with the values expected of that faith. If that is what Christianity teaches, then its adherents would be expected to be guided by such teachings in their business conduct. When Christians in business violate laws and commonly accepted moral standards in pursuit of money, it is more than just a personal moral failing. The relevance of the Christian faith to business ethics can be brought into question. When an Enron or WorldCom happens, a reasonable question may be posed on the relevance of the Christian faith to the world of business. Companies that are popularly known to be owned or managed by Christians are expected to have high ethical standards. When this expectation is destroyed through unethical business conduct Christianity itself may be put on trial. Already these cases spurred an increase in the concern for corporate governance. Legislation and new rules were enacted to enforce better governance. For example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002, strengthens accounting and reporting practices. Wide ranging in its scope, this legislation establishes new or enhanced standards for the boards, management, and auditors of all public companies in the United States making it less likely that unethical practices can be perpetuated and go undetected for any length of time. Notably it requires all public financial statements of a public company to be certified by its chief executive officer and its chief financial officer making the claim of ignorance by key officers invalid But for Christians in business it is not just the law that they have to observe it is the requirements of their religion. “The first concern of ethical reflection is how one’s action affects one’s own soul” (Novak 1996, p.159).

This review is to discuss the relationship between the Christian faith and business ethics, the academic work that had been done to enhance the understanding of this relationship and the opportunity for future research.





Objective of Study

In view of the recent scandals involving high profile Christians in business the relationship between the Christian faith and business ethics needs to be better understood. Broadly speaking the study would look into the relationship between religion and business ethics, more specifically Christian religiousness and business ethics. This study seeks to address the research question: “Is business ethics related to Christian religiousness?” As money is a dominant mediating factor in business decisions it would also be interesting to look into the possible relationship between the love of money and business ethics. This study is to provide a research base for an empirical study on Malaysian Christians in business, their religiousness and ethical attitudes. The study would help Christians in business better understand the role of religion in their business lives and perhaps seek ways to improve their own ethical awareness. It would also help the church to better provide the teaching, support and facilities to help Christians in business better integrate their religious lives with their business lives. Should the results show that there are no relationships then at least we would know that religion is really therapeutic, as Wuthrow (1994) claimed, and Christians in business do not allow religion to affect their business lives. As such it may not be reasonable to hold Christians in business to any different standard as the rest of the business world because Christianity may have nothing to do with business ethics. The religious dimension in the misbehavior of Christians in the business world should then not be highlighted.


Literature Review

Christians in Business

Ibrahim, Rue, McDougall and Greene (1991) noted the increasing prominence of self-described “Christian” companies. These companies believe in the integration of biblical principles and economic activities. Christian values and economic successes are perceived to be in harmony and even synergistic. Indeed these Christian companies would ascribe their business successes to their faith and their active application of such biblical principles. However the size and predominant characteristics of such companies had not been adequately researched. In a national survey of 152 presidents employed by Christian businesses with at least 15 employees, Ibrahim et al. (1991) found that 92% of the respondents had on-site religious activities, 73% actively proselytized among customers, 78% emphasized customer satisfaction, 81% emphasized profitability and 53% supported Christian organizations. Despite the high level of Christian activities, it was found that these companies did not consistently exhibit Christian characteristics in their relationships with their stakeholders including employees, customers, communities, and suppliers (Ibrahim et al. 1991).

This inconsistent practice of biblical principles may be attributed to the so-called Sunday-Monday disconnect (Van Buren 1998; Nash & McLennan 2001). Both studies put the blame squarely on the church. The church had failed to help Christians in business make the faith-work connection. They asserted that Christians in business lead dichotomous lives; one set of values for Sunday and another for the rest of the week.

In an earlier study, Nash (1994) conducted in-depth interviews with 85 Christian CEOs and senior executives on how they dealt with ethical dilemmas in their business lives. She surmised that they faced seven tensions; love for God and the pursuit of profit, concern for people and the competitive drive, needs of employees and the profit imperative, humility and the self-pride of success, family and work, charity and the accumulation of wealth, and being God’s witness in the marketplace. She identified three responses to these tensions and classified them into three profiles; the generalist who pretends the tensions are not there, the justifier who assumes the business side of the tension is justified through faith, and the seeker who is fully aware of the tensions and struggles to do what is right. This last group sincerely wants to live their faith in their business lives but even for them it is a daily struggle. With a political environment that is increasingly favorable to faith-based initiatives it can be expected that more and more Christian companies and Christian business owners and CEOs would self-identify themselves as such. Organizations like the “Fellowship of Companies for Christ International” are providing the momentum to organize these companies into an effective network (Ibrahim & Angelidis 2005).

This trend is also evident in Malaysia where a number of Christian CEOs1 of companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia (Stock Exchange of Malaysia) have self-declared their Christian convictions. This is reflected in their public speeches, even in a non-religious context, and sometimes in their public documents. A notable example is Francis Yeoh of YTL Corporation. Forbes Magazine listed Francis Yeoh as one of Southeast Asia’s richest businesspeople for 2005 (Doebele 2005). He was also named by CNBC Asia Pacific as Malaysia CEO of the Year for 2005 (Chan 2005). Yeoh ascribed the phenomenal success of his group to the blessings of God (Baker 2003; Ellis 2002) and that he “does business with a huge advantage as Christ is his wise advisor” (Ellis 2003). He was quoted as saying, “God and Mammon2 converge and God wins all the time. You must be master (of Mammon) and not the other way around” (Baker 2003). This type of self declaration tends to be noticed as “Yeoh is an ethnic Chinese and a born-again Christian in a predominantly Muslim country.” (Fletcher & Poh 1997).

Prominent business persons with strong public persona as committed and practicing Christians would not only have to stand up to public scrutiny but also would attract attention from the authorities. More importantly they are subject to the scrutiny of their fellow Christians within the community of faith.


A Community of Faith

The Christian faith is based on a personal relationship with God and with one another in a community of faith (Bowen 1998). Therefore, Christian ethics may be a personal matter but not a private one. Christians are interdependent, support and serve one another in the exercise of their faith in everyday lives including in the marketplace. In the exercise of Christian ethical judgments, a Christian’s character and identity is shaped by the Christian worldview. The community is supposed to provide safeguards against wrong interpretation of the moral expectations of the Christian faith. Within the safe environment of the community, ethical decisions and judgments can be subjected to critical scrutiny and worked out. However, integrating the reality of business to the Christian reality can be difficult especially in time of economic uncertainties (Rossouw 1994). Perhaps that explains why when Lay was indicted in 2004 most of his still angry ex-employees were glad, but there were yet others who still believed he was innocent because he was a “strong Christian” (Behr 2004). This is supported by the results of Clark and Dawson (1996) that the religious may be “more accepting of ethically questionable corporate behavior…. Managers may find religious persons to be less questioning of corporate policies and goals which do not clearly violate individual moral absolutes.”(p. 369). This community aspect implies that a moral failing affects the community. Therefore, a moral failing in business is not to be looked at from just a legal or moral viewpoint but it has to do with doing harm to the Christian’s relationship with his creator and to others in the community of faith.


Christianity and Business Ethics

Most writers of textbooks on business ethics would deny religion a pivotal role. Among the objections are that religious precepts are too general and imprecise for practical guidance. Moreover, the moral principles of the various religions differ and even within each religion there are disagreements on moral issues. Therefore, business ethics cannot be based on religion because religion itself must revert to human reason to support ethical principles. (Shaw & Barry 1998; Chryssides & Kaler 1993)

Other writers believe that religion is one of the most important sources for a person’s moral norms (Van Buren 1995). The Parliament of the World’s Religions confirmed in The Universal Declaration of a Global Ethic that:

“We are persons who have committed ourselves to the precepts and practices of the world’s religions. We confirm that there is already a consensus among the religions which can be the basis for a global ethics – a minimal fundamental consensus concerning binding values, irrevocable standards, and fundamental moral attitudes” (Global Ethic Foundation 1993, p. 1). “The spiritual powers of the religions can offer a fundamental sense of trust, a ground of meaning, ultimate standards, and a spiritual home.” (p. 3)
.
In October 2002, the Malaysian Government issued the “Rukuniaga Malaysia” or “The Malaysian National Business Code of Conduct”. It is interesting to note that although Islam is the predominant religion in the country, the code’s six principles of good business practices are based on the common values of Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Each of the six principles is supported by quotations from the scriptures or religious writings of each of the mentioned religions (Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Malaysia 2002). Although constitutionally a secular state, the government recognizes the potential influence of religion upon Malaysians in business and is sensitive to the various religious affiliations of its people.

It is recognized that the universal moral tenets such as the Ten Commandments found in the major monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and other Biblical traditions are relevant to the provision of moral guidance (Ali and Gibbs 1998; Ali, Camp & Gibbs 2000; Friedman 2000). Indeed, “An Interfaith Declaration - A Code of Ethics on International Business for Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1993”, refers to “the best of contemporary business practice… as enjoined by divine injections.” (An Interfaith Declaration 1993, p. 2)

Western business ethics is generally known to have Judeo-Christian roots (McMahon 1985; Calkins 2000). De George (1986) felt that business ethics started off as an extension of religious ethics. The Judeo-Christian tradition may be so influential, especially in the West, that even the general population may be responsive to discuss business ethics from a strictly Christian point of view. This can be traced back to the 17th century with the development of the Protestant work ethic which promoted the integration of economic activities into the practice of the Christian faith (Nakata 1998). Businesses were established and managed on Christian principles with biblical precepts guiding decision making and other management functions. Faith based businesses are not a new trend. Cavanagh and Bandsuch (2002) recognized that many business people credited their business success to their spirituality which helped them develop good habits and increase their integrity, motivation and job satisfaction. Such spirituality-guided people in business are more likely to be honest, loyal, and trustworthy and possess integrity. Kriger and Hanson (1999) took a broader view in asserting that all the major religions in the world have sets of values that can be relevant to present day organizations. Just like any other religion the values in Christianity provide an inner governance system, often invisible, which help organizations stay on course in turbulent times. Pava (1998b) acknowledged that biblical narratives and teachings can provide a set of foundational values which are necessary for the development of practical and reasonable ethics.

Christian precepts and biblical narratives with their moral teachings are helpful for an understanding of business ethics. However in recent years business ethics lost its religious roots and became more of a philosophical and social science subject as it strived to become more acceptable as an academic discipline. In the process, input from other disciplines, particularly theology, was excluded to the extent that even business ethics courses taught in Christian business schools lack the religious dimension. (Calkins 2000)

For some time there had been increasing interest in the possible contribution of religion to the development of business ethics (Rossouw 1994). Calkins (2000) argued that incorporating religion into the study of business ethics would not make the discipline intellectually weak. On the contrary, faith can work with human reasoning in the pursuit of the ideals of love and service to others. Besides presenting a distinctive worldview, religious ethics can inform and help critique similar secular ethical effort. He was not suggesting that religion supplants or replaces philosophy and social science, but that religion has something unique to contribute. Business ethics as an academic discipline will be enriched if it does not forget its religious traditions. Epstein (2002) agreed with Calkins (2000) that religion can contribute to business ethics. Religion offers a distinctive approach to moral reasoning from philosophical ethics. Religious ethic proposes that faith works in harmony with human reason to pursue ideals of love and sense to others. And religious ethics maintain a distinctive worldview or end derived from Scripture with precepts and narratives which guide human action and bring about certain consequences. Research in America has found that managers’ behavior at work is strongly influenced by religion and spirituality. For some, this is the single most important factor. The Gallup Report No259 of April 1987 reported that 57% of Americans believe, “that religion can answer all or most of today’s problems” and 94% believe in God or a Universal Spirit (McCormick 1994). There is an increasing desire for working people to integrate their faith into their work (Nolan 1996). This desire is driven in part by the increasing uncertainties and volatility of life in the marketplace and these are not restricted just to the areas of economics and politics. People need to find anchors in these turbulent times. The values embedded in the major religion can provide the needed stability (Kriger & Hanson 1999).

Even in the emerging capitalism of the Russian economy the Russian Orthodox Church released a code of ten moral principles to guide Russian businesses. While many Russians may not be churchgoers, the Orthodox Church is still highly respected as the transmitter of traditional Russian culture and values. By beginning to address questions of morality and business the church is helping to moderate the transition from the excesses of free capitalism to a more predictable business system (Gvosdev 2004).

Religious faith will take a more prominent position in guiding moral behavior as the previous ethical traditions are being eroded and well-intentioned ethics initiatives are not keeping pace with the changing business environment (Nash 2000). Business leaders with religious convictions are equipped with a strong motivation to behave ethically even at the expense of the profit motive (Fort 1996). This is because religion provides members of a community with the established and foundational understanding of their existence. Shafer (1995) asserted that religion is more relevant than philosophy to the average member of a community in the practicality of daily living.


Research on Christianity and Business Ethics

There are many books written by theologians, pastors and Christian writers giving guidance and inspiration on the subject. Typically these writings have the Bible as the foundation. Using the narratives and precepts contained therein Christians in business are encouraged to follow Biblical principles in their daily interaction in the marketplace. These books help Christians in business better integrate their faith and business. The question is, “do Christians in business generally follow such Biblical principles?”.

The Enron and WorldCom cases elevated the urgency and the degree of interest in this topic. However, both theoretical and empirical research had been lacking. Loe, Ferell and Mansfield (2000) painstakingly categorized the multitude of empirical studies that test ethical decision-making in business and their general findings, if any. They listed a total 188 studies dating from 1961 to 1997. Of these, 107 looked at individual factors with the balance relating to awareness, organization factors and moral intensity. Of the individual factors, religion had the lowest number of studies, just three. The highest number, 26, of the studies were related to gender, followed by moral philosophy at 21, education and work experience at 18 and age with 15 studies. Of the three studies related to religion as an individual construct, two had no significant finding; Hegarty and Sims (1978) and Kidwell, Stevens and Bethke (1987). Only the study by McNichols and Zimmerer (1985) tested on 1178 students reported that strong religious beliefs are related to a negative attitude toward certain unacceptable behaviors.

To Wright, Roach, Lynn and Timmerman (2002) the literature on Christian faith in the marketplace is like an hourglass. At the micro-end there is a large and growing body of literature about individual Christians working in business; encouraging Christ-like choices, leadership stewardship and balance at work. At the top end there continues to be the impressive work on Christianity and the economic systems. However in the middle, at the level of business operations and practices, very little had been written.

Longenecker, McKinney and Moore (2004) declared that, “To date, research has failed to provide a clear assessment of the significance of religious values as they may affect ethical attitudes or behavior in business” (p. 373). The findings have been decidedly mixed and unclear. More than any other factors, religiosity is a strong determinant of personal values. Personal religiosity provides the background for ethical evaluation and influences both attitudes and behavior. The values and roles expected by and of that religion when internalized can be expected to influence behavior (Magill 1992; Weaver & Agle 2002). It is generally acknowledged that religion contributes positively towards ethical judgment, yet the relationship has not been well established. (Longenecker et al. 2004; Vitell, Paolillo & Singh 2005). The evidence is simply not adequate. There is a need for further research. The relationship between religiosity and ethics deserves further and in-depth research especially when it comes to personal religiosity and personal ethical judgments (Vitell et al. 2005).

Previous research on the relationship between Christian religiosity and business ethics approached the concept of religion from the following angles; intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity, religious intensity and frequency of religious practices, religious beliefs, Christian upbringing, and religious education. Whilst it may be generally accepted that the Christian religion is related to business ethics, establishing the relationship through academic research has proved somewhat elusive. The field is wide and there are many variables. Many of the constructs are unobservable and researchers have to accept self-declaration as reflective of real intentions. Yet the field is of increasing importance and interest to the business community as well as to the Christians in business and the Church. Therefore the ensuing discussion will focus on the areas where previous studies have contributed to the understanding of the relationship between religiousness and business ethics among Christians in the marketplace.

Religiousness and Business Ethics

The concept of religion, religiousness or religiosity is vague and abstract and can mean many things. These words are sometimes used interchangeably. Clark and Dawson (1996) agreed that “religiosity” tends to be a value-laden construct giving the artificial or exaggerated impression of religious interest. Religiousness is the preferred term and may be defined as “a belief in God accompanied by a commitment to follow principles believed to be set forth by God”, (Clark and Dawson 1996, p. 361). One of the most popular measures of religiousness is Gordon Allport’s Religious Orientation which describes the concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness (Clark & Dawson 1996). Intrinsic religiousness is where religion provides the meaning-endowing framework which relates to all of life and through which all of life is understood. It is unprejudiced and tolerant, integrative and unifying, and includes regular church attendance. A person of intrinsic religiousness internalizes his religious beliefs and is motivated to live his religion in all aspects of his daily life. Extrinsic religiousness is the religion of comfort, security and social convention which is self-serving, immature and dependent. It is compartmentalized, prejudiced and exclusionary and includes irregular church attendance (Clark & Dawson 1996; Kennedy & Lawton 1998). Intrinsic religiousness correlates more highly than extrinsic religiousness with religious commitment (Donahue 1985). As such, intrinsic religiousness may be hypothesized to have a positive relationship with ethical beliefs. On the other hand, extrinsic religiousness is expected to have no relationship with ethical beliefs (Vitell et al. 2005).

Besides intrinsic religiousness, Kennedy and Lawton (1998) also looked at two other dimensions of religiousness, i.e. fundamentalism and conservatism in relation to students’ willingness to behave unethically. They found a negative correlation between intrinsic religiousness and willingness to behave unethically. Respondents with high level of intrinsic religiousness are more unwilling to engage in unethical behavior. They found no relationship between extrinsic religiousness and ethical behavior. The study also differentiated between students attending the evangelical college and those attending the Catholic and public colleges. It was noted that Evangelical students were far less willing than the other students, i.e., Catholics and public, to engage in unethical behavior.

As is common in this area of research, Kennedy and Lawton (1998) were disappointed that although they found a significant negative relationship between religiousness and willingness to behave unethically it had little explanatory power. They had expected the relationship to be stronger. They speculated that a possible reason could be their newly developed scale for measuring “unwillingness to behave unethically”. They cautioned on the generalization of the conclusions as the respondents were all undergraduates with a mean age of 21 years, and suggested that older adults with substantial working experience might have responded quite differently.

The potential problem of using students to test ethical judgment may also apply to Clark and Dawson (1996). The 162 business student respondents in their study had a mean age of 22 years. Their result was surprising as it suggested that the religious may be more accepting of ethically questionable corporate behavior. However the study was valuable as it “highlighted the importance of the religiousness construct as an influence on ethical judgments and, possibly, on behavioral intentions”. (p. 369)

One of the items in the Intrinsic/Extrinsic scale is the regularity of church attendance. Without going into the intrinsic-extrinsic discussion, other researchers have used church attendance as a convenient and unambiguous measure of religiousness. For example, Conroy and Emerson (2004) used a number of the other measures but reverted to just church attendance to determine religiosity as they found the other measures ineffective. This could be because the sample is again drawn from students and most students would not be participating in most of the other activities. If the sample is taken from Christians in business the results could be different.

Church attendance as a single item may not be adequate as a measure of religiousness. People attend church for a variety of reasons. The Allports Intrinsic/Extrinsic items include making friends, to spend time with friends and to see friends. Others attend church as an obligation to family members, for comfort, to feel good, out of habit and even out of a sense of duty. However, it must be admitted that to participate in a voluntary activity on a consistent basis requires some degree of motivation indicating that they must be getting something from it. Although attendance at church services on Sunday can be accepted as one of the measures of religiousness, there are a variety of Christian activities that can provide an indication on the intensity of religiousness. In today’s churches besides the Sunday service, there are other regular church activities where its congregation is encouraged and motivated to participate. These include bible study and Christian education, prayer meetings, church organized seminars, home-life groups and special interest groups. In addition Christians are also encouraged to have a time of personal devotion, sometimes called “quiet time” in the morning. Organizations like Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship Malaysia also organizes mid-week meetings held during the lunch hour. A small number of companies controlled by Christian owners or CEOs have their in-house mid-week meetings. Therefore using the single measure of attendance at Sunday services may not be adequate to capture the degree of variation in levels of Christian activities. In any case since these various activities are made available, the degree of participation would give us a measure of a person’s commitment to the faith and his belief on its impact upon his business life. Regardless of the measure of religiousness, the studies on religiousness and ethical awareness thus far have also been very inconclusive and would require further investigation.

If corporate social responsibility can be taken as a proxy for business ethics, Agle and Van Buren (1999) is also relevant. They looked into the relationship between religious upbringing, religious practice and Christian beliefs and a broad view of corporate social responsibility. A broad view of corporate social responsibility can be taken as positive business behavior as against the narrow view of focusing on profits. Two scales were used to measure religious practice. The first scale tapped into how often, if at all, the respondent attended religious service. The second scale enquired if the respondent participated in four types of activities in the past year; namely religious education classes, fellowship or support group, religious retreat and had discussed faith with someone at work. Once again the findings were inconclusive as only mild support was detected. There was no correlation between the measures of religious practice and the ratings of the Corporate Social Responsibility statements. They concluded “religion has only a marginal effect on people’s attitudes toward corporate social responsibility” (p. 580)

A more current study by Longenecker et al. (2004) used a self declared measure of the importance of religious interest to the respondent; namely high, moderate, low and no importance. In this study religious interest was not restricted to Christianity but included all major religions. Respondents who indicated that religious interest was of high or moderate importance to them had a higher level of ethical judgment, i.e. less accepting of unethical decisions. Therefore Longenecker et al. (2004) asserted that the results of their study showed that religious commitment does affect business ethical awareness. There was a connection between devoutly held religious commitment and ethical judgment. Religious values improved moral judgment in some of the ethical issues covered by the study.

Since Christians made up 83.8% of those professing a religion in their study, Longenecker et al. (2004) reclassified the Christians into evangelicals and non-evangelicals. It is significant that they found that evangelical Christians showed a higher level of ethical judgment than non-evangelicals. This finding reinforces Kennedy and Lawton (1998) which found that evangelical students were far less likely to be willing to engage in unethical behavior than those from Catholic or public colleges. Catholics are considered to be distinct from evangelicals, who are usually from the Protestant persuasion.

The above discussion highlighted certain inherent difficulties when researching Christian religiousness and business ethics. The religiousness construct can be looked at from various angles (Clark & Dawson 1996). There is therefore the need to determine a meaningful and appropriate measure for religiousness. The measure should not be too difficult to tap from the respondents yet able to reflect the possible variations in religiousness. Attendance at Sunday worship services on its own may not be good enough. Other measures may have to be included. It must also be acknowledged that the Christian community is not homogenous. Although the core beliefs and doctrines may be similar, different Christian denominations do have different emphasis and variations in their beliefs and practices. These differences seem to have an impact on ethical attitudes. Both Kennedy and Lawton (1998) and Longenecker et al. (2004) found such differences between the Evangelicals and the Catholics.


Christian Beliefs and Business Ethics

Van Buren and Agle (1998) contributed to this area of study by trying to identify specific Christian religious beliefs that affect managerial decision-making. They were dissatisfied that previous work was not able to determine with certainty whether religious beliefs, in particular Christian beliefs, do or do not affect managerial decision-making and managerial practices. Part of the problem was the lack of attention paid to the measurement of religious beliefs and attitudes. Soliciting ideas from religious leaders and based on biblical theology and/or popular religious beliefs, they identified 13 theoretical constructs for religious beliefs salient to managerial decision-making. Each of the 13 constructs was supported by a relevant Bible verse or narrative. These were grouped into four general categories; beliefs about oneself, beliefs about one’s responsibilities towards others, beliefs about others or the acquisitions of wealth, and core theological beliefs that affect one’s behavior. The 13 constructs were reduced to five factors: existence of afterlife, morality leads to success, wealth brings increased responsibilities, responsible use of resources, and Protestant work ethic. The construct was tested on 121 self-identified Christian entering MBA students with a mean age of 26.43 years. The results were again inconclusive. Although the respondents tended to agree that they have a religious responsibility to engage in other-regarding actions, they disagreed on all questions of beliefs about others. Although there was agreement in beliefs in the eternal soul and final judgment, the degree of agreement was not high. As such the article was rightly sub-titled “a beginning”.

Van Buren and Agle (1998) followed this up with Agle and Van Buren (1999) in which they applied the construct to see if Christian religious beliefs would be positively related to a broad view of corporate social responsibility (”CSR”). They took the position that it is a more moral/ethical attitude to care about all stakeholders of the firm and being other-oriented than is pure profit-maximization. Therefore, those with strong Christian beliefs and those with strong Christian convictions would be more inclined toward positive attitudes toward CSR. The study tapped responses from 301 MBA and executive MBA students. Of these, 180 were self-identified as Christians. The support for the hypothesis that Christian religious beliefs would be positively related to a broad view of corporate social responsibility was weak and inconsistent.

They submitted that perhaps business people believe profit-maximization to be a more moral or more ethical attitude toward CSR than a stakeholder or social activism approach. If it is more moral or ethical it may even be more religious. Another possible explanation for their finding is that

“…values of economizing and power-aggrandizing completely overpower peoples’ personal values at work. This is consistent with a structural-functionalist approach to institutions, which suggests that people compartmentalize their lives, as well as the finding that people suppress their personal values at work.” (Agle & Van Buren 1999, pp. 580-581)


God and Money

The above observation may be indicative of the power of money. In the Wuthrow survey of 1994, 68% of Americans agreed that “money is one thing, morals and values are completely separate” (Van Buren 1995) The biblical teaching about serving God and serving mammon suggests that there might be a conflict for religious people between valuing one’s relationship with God and valuing a lot of money. But careful statistical analysis of the survey showed there was none. Taking other differences into account, people who highly valued their relationship with God were no less likely to value making a lot of money.

A number of writers theorized that people in business live through two sets of rules, applying a separate set of values in their personal lives and another for their businesses. This requires compartmentalizing their values, allowing them to engage in business behavior which may be at odds to their personal values. This fits in with Milton Friedman’s assertion that the business of business is to maximize shareholder value (Friedman 1963). And to succeed in this game requires playing the game of business according to its rules. For those committed to the Christian faith, which advocates a holistic approach to life, the values of that faith are applicable to all areas of life. This can be a dilemma when business rules, acceptable in a business context, are against the values taught in the faith (Rae & Wong 1996).

Yet, in certain passages the Bible seems to teach that compliance with God’s laws will lead to material prosperity. There are many examples of godly men being blessed with financial and material success (Novak 1996). So there remains the challenge to integrate serving God and making money, or rather, making money through serving God.

This tension was brought out in Nakata (1998) where the subject company under study was a visibly Christian company with a 120 year history directed towards a religious goal and most of its products were overtly Christian. In this belief-based company there was adequate evidence of a strong synergy between business and religion. Top management believed that spiritual aims were paramount and that conflicts between business and religion were rare or non-existent. However, among the lower rungs there was a perception of hypocrisy. They believed that the company was more capitalistic than Christian. When the tension between business and religion came to a head, business typically won. Therefore, in the eyes of those not in top management, even in this self-declared Christian company the profit imperative could be strong enough to overcome the religious convictions.

Pava (1998a) quoted from Jensen and Meckling (1994):

“Like it or not, individuals are willing to sacrifice a little of almost anything we care to name, even reputation or morality, for a sufficiently large quantity of other desired things, and these things do not have to be money or even material goods. Moreover, the fact that all individuals make trade-offs (or substitute in virtually every dimension imaginable) means that there are no such things as human “needs” in the sense that word is often used. There are only human wants, desires, or in the economist’s language, demands.” (p. 7)

To Jensen and Meckling “desire” will override “ethics” every time. This gives credibility to the common saying that “every man has his price”; i.e. at some point the money would be substantial enough for countervailing personal values to be forsaken. Therefore, it may not be cynical to conclude, as Freeman (1994) did, that it is “time to give up the role of finding some moral bedrock for business” (p. 418). This position would be consistent with Friedman (1963) that the one and only social responsibility of business is to increase its profits as long as the rules of the game are observed and the law is not broken. Although Friedman deplored deception and fraud, the focus on the bottom line can cause business leaders to ignore the warning about ethics and the law. And this can in itself be counter-productive. Neal (2004) pointed out that research has begun to show that a fixation on the bottom line without adequate regard to values may not be best for the bottom line. Companies with a strong conviction to their core values and founding vision have been found to outperform those that focus on their bottom line. Therefore, being ethical can be good for business. But Christians do not look at it from this angle. To them integrity is obedience to God’s command and a moral duty (Nakata 1998).



Love of Money

If business ethics can be compromised due to the love of money then it would make sense that the relationship between Christianity and business ethics may be mediated by the “love of money” construct. The tension can be said to be between the love of money and the love of God. Where the love of money is low the motivation to behave unethically in business would correspondingly be low.

Recognizing that the root of corporate scandals and unethical behavior is related to the bottom line, i.e., money and the love of money, Professor Thomas Li-Ping Tang has done considerable work to develop and validate a Love of Money Scale (“LOMS”) (Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004). Based on the Money Ethics Scale (“MES”), Tang and associates have many versions of the LOMS which is a subset of the MES. The MES is said to be one of the most well-developed and systematically used measures of money attitudes (Tang & Chui 2003; Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004). One version of the LOMS had been tested with employees across various languages, cultures and religions in some 26 geopolitical locations spanning five continents. Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) asserted that as the LOMS “has been very well established across 22 cultures, researchers may feel confident in using the LOMS and testing theoretical and conceptual relationships and models across cultures” (p.332). Two recent studies are of most interest; one is on white-collared employees in Hong Kong (Tang & Chui 2003) and the other is on Spanish and American professors (Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004).

Tang and Chui (2003) noted that both push and pull factors motivate unethical behavior and that research shows

“that 56% of American business people have experienced pressure to behave unethically in order to achieve company goals, 48% admitted having engaged in unethical behavior, 31% witnessed ethical misconduct and 29% have been forced to use unethical means to get promoted.” (p. 14)
It is interesting to note that the initial background to Professor Tang’s LOMS is a Biblical verse; “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (NIV Bible, I Timothy 6:10). Although it is a western and Christian religious belief, it has gained acceptance as a popular everyday expression. Both the “love of money” and “evil” are unobservable constructs and no measurement has been operationalized for management and psychology empirical research.

Although money is gaining increasing importance in the lives of people and the world economy, the love of money is a neglected area of study even though it is related to the field of management, business ethics and management spirituality and religion. (Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004) It has been said that Americans have always loved money and it is the main driver for their actions and behavior. This love of money could be the real root cause of the corporate scandals that have plagued the nation in recent years. The love of money construct is strongly related to the concept of “greed” and measures one’s values, wants and desires. It assesses the “meaning” and “importance” of money to the person and may provide the framework for everyday living. Tang and associates claimed that the love of money is the root cause of evil; i.e., scandals, corruptions, unethical behavior in society. However the love of money is in and of itself not necessarily good or evil. Therefore,

“The love of money is of supreme importance conceptually and empirically and deserves researchers’ further attention because it helps us understand, predict and control evil or unethical behaviors.” (Luna-Arocas & Tang, p. 333)

Tang and Chui (2003) tested the hypothesis that the love of money is the root of evil on fulltime white collar employees in Hong Kong from different religious beliefs. The study found that there was a direct path which supported the assertion that the love of money is related to unethical behavior. However income (money) was not related to unethical behavior. They plotted an indirect path which showed a negative relationship between income and the love of money which was then negatively related to job satisfaction and further negatively related to unethical behavior. High income employees had low level of the love of money. These employees had high level of job satisfaction and therefore are less likely to engage in unethical behavior. Their conclusion was that high-income people in Hong Kong do not engage in unethical behavior.

These findings are reinforced by Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004). In their study the 15-item-5-factor scale was used. Through cluster analysis, four separate money profiles surfaced; Achieving Money Worshippers, Careless Money Admirer, Apathetic Money Manager and Money Repellent Individual. The study focused on human resource issues such as the relationship between money profiles and job satisfaction, life satisfaction, pay satisfaction, internal pay equity comparison satisfaction and Protestant Work Ethic. However, through an indirect path the study showed that Careless Money Admirers “may be highly vulnerable to external pressures and opportunities in the environment to earn money. One possible implication is that they may fall into the temptation of unethical behaviors in organizations.” (Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004, p. 346) Although the study did not look into organizational commitment and unethical behavior they recounted the finding in Tang and Chui (2003) which showed that the love of money is directly and indirectly related to unethical behavior. As such they speculated that the “notion that the love of money is the root of all evil” may be most strongly and directly related to Careless Money Admirers. Of the four profiles, Careless Money Admirers had the lowest intrinsic job satisfaction, the lowest pay satisfaction, and the lowest life satisfaction that may lead to unethical behaviors. They alerted managers to monitor those in this category for unethical behavior. The study in fact provided as an appendix a newly revised measure of unethical behavior in organizations for future research.

The profile of Apathetic Money Managers (Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004) is also of relevance and interest. To this group money did not represent success and money is not evil. Their money attitudes seemed to be the most balanced of the respondents. Their desire for money was low. They had less money but they found fulfillment in life and on the job. They had higher happiness than the others. As a result, the notion of “the love of money is the root of all evil” may not be applicable to them.

“Money is neither a positive nor a negative reinforcement in their life style. They are the masters of money and they manage their money successfully.” ( Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004, p. 347)

This profile, Apathetic Money Manager, seems to fit in well with Christian teachings on wealth and money. The availability of the LOMS and the findings that Tang and associates have produced is extremely valuable to the understanding of the relationship between Christian religiousness and business ethics. Perhaps an indirect path can be developed to show the relationship between Christian religiousness and the love of money which in turn can show its relationship to ethical awareness.

Although the foundational notion “That the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (NIV Bible, I Timothy 6:10) is drawn from the Christian Bible it would appear that the notion itself has not been related to Christianity, Christian beliefs or Christian practices in previous work by Tang and associates. In this review of Christian religiousness and business ethics it may be worthwhile to look into the indirect relationship that religiousness can be related to the love of money and would then affect the person’s response to ethical scenarios. A person who volunteers to attend church services and participate in other religious activities would have imbued Christian values. This would moderate his love of money as the Bible dictates against it. It is likely that such a person would be in the profile of Apathetic Money Manager rather than Careless Money Admirer. Therefore the religiousness factor would indirectly affect his ethical judgment. As such the more religious a person is the less likely he will behave in an unethical manner. The conceptual framework is depicted in figure 1.









Possible relationship Possible relationship









Figure 1: Conceptual Framework





The Church and Business Ethics

Since most Christians get their Christian values from church related activities, especially Sunday services, it would be profitable to look into the role of the church in helping its congregants in their daily lives in the business world. Not much has been studied in this area except for Van Buren (1998) and Nash and McLennan (2001).

Both Van Buren (1998) and Nash and McLennan (2001) recognized the great distance between pew and pulpit on questions of business. Business people are distrustful that the church can understand their roles and responsibilities, much less help them in their walk of faith in business. Nash (2000) quoted a business person saying;

“I’d like to do things differently, but it is not an option for me to adopt a strategy that suspends all rules of capitalism and depends on charity to create a financially viable business. Can’t my church offer something to say that doesn’t put me out of business?” (p. 2)

Because of the apparent disconnect with the church, Christians in business are looking elsewhere for spiritual guidance. Secular spirituality is replacing the spirituality based on Christian faith. Gurus like Covey and Deepak have successfully incorporated into their training seminars secular spirituality that position spiritual and ethical conviction as an addition to business thinking, not a negation of it (Nash & McLennan 2001).

Van Buren (1998) contended that

“Helping business people in the church make the Monday Connection – that is, bringing what they learn on Sunday to bear in their lives on Monday – is one of the least studied areas in Christian education.” (p. 449)

Recognizing this challenge, three difficulties were highlighted that erode the church’s influence over how Christians make ethical decisions in the marketplace. The specialization in careers has led to an inadequate knowledge of the specifics. The mobility of workers prevented the buildup of close community relationship. The clergy are uncomfortable in discussing marketplace ethics. He deemed it a pivotal role for the church to help Christians make the Monday Connection. Otherwise, he claimed, the church would be of little use to its members.




Research Opportunity

In view of the recent scandal involving high profile Christians in business, the relationship between the Christian faith and business ethics needs to be studied. Empirical research in this area is rather thin and sparse. Most of the studies were also drawn from MBA and other students. One recent study looked at working adults. The availability of a well tested and validated Love of Money Scale as used by Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) provides a convenient platform to look into the relationship between religiousness and love of money. The 25 vignettes compiled by Conroy and Emerson (2004) cover a variety of ethical scenarios common and familiar in the business environment. These were culled from previously validated instruments by Longenecker, McKinney and Moore (1989), Clark (1966), Fritzsche and Becker (1982) and Harris (1991). Combining these two instruments with a measure for religiousness to be developed would provide an interesting and practical research opportunity. Not only would the study look into the relationship between religiousness and business ethics it would also look at the relationship between religiousness and the love of money which may indirectly be related to business ethics. The study would help Christians in business better understand the role of religion in their business lives and perhaps seek ways to improve their own ethical awareness. It would also help the church to better provide the teaching, support and facilities to help Christians in business better integrate their religious lives with their business lives. Should the results show that there are no relationships then at least we would know that religion is really therapeutic as Wuthrow (1994) claimed and that Christians in business do not allow religion to affect their business lives. As such it may not be reasonable to hold Christians in business to any different standard as the rest of the business world because Christianity may have nothing to do with business ethics.


Conclusion

“Is business ethics related to Christian religiousness?” It would appear that it is. Business ethics, especially from a western perspective, is drawn from Christian religious ethics. However as business ethics has evolved as an academic subject the religious connection has been weakened (Calkins 2000). Spurred by the increasing interest in the subject, the volume of academic research has increased correspondingly. Yet the findings have been tentative and inconclusive. More research would be needed to help establish the relationship on a more solid footing.



Research Paper 2


Religiousness, Love of Money, and Ethical Attitudes
of Malaysian Christians in Business




ABSTRACT

The relationship between religion and business ethics is of current and increasing interest. Recent research suggests there may be a link between religiousness and business ethics. This study seeks to add to the understanding of the relationship through a questionnaire survey on Malaysian Christians in business.

The questionnaire taps into three different constructs. The religiousness construct is reflected in the level of participation in various common religious activities. The love of money construct is captured through the Love of Money Scale as used in Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004). Response to 25 business vignettes taken from Conroy and Emerson (2004) would surface ethical attitudes.

The respondents to the questionnaire survey are from three large churches in the Kuala Lumpur. Representation from the smaller churches is drawn from the participants at a financial seminar from churches belonging to the Kuala Lumpur North Pastors Fellowship. The 300 respondents can all be considered business decision makers as they hold positions of manager or higher in a business enterprise.

The study finds that there are significant differences in the ethical attitudes of Malaysian Christians in business with different levels of religiousness. In this study religiousness was taken from the self-declared participation in Sunday worship service and personal devotion. Personal devotion is the personal and private activity of studying the Bible, meditation and prayer. The more religious being those who engage in these two activities on a more consistent basis are less accepting of ethically questionable behavior. The study also finds that those longer in the faith are less accepting of unethical behavior. There are significant differences between those who had been Christians for more than 5 years and those younger in the faith. The two findings can be linked as age as a Christian is positively correlated to the level of religiousness. As such it can be concluded that there are ethical attitude differences between Christians in business with different levels of religiousness. This lends support to the claim of a positive relationship between religion and business ethics.

The other significant finding is that even within a somewhat homogenous religious group there are different love of money profiles arising from the different money attitudes. There are significant differences in their responses towards some of the business vignettes. Therefore the study finds that there are ethical attitude differences between Christians in business with different love of money profiles. Those who look at money with more interest and were success motivated were more accepting of the unethical scenarios. Those who manage their money carefully were less so. And those who view money with less interest had better ethically attitudes. This suggests that moderating money attitudes can contribute towards better ethical attitudes. The three love of money profiles are positively correlated to religiousness and age as a Christian.

















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Introduction

In recent years corporate scandals have been on the rise in the United States. However, two cases in 2002 are of special interest to the Christian community. Enron was the biggest bankruptcy in the history of America (Kadlec 2002) and Worldcom the biggest corporate scandal (Ayres 2002). Both Kenneth Lay of Enron and Bernard Ebbers of Worldcom were self-professed practicing Christians. They were both indicted in 2004 and found guilty in 2006. Their business misconduct brought into question the relationship between Christian religiousness and business ethics.

Self-described “Christian” companies and CEOs have been gaining increasing prominence (Ibrahim, Rue, McDougall & Greene 1991) and are proliferating in the United States in recent years. They believe in the integration of biblical principles and economic activities, usually ascribing their successes to their faith and their active application of such biblical principles. Christian values and economic successes are perceived to be in harmony and even synergistic. Organizations like the Fellowship of Companies for Christ International and the International Christian Chamber of Commerce are providing the momentum to organize these companies into effective networks. (Ibrahim & Angelidis 2005)

This trend is also evident in Malaysia where a number of Christian CEOs1 of companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia (the Malaysian Stock Exchange) have self-declared their Christian convictions. This is reflected in their public speeches, even in a non-religious context, and sometimes in their public documents. A notable example is Francis Yeoh of YTL Corporation. Forbes Magazine listed Francis Yeoh as one of Southeast Asia’s richest businesspeople for 2005 (Doebele 2005), and CNBC Asia Pacific named him as Malaysia CEO of the Year for 2005 (Chan 2005). He ascribed the phenomenal success of his group to the blessings of God (Baker 2003; Ellis 2002) and that he “does business with a huge advantage as Christ is his wise advisor” (quoted in Ellis 2003). He was quoted as saying, “God and Mammon2 converge and God wins all the time. You must be master (of Mammon) and not the other way around.” (quoted in Baker 2003).
Prominent business persons with strong public persona and portrayed as committed and practicing Christians not only have to stand up to public scrutiny but more importantly they are answerable to their fellow Christians within the community of faith. When Christians in business violate laws and commonly accepted moral standards in pursuit of money, it is more than just a personal moral failing. The relevance of the Christian faith to business ethics can be brought into question. The recent deluge of high profile corporate misbehavior has spurred an increase in the concern for corporate governance. Legislation and new rules have been enacted to enforce better governance. But for Christians in business it is not just the law that they have to observe, it is the requirements of their religion. “The first concern of ethical reflection is how one’s action affects one’s own soul” (Novak 1996, p159).

The primacy of profits in the business world cannot be denied. But enshrined in the Bible are such reminders and warnings as “You cannot serve both God and Money” (NIV Bible, Luke 16:13), “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (NIV Bible, 1Timothy 6:10) and “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (NIV Bible, Matthew 8:36). Some of these biblical precepts have even acquired popular usage in the American culture. It is therefore not unreasonable for society to expect the business people with self-declared religious commitment to have ethics that are consistent with the values expected of that faith. If that is what Christianity teaches, then its adherents would be expected to be guided by such teachings in their business conduct. But does the Christian faith make a difference in the business ethics of its adherents? Can it reasonably be expected that self-declared Christians in business are more likely to behave ethically in the business arena?


Objective of Study

In view of the recent scandals involving high profile Christians in business the relationship between the Christian faith and business ethics needs to be better understood. This study seeks to add to the discussion that is of increasing interest to both the Christian and the business communities. Using a multi-part questionnaire, the study looks into possible differences in ethical attitudes between different levels of religiousness among Malaysian Christians in business. As empirical research is rather thin in this field of study, it is hoped that the study could make a meaningful contribution to the discussion. This is very much an exploratory study. Money is a dominant mediating factor in business decisions. It is also the main mediating factor in situations where ethics is in question. As such this study would also attempt to look into the possible differences in ethical attitudes among Malaysian Christians in business with different love of money profiles.

The study could help Christians in business better understand the role of religion in their business lives and perhaps seek ways to improve their own ethical awareness. It could also help the Church to better understand the often dichotomous behavior of its constituents, and hopefully provide some meaningful insights on how it can better provide the teaching, the support, and the facilities to help Christians in business better integrate their religious lives with their business lives. Should the results show that there are no differences, then at least we would know that religion is really therapeutic as Wuthrow (1996) claimed and Christians in business do not allow religion to affect their business lives. Should that be the case then it may not be reasonable to hold Christians in business to any different standard than the rest of the business world because Christianity may have nothing to do with business ethics. The religious dimension in the misbehavior of Christians in the business world should then not be highlighted. Therefore the two research questions for this study are:

1. Are there differences in ethical attitude between Christians in business with different levels of religiousness?
2. Are there differences in ethical attitude between Christians in business with different love of money profiles?



The ensuing literature review shows that there has been some ground-breaking work done pertaining to the first research question. This study should contribute and perhaps clarify areas of ambiguity from previous studies. The second research question was motivated largely by Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004). The availability of a well-tested and validated Love of Money Scale makes it feasible to group Christians in business according to their love of money profiles. As Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) pointed out, the love of money is an unobservable construct. Money profiles can be deduced through the Love of Money Scale. The study looks into differences, if any, between the various money profiles and their ethical attitudes.


Literature Review

The fields of Christian ethics and business ethics are very extensive. For the purposes of the study the literature review would need to be narrowed to only those areas of direct relevance to the study.


Christianity and Business Ethics

Religion is said to be one of the most important sources of a person’s moral norms (Van Buren 1995). It is recognized that the universal moral tenets such as the Ten Commandments found in the major monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and other Biblical traditions are relevant to the provision of moral guidance (Ali, Camp & Gibbs 2000; Friedman 2000). Indeed, “An Interfaith Declaration – A Code of Ethics on International Business for Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1993”, refers to “the best of contemporary business practice… as enjoined by divine injections.” (An Interfaith Declaration 1993, p. 2)

Western business ethics is generally known to have Judeo-Christian roots (McMahon 1985; Calkins 2000). De George (1986) felt that western business ethics started off as an extension of religious ethics. The Judeo-Christian tradition may be so influential, especially in the west, that even the general population may be responsive to discuss business ethics from a strictly Christian point of view. This can be traced back to the 17th century with the development of the Protestant works ethic which promoted the integration of economic activities into the practice of the Christian faith (Nakata 1998). Even at that time businesses were established and managed on Christian principles with biblical precepts guiding decision making and other management functions.

More than any other factors, the commitment to and the practice of a religious faith are strong determinants of personal values. Personal religiosity provides the background for ethical evaluation and influences both attitude and behavior. The values and roles expected by and of that religion when internalized can be expected to influence behavior (Magill 1992; Weaver & Agle 2002). Although it is generally acknowledged that religion contributes positively towards ethical judgment, the relationship has not been well established. (Longenecker, McKinney & Moore 2004; Vitell, Paolillo & Singh 2005).

Longenecker et al.(2004) declared that, “To date, research has failed to provide a clear assessment of the significance of religious values as they may affect ethical attitudes or behavior in business” (p 373). The evidence is simply not adequate. The relationship between religiosity and ethics deserves further and deeper research especially when it comes to personal religiosity and personal ethical judgments.(Weaver & Agle 2002; Vitell et al. 2005).

The findings from the relatively small number of previous empirical studies have been decidedly mixed and rather inconclusive. For example, McNichols and Zimmerer (1985) reported that strong religious beliefs are related to a negative attitude toward certain unacceptable behaviors. Yet Clark and Dawson (1996) found that the religious may be more accepting of ethically questionable corporate behavior. Agle and Van Buren (1999) found no support to the relationship between religious upbringing and corporate social responsibility and religious practice. It was also found that Christian beliefs had only a weak influence in the respondents’ answers to corporate social responsibility. The weak and inconsistent evidence left them to conclude that “religion has only a marginal effect on people’s attitudes toward corporate social responsibility” (Agle & Van Buren 1999, p. 580).

In more recent studies the findings had been more positive. Using church attendance to indicate religiosity, Conroy and Emerson (2004) found that religiosity reduced the acceptability of certain ethically questionable business scenarios. Longenecker et al. (2004) had two significant findings. Regardless of religious affiliation, those who self-declared that religion is of moderate or high level of importance to them had a higher level of ethical judgment. The evidence was that religion does influence ethical awareness. It was also significant that evangelical Christians had a higher level of ethical judgment than Christians from a non-evangelical background. This reinforced Kennedy and Lawton (1998) who found that evangelical students are far less likely to be willing to engage in unethical practices than those from Catholic and public colleges.

Besides the difficulty in drawing any conclusion from their findings, Weaver and Agle (2002) noted three potential difficulties inherent in the research. Firstly, most of the studies appeared to measure ethical attitudes which may be affected by social desirability biases. Secondly, a variety of definitions and measures of religiosity were used in the studies. Finally, samples were usually drawn from undergraduates and MBA students with limited business experience (Clark & Dawson 1996; Kennedy & Lawton 1998; Van Buren & Agle 1998) although Agle and Van Buren (1999) had some executive MBA respondents. It would appear that only Longenecker et al. (2004) tapped into the working population with 1234 responses from a random mailing to 10,000 business leaders extracted from business periodicals. The use of students might limit the generalizability of the results. Students, especially undergraduates would not have faced the business scenarios as contained in the vignettes. As such how they think and feel about the scenario could be in the abstract and not truly reflective of their attitudes. Older adults with substantial working experience might have responded quite differently (Kennedy & Lawton 1998).


Religiousness Construct

The concept of religion, religiousness or religiosity is vague and abstract and can mean many things. These words are sometimes used interchangeably. Clark and Dawson (1996) agreed that “religiosity” tends to be a value-laden construct giving the artificial or exaggerated impression of religious interest. Religiousness is the preferred term and may be defined as “a belief in God accompanied by a commitment to follow principles believed to be set forth by God”, (Clark & Dawson 1996, p. 361).

One of the most popular measures of religiousness is Gordon Allport’s Religious Orientation (Clark & Dawson 1996) which describes the concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness. Intrinsic religiousness is where religion provides the meaning-endowing framework which relates to all of life and through which all of life is understood. It is unprejudiced and tolerant, integrative and unifying, and includes regular church attendance. A person of intrinsic religiousness internalizes his religious beliefs and is motivated to live his religion in all aspects of his daily life. Extrinsic religiousness is the religion of comfort, security and social convention which is self-serving, immature and dependent. It is compartmentalized, prejudiced and exclusionary and includes irregular church attendance (Clark & Dawson 1996; Kennedy & Lawton 1998). Intrinsic religiousness correlates more highly than extrinsic religiousness with religious commitment (Donahue 1985). As such intrinsic religiousness may be hypothesized to have a positive relationship with ethical beliefs. On the other hand, extrinsic religiousness is expected to have no relationship with ethical beliefs (Vitell et al. 2005).

Besides intrinsic religiousness, Kennedy and Lawton (1998) also looked at two other dimensions of religiousness, i.e. fundamentalism and conservatism in relation to students’ willingness to behave unethically. They found a negative correlation between intrinsic religiousness and willingness to behave unethically. Respondents with high levels of intrinsic religiousness were less willing to engage in unethical behavior. Additionally, they found no relationship between extrinsic religiousness and ethical behavior.
One of the items in the Intrinsic/Extrinsic scale is the regularity of church attendance. Some researchers used church attendance as a convenient and unambiguous measure of religiousness. For example, Conroy and Emerson (2004) incorporated several different measures of religiosity in their study including religious affiliation, church attendance, prayer/meditation frequency and a self-reported degree of “religiosity”. However, church attendance provided the “best and most consistent measure of religiosity” (Conroy & Emerson 2004, p. 387)

Agle and Van Buren (1999) also used attendance at religious services as one of the measures of religious practice. Their second measure was whether the respondent had participated in four types of activities in the past year. These activities are: regularly attended religious education classes, participated regularly in a fellowship or support group, participated in a religious retreat and discussed your faith with someone at work.


Love of Money Construct

If business ethics can be compromised due to the love of money then it would make sense that the relationship between Christianity and business ethics may be mediated through the “love of money” construct. The tension can be said to be between the love of money and the love of God. It is postulated that where the love of money is low, the motivation to behave unethically in business would correspondingly be low.

Professor Thomas Li-Ping Tang has done considerable work to develop and validate a Love of Money Scale (“LOMS”) which has been tested across various cultures, languages and religions in some 26 countries spanning five continents. Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) asserted that as the LOMS “has been very well established across 22 cultures, researchers may feel confident in using the LOMS and testing theoretical and conceptual relationships and models across cultures” (p.332). The love of money construct is strongly related to the concept of “greed”. It measures one’s values, wants and desires. It assesses the meaning and importance of money to the person and may provide the framework for everyday living. Tang and Chui (2003) found that there was a direct path which supported the assertion that the love of money is related to unethical behavior. Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) identified four separate money profiles; Achieving Money Worshippers, Careless Money Admirer, Apathetic Money Manager and Money Repellent Individual. Their study showed that Careless Money Admirers “may be highly vulnerable to external pressures and opportunities in the environment to earn money. One possible implication is that they may fall into the temptation of unethical behaviors in organizations.” (Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004, p. 346)

The profile of Apathetic Money Managers is also of relevance and interest. To this group money did not represent success and money was not evil. Their money attitudes seemed to be the most balanced of the respondents. Their desire for money was low. They had less money but they found fulfillment in life and on the job. They had a higher level of happiness than the others. As a result, the notion of “the love of money is the root of all evil” may not be applicable to them.

“Money is neither a positive nor a negative reinforcement in their life style. They are the masters of money and they manage their money successfully.” (Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004, p. 347)

Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) acknowledged that the notion that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil was drawn from the Christian Bible but that it had gained popular usage in everyday expression. The study appeared to have focused the use of the instrument on human resource issues such as the relationship between money profiles and job satisfaction, life satisfaction, pay satisfaction, internal pay equity comparison satisfaction and Protestant Work Ethic. Unethical behavior was not examined. In fact they “…encourage(d) researchers to use a newly revised measure of unethical behaviors in future research (Appendix 1).” (Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004, p. 346). However their suggested vignettes were not used for the present study. Instead the vignettes from Conroy and Emerson (2004) were found to be more suitable.

As the love of money is the root cause of evil; i.e. scandals, corruptions, unethical behavior in society, the availability of the LOMS and the findings by Tang and associates can contribute to the understanding of the relationship between Christian religiousness and business ethics.


“The love of money is of supreme importance conceptually and empirically and deserves researchers’ further attention because it helps us understand, predict and control evil or unethical behaviors.” (Luna-Arocas & Tang 2004, p. 333)

It can be hypothesized that a person who voluntarily attends church services and participates in other religious activities would be imbued with Christian values. This would moderate his love of money as dictated by the verse, “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (NIV Bible, Luke 16:13). The relative strength of the love for money and the love for God can be expected to be the determining factor when there is tension between the two. Where the love of money is stronger, then Christian ethics and love for God may be sacrificed at the altar of money. Conversely a strong love for God would preclude any unethical business behavior.

Therefore, this study seeks to look at the relationship between religiousness, the love of money and ethical attitudes. The sample population for the study would be drawn from Malaysian Christians in business.


Methodology

This is an anonymous questionnaire survey on a focused population: Malaysian Christians in business from a number of selected churches in the greater Kuala Lumpur area.

The Survey Instrument

The instrument and methodology to develop the love of money profiles were drawn from Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004). The 25 business vignettes were taken from Conroy and Emerson (2004). In the study conducted by Conroy and Emerson (2004), attendance at Sunday worship service was found to be the most convenient and reliable measure for religiousness. However there may not be significant variation in this measure for the sample population as one of the criteria for participation in the survey was attendance at church. Most, if not all, of the respondents were expected to be regular church goers. Therefore, the study also attempted to see if the intensity of other religious activities would make a difference in the ethical attitudes of the respondents.

The questionnaire was divided into four parts. Part A, subtitled “Money Attitudes”, had the 15 items from Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) for determining the love of money profiles. Part B, sub-titled, “Some Hypothetical Business Scenarios”, comprised the 25 business vignettes drawn from Conroy and Emerson (2004). Part C was intended to measure religiousness and was sub-titled, “Some common Christian activities”. Finally, relevant personal profiles were captured in Part D. A copy of the questionnaire is attached as Appendix 1.


Part A – Money Attitudes

The Love of Money Scale was taken directly from Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) without any amendment. In their paper, the actual sequencing of the 15-items in their questionnaire was not shown. For discussion they had grouped the 15 items under the 5-factors. Although convenient for categorizing, coding, and subsequent analysis, this may introduce certain biases arising from the ordering effects (Sekaran 2000). To minimize the ordering effects, for this study the sequence of the 15 items was rearranged such that the items are not bunched in a group under each of the 5-factors. The items under each factor are spread out in the sequencing. It should also be mentioned that as in Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004), one of the items was reverse scored, although this was not made evident in the questionnaire. The reverse scoring was done at the data analysis stage. Using a five-point Likert scale, the respondent was asked to state the degree of agreement to each of the statements; from 1 being “strongly disagree” to 5 being “strongly agree” with 3 being “neutral”.



Part B – Some Hypothetical Business Scenarios

To tap ethical attitudes, the questionnaire had 25 hypothetical business scenarios taken directly from Conroy and Emerson (2004). They had culled these business vignettes from several previously validated instruments (Longenecker et al. 1989; Clark 1966; Fritzsche & Becker 1982; Harris 1991) with the view of increasing the reliability of the results as well as the consistency of approach with previous business ethics studies. In the process they had a relatively large number of vignettes covering a broad spectrum of business ethical scenarios allowing for analysis across a number of dimensions. Whilst the ethical connotation may not be exactly the same, the vignettes appeared to be familiar in most business environments including Malaysia. Some of the scenarios presented illegal behavior both in the U.S. as well as in Malaysia such as environmental pollution, false investment recommendation, insider trading, tax evasion, bribery, and software piracy. Others presented ethically questionable behavior in the area of corporate social responsibility, gender bias, financial reporting and consumer protection. The 25 vignettes were presented in the questionnaire in the same order as in Conroy and Emerson (2004) with the same identification alphabets.

In their study Conroy and Emerson (2004) used a 7-point Likert scale ranging from ”never acceptable” to “always acceptable”. For consistency and the convenience of the respondents, the present study used a 5-point Likert scale for the entire questionnaire other than the questions on personal profile. Research has indicated a 5-point scale is as good as a 7-point scale. Reliability of the ratings did not improve with an increase in the number of points (Sekaran 2000). The 5-point Likert scale in this section of the questionnaire ranged from 1 for “always unacceptable” to 5 for “always acceptable” with 3 being “neutral”. It should be noted that the “never acceptable” in Conroy and Emerson (2004) had been changed to “always unacceptable” to be consistent with the “always acceptable” at the other end of the scale.

Where necessary the names and wording of the vignettes were Malaysianized. The “$” replaced by “RM” (Ringgit Malaysia), and “Christmas” replaced with “Hari Raya and Chinese New Year”, the most celebrated of Malaysian festivals. Hari Raya is the Muslim feast celebrated at the end of Ramadan, the fasting month. In Conroy and Emerson (2004), vignette “Q” had the lowest degree of acceptability. They speculated that this might be because the vignette had two controversial components driving down the score. To eliminate the problem of having two controversial components in the vignette it was decided to drop the second of the components (using high-pressure sales tactics) and limit the ethical issue to the illegal act of rolling back the odometers.

As the vignettes were originally addressed to American respondents there were some concerns whether Malaysians would be able to understand and appreciate the scenarios depicted. In the pilot test, the respondents were specifically asked to note on the draft questionnaire if they had any problem comprehending the scenarios. There were no comments from the 35 test respondents and this section of the draft questionnaire was adequately completed by all of them. It should be noted that the test respondents, and later the target population, were all from English speaking churches. The Cronbach-alpha measure of reliability for the 25 ethical vignettes was 0.87 indicating a relatively high degree of reliability.
Part C - Some common Christian activities

This part of the questionnaire was intended to measure religiousness as a construct. In this context religiousness was defined as the self-declared intensity of religious activities. This would be easily determinable by the respondent. The respondent should have no difficulty in providing an answer as to the level of participation in a particular religious activity. This was also evident from the pilot test. Church attendance as a single item is the most convenient and popular of measures of religiousness. However, this may not be adequate as a measure of religiousness as people attend church for a variety of reasons. The Allports Intrinsic/Extrinsic Scale, generally acknowledged as foundational to empirical research in the psychology of religion (Clark & Dawson 1996), recognized that some attend church to make friends, to spend time with friends and to see friends. Others attend church as an obligation to family members, for comfort, to feel good, out of habit and even out of a sense of duty. However, it must be admitted that to participate in a voluntary activity on a consistent basis requires some degree of motivation. They must be getting something from it.

Although attendance at church services on Sunday can be accepted as one of the measures of religiousness, there are a variety of Christian activities that can provide an indication on the intensity of religiousness. In today’s churches, besides the Sunday worship service, there are other regular church activities where its congregation is encouraged and motivated to participate. These include Bible study and Christian education, prayer meeting, church organized seminars, home-life groups and special interest groups. In addition, Christians are also encouraged to have a personal time of devotion, sometimes called “quiet time” in the morning, reading and meditating on the “Word of God” and praying. Organizations like Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship Malaysia also organize mid-week meetings held during the lunch hour. A small number of companies controlled by Christian owners or CEOs have their in-house mid-week meeting. Others have their in-house meetings with the permission of non-Christian owners and top management. Therefore using the single measure of attendance at Sunday services may not be adequate to capture the degree of variation in levels of Christian activities. In any case since these various activities are made available, the degree of participation would give us a measure of a person’s commitment to the faith and his belief in its impact upon his business life.

The scale for religiousness was derived from nine items. Respondents were asked to rate on a 5-point Likert scale the frequency of their participation in nine different Christian activities. The scale ranged from 1 for “never” to 5 for “very often”. The first item on frequency of Sunday service attendance was the base level for this population. It was anticipated that nearly all of the respondents would respond that they attend Sunday worship services “often” or “very often”. They would be considered to be active in this activity. The second item on church organized small group meetings during the week was another stand-alone item. Churches are supplementing Sunday worship services with small meetings during the week to provide for better pastoral care. Although very necessary in the larger churches with big congregations, it is nonetheless a common phenomenon of evangelical churches in Malaysia. From discussion with the pastors of the three selected churches, approximately 30% to 50% of those attending Sunday service also attend the small group meetings with varying degrees of frequency. The next four items were other organized group activities including Bible studies, prayer meetings, conferences and seminars and mid-week fellowship meetings. The last three items referred to personal devotional life including quiet time, Bible reading and prayer, praying for business issues and decisions, and praying with business associates and colleagues. Besides Sunday service attendance the other eight religious activities are available to all the participants. The measures of religiousness would be their participation in these activities. It was intended that the intensity of Christian activities would provide some degree of differentiation as to the level of religiousness.


Part D – Personal Profile

In addition to the basic demographic data of age, gender and race, this section solicited responses on information relevant to the study such as income level, position in the company and highest qualification achieved. Age as a Christian was deemed important to determine the length of time in the faith. The respondent was also asked for the reason or motivation for becoming a Christian. This question was included as it was felt that a significant number of Christians in business came into the faith as a result of some financial difficulties especially during the economic depression of the mid-80’s, and more recently the Asian financial crisis of 1997.


The Sample Population

The population of interest to this study was the Malaysian Christians in business. The Christian community in Malaysia is rather diverse with most denominations represented together with a large number of independent churches not affiliated to the main denominations. The churches can generally be grouped under three main umbrellas; the Catholics, the Council of Churches and the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (“NECF”). The catchment population had to be narrowed to keep survey cost and logistical considerations within manageable boundaries. It was also not the objective of the study to achieve generalizability across the entire Christian community in Malaysia. It was decided that the sample population would be drawn from churches in the greater Kuala Lumpur area affiliated with the NECF as the NECF was willing to assist and provide introduction to the pastors of the selected churches. Further it was felt that many of the higher profile Christians in business were attending churches within the NECF ambit.

A list of 10 churches with English speaking Sunday worship congregations of 1,000 or more was provided by the NECF, the umbrella body to which most of the prominent evangelical and charismatic churches belong. Three churches with the reputation as fast growing and with a good representation of business people and professionals were selected from the NECF list. One is from the Assembly of God denomination; another is the largest independent charismatic church in Malaysia and the third is a native evangelical church with roots in Sabah and Sarawak. Admittedly this is a sample of convenience and cannot to taken to be representative of Christians in Malaysia or even its evangelical community. To somewhat balance the representation from the big churches the questionnaire was also distributed to participants at a Christian financial seminar. The participants came from 25 smaller churches in the Kuala Lumpur North Pastors Fellowship. These smaller churches have Sunday service attendance ranging from 50 to 300.





Distribution of the Questionnaire

In each of the four locations the questionnaire package was placed at a prominent and convenient location to be picked up by whosoever wished to participate in the survey. Although the pastors gave permission for members of the congregation to participate, none of them was prepared to make pubic announcement from the pulpit. They did not wish to set a precedent for other studies. Although interested in the results they did not wish for the church to be identified with a survey asking questions on money. The congregation may be sensitive to such questions. As such none of the participants was influenced by the church or the pastor to take part. The survey and the availability of the questionnaire were made known among the congregations simply through word of mouth. A total of 1,200 questionnaire sets were made available at the three large churches; 400 each to the two churches with Sunday attendance in excess of 3,000 and 200 to the church with attendance of 1,000. The financial seminar was allotted 100 questionnaires making a total availability of 1,300 questionnaire packages. However, 450 questionnaire packages were returned to or picked up by the researcher from all the four locations after the distribution date. This indicated that 850 questionnaire packages were taken by potential respondents. Three hundred and fourteen questionnaires out of 850 were returned to the researcher after 5 weeks. Fourteen questionnaires were rejected for incompleteness. The remaining 300 useable questionnaires were available for analysis, working out to a return rate of 35.3%. This return rate was similar to that of Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004).

As no announcement was permitted, the questionnaire package must be self explanatory to ensure that respondents fall within the target population. The study was targeted at church-attending Malaysian Christians in business. The envelope containing the covering letter and the questionnaire was entitled, “Money and Business Attitudes Survey” and had this restriction, “To be completed by Christians in Business attending (name of church) holding a position of Manager or higher in any business enterprise.” This invitation to participate appeared to be well understood by those who took the questionnaire as the 300 respondents appeared to come from the target population.


Data Analysis and Discussion


Profile of Respondents

The sample population was drawn from Christians-in-business who attended church regularly and who were holding the position of manager or higher in any business enterprise. It is acknowledged that the position of manager is an artificial demarcation. Title is not synonymous with actual decision making authority. It was however deemed useful to limit the survey to only those in some sort of a decision making capacity. Positions lower than manager were assumed in this survey not to have that capacity. The requirement that the respondent had to be in a “business enterprise” ruled out those in not-for-profit organizations, charitable organizations, non-governmental organizations and those working in the civil service. The profit motive and thus the love of money in these non-business organizations were deemed to be less of a burden. The survey also did not distinguish between the sizes of the business enterprise as the business vignettes would be familiar to those in both large and small businesses. Ultimately the survey was intended to look into the attitudes of those who do face ethical decisions and dilemmas in their daily business lives.

A total of 300 useable questionnaires were received. The profile of the respondents may be summarized as in Table 1. It is a common perception that from general observations, there are usually more women than men attending church services. However, the sample had only about thirty percent female. This may be due to the participation criteria of holding at least a manager’s position.

This could have limited the participation of women in the survey. The racial composition of the respondents appeared to be reflective of the population in the three churches and those attending the seminar. About 90% were of Chinese descent. Again because of requirement for respondent to be holding at least a position of manager, those under 30 years of age accounted for only 2.3% of the respondents. Seventy-six percent of the respondents were above 40 years old.

The sample was a relatively high income group with 74.3% having annual income of above RM60,000 (approximately USD16,000) or RM5,000 (approximately USD1,350) a month. Of this, 32.1% earned above RM10,000 (approximately USD2,700) a month. In terms of managerial positioning, 45.8% were in top management, i.e. chief operating officer, general manager and above. The rest of the respondents may be considered to be in middle management. Only 38.5% did not have a degree or professional qualification. Therefore, this was a group of relatively well-qualified respondents. The majority, 58.6%, were in “Sendirian Berhad”, or private limited companies. “Others” included sole proprietorships and partnerships. Those in the bigger companies, i.e., stock exchange listed companies and multi-nationals amounted to 26.1%.

In terms of age as a Christian, almost half of the respondents had been in the faith for more than 20 years. Only 12.8% had been Christians for 5 years or less. Therefore, the sample represented a group of relatively spiritually matured Christians if age as a Christian is taken to be indicative of spirituality.

From the profile it would appear that the survey had managed to draw a robust sample from the targeted population of Malaysian Christians in business.











Table 1- Profile of Respondents

a. Gender
Frequency Percent
Female 89 29.8
Male 210 70.2
TOTAL 299 100.0



c. Age Group
Frequency Percent
< 30 yrs 7 2.3 30-40 65 21.7 40-50 143 47.7 >50 85 28.3
TOTAL 300 100.0



e. Position in Company
Frequency Percent
CEO or equivalent 72 24.6
COO/GM or eqvt 62 21.2
AGM
or eqvt 42 14.3
Manager or eqvt 117 39.9
TOTAL 293 100.0



g. Business Organization
Frequency Percent
Private Ltd company 173 58.6
Stock exch listed coy 47 15.9
Multinational 30 10.2
Others 45 15.3
TOTAL 295 100.0




b. Race
Frequency Percent
Chinese 269 89.7
Indian 25 8.3
Others 6 2.0
TOTAL 300 100.0


d. Total Annual Income
Frequency Percent
Up to 60k 77 25.8
60 – 120k 126 42.1
120 -240k 65 21.7
>240k 31 10.4
TOTAL 299 100.0



f. Highest qualification achieved
Frequency Percent
Non-degree holder 115 38.5
Bachelor degree 64 21.4
Post graduate 52 17.4
Professional
qualification 68 22.7
TOTAL 299 100.0



h. Age as a Christian
Frequency Percent
Up to 5 yrs 37 12.8
6-10 yrs 42 14.6
11-20 yrs 76 26.4
> 20 yrs 133 46.2
TOTAL 288 100.0

Overall Responses to Ethical Vignettes

The 25 vignettes, taken directly from Conroy and Emerson (2004), presented to the respondents a spectrum of ethical scenarios common in the business environment. They covered the key areas of business decision-making including human resources, marketing and advertising, accounting and financial reporting and production. The ethical considerations would involve legality, integrity, honesty and corporate social responsibility. Some of the scenarios were clearly illegal. Others may be legal yet presented the respondent with the ethical consideration of being right, proper and befitting of a Christian in business. The acceptability of the ethical scenarios was scored on a five-point Likert scale with 1 being always unacceptable and 5 being always acceptable. The neutral position was 3.

The response from all the participants as a group is summarized in Table 2. The overall mean for the 25 vignettes was 2.28, which was somewhat lower than the uniformly distributed hypothetical mean of 3.0. With 3.0 being the neutral position this implied that as a group, the respondents found the 25 vignettes generally unacceptable.


Table 2 – Responses to Business Ethics Vignettes, Percentage (and Number) Responding to Each Vignette by Rating

Rating
Vignette Brief description of vignette n 1 2 3 4 5 Mean S.D.
A Pad expense account 282 34.0
(96) 28.0
(79) 25.2
(71) 12.4
(35) 0.4
(1) 2.17 1.05
B Exceed legal limit -pollution 300 62.0
(186) 26.7
(80) 6.0
(18) 5.3
(16) _ 1.55 0.83
C Recommend bad stock 299 57.2
(171) 31.1
(93) 6.4
(19) 4.7
(14) 0.7
(2) 1.61 0.85
D Underreport income for tax 299 56.9
(170) 22.1
(66) 11.0
(33) 9.4
(28) 0.7
(2) 1.75 1.03
E Bribe to foreign official 297 40.4
(120) 25.9
(77) 12.5
(37) 18.5
(55) 2.7
(8) 2.17 1.22
F Hire employee to get secret 298 16.4
(49) 28.9
(86) 23.2
(69) 29.5
(88) 2.0
(6) 2.72 1.12
G Collusion to reduce competition 297 9.4
(28) 20.5
(61) 22.6
(67) 39.1
(116) 8.4
(25) 3.16 1.13
H Bribe to purchasing agent 300 13.3
(40) 29.7
(89) 26.7
(80) 29.0
(87) 1.3
(4) 2.75 1.06
I Insider stock purchase 299 40.8
(122) 24.7
(74) 15.1
(45) 16.7
(50) 2.7
(8) 2.16 1.20
J Promotion of friend over other 300 15.0
(45) 29.3
(88) 22.0
(66) 27.0
(81) 6.7
(20) 2.81 1.18
K Safety design flaw cover up 298 48.3
(144) 33.2
(99) 8.7
(20) 7.0
(21) 2.7
(8) 1.83 1.03
L Accounting tricks to conceal 299 24.4
(73) 29.8
(89) 18.7
(56) 25.4
(76) 1.7
(5) 2.50 1.16
M Hire male employee 299 15.4
(46) 29.1
(87) 24.1
(72) 28.1
(84) 3.3
(10) 2.75 1.12
N Deceptive advertising 300 28.3
(85) 28.7
(86) 15,7
(47) 25.3
(76) 2.0
(6) 2.44 1.20
O Hire consultant to deceive 293 56.3
(165) 23.2
(68) 9.2
(27) 6.1
(18) 5.1
(15) 1.81 1.15
P Free software violation of copyright 300 29.7
(89) 32.3
(97) 16.3
(49) 19.3
(58) 2.3
(7) 2.32 1.16
Q Roll back odometer 299 63.2
(189) 29.4
(88) 3.3
(10) 3.0
(9) 1.0
(3) 1.49 0.79
R Editor pulls name from expose 299 38.5
(115) 39.5
(118) 12.0
(36) 8.0
(24) 2.0
(6) 1.96 1.00
S Donate obsolete computers 298 6.7
(20) 14.8
(44) 19.1
(57) 42.6
(127) 16.8
(50) 3.48 1.13
T Announce open to bribe 300 62.0
(186) 25.3
(76) 6.3
(19) 4.0
(12) 2.3
(7) 1.59 0.94
U Bribe manager to make sale 299 44.1
(132) 32.8
(98) 13.4
(40) 8.0
(24) 1.7
(5) 1.90 1.02
V Charitable giving from profits 297 7.4
(22) 16.2
(48) 29.0
(86) 38.7
(115) 8.8
(26) 3.25 1.07
W Cut cost increase risk of harm 300 67.3
(202) 22.3
(67) 6.0
(18) 3.3
(10) 1.0
(3) 1.48 0.83
X Not upgrade smokestack 298 8.4
(25) 16.1
(48) 20.5
(61) 47.3
(141) 7.7
(23) 3.30 1.09
Y Noisy factory in residential area 299 35.8
(107) 35.8
(107) 16.4
(49) 10.0
(30) 2.0
(6) 2.07 1.05
Note: The numbers in parenthesis refer to frequencies


Table 3 arranged the vignettes in descending order of acceptability for a better view for comparison purposes. Of the 25 vignettes only four had mean response scores greater than 3.0; vignettes “S”, “X”, “V” and “G”. This implied that these vignettes were relatively more acceptable to the respondents. To Conroy and Emerson (2004), vignette “G” described an illegal activity. However the law against collusion to reduce competition is not well enunciated in Malaysia. There is no anti-trust legislation in the country and vignette “G” would not be describing an illegal scenario. As shown in Table 2, only 30% of the respondents found this vignette unacceptable giving it a score of either 1 or 2 whereas 47.5% gives it a score of 4 or 5. Similarly, vignette “S” which involves the donation of obsolete computers to receive a tax deduction and to improve image had only 21.5% of the respondents giving it an unacceptable rating of 1 or 2. Vignette “X’ describes a situation in which the action of not upgrading the smokestack was clearly stated to be still within legal limits and only 20.5% of the respondents found it unacceptable. Vignette “V” involves charitable giving out of profits thereby reducing payout to shareholders. This vignette may not be that familiar to the respondents in Malaysia as the tax laws are different from that of the United States. Only 23.6% of the respondents found this vignette unacceptable.

Conroy and Emerson mentioned that besides vignette G, the others that could be considered illegal; were “A”, “D”, “E”, “M”, “N”, “P”, and “Q”. It was surprising that vignette “W” which was not illegal had the lowest mean score of 1.48 with 89.6% rating it as unacceptable. “Slightly higher risk of harm to babies to reduce cost” was the most unacceptable of the 25 vignettes even though it was not illegal. Perhaps it was because the vignette described a situation that had the potential to cause physical harm to babies. Similarly, vignettes “O” and “K” which increased safety hazard with the potential of physical harm had low mean scores of 1.81 and 1.83 respectively.

In addition there were four vignettes involving bribes or corrupt payments. They were rather well spread out over the range of unacceptability from a relatively high mean score of 2.75 for vignette “H” to 1.59 for vignette “T”. Vignette “H” involved the sending of expensive gifts to purchasing agents during the festive season. Of the four bribery scenarios there was the least aversion towards this practice. In Malaysia the sending of festive gifts just before Hari Raya, (the Muslim celebration at the end of the month of Ramadan), and Chinese New Year is a common business practice in customer and supplier relationships. Even foreign owned multi-nationals have accommodated this so-called cultural requirement in their Malaysian business practices. The necessity for this practice, which may be frowned upon in the western context and perhaps condemned from a Christian perspective, may be supported by Hwa Yung, a notable Malaysian Christian theologian.



Table 3 - Responses to 25 vignettes in descending order of acceptability

Vignette Brief description of vignette Mean response Standard deviation N Rank
S Donate obsolete computers 3.48 1.13 298 1
X Not upgrade smokestack 3.30 1.09 298 2
V Charitable giving from profits 3.25 1.07 297 3
G Collusion to reduce competition 3.16 1.13 297 4
J Promotion of friend over other 2.81 1.18 300 5
H Bribe to purchasing agent 2.75 1.06 300 6
M Hire male employee 2.75 1.12 299 6
F Hire employee to get secret 2.72 1.12 298 8
L Accounting tricks to conceal 2.50 1.16 299 9
N Deceptive advertising 2.44 1.20 300 10
P Free software violation of copyright 2.32 1.16 300 11
A Pad expense account 2.17 1.05 282 12
E Bribe to foreign official 2.17 1.22 297 12
I Insider stock purchase 2.16 1.20 299 14
Y Noisy factory in residential area 2.07 1.05 299 15
R Editor pulls name from expose 1.96 1.00 299 16
U Bribe manager to make sale 1.90 1.02 299 17
K Safety design flaw cover up 1.83 1.03 298 18
O Hire consultant to deceive 1,81 1.15 293 19
D Underreport income for tax 1.75 1.03 299 20
C Recommend bad stock 1.61 0.85 299 21
T Announce open to bribe 1.59 0.94 300 22
B Exceed legal limit -pollution 1.55 0.83 300 23
Q Roll back odometer 1.49 0.79 299 24
W Cut cost increase risk of harm 1.48 0.83 300 25



“The line between a gift and a bribe is often not clear in non-Western cultures. The law may say that the latter is illegal, but social customs may require the giving of the former. Many Christians do not realize that the tension surrounding this complex issue was also felt in the Old Testament. Thus, for example, in six references to bribery in Proverbs, three (15:27,17:23,22:16) condemn it, but three others (17:8, 18:16, 21:14) extol it in positive terms! More importantly, every condemnation of bribery in the Bible is directed either at those who practice it to pervert justice, or those who use their positions of power to oppress others, especially the poor. We do not find a single condemnation of those who have to pay because they are in a position of weakness and are forced to do so.” (Hwa 1998, p.171)

At the other end of the spectrum, vignette “T” which involved the purchasing agent announcing that he was open to bribes was the least acceptable of the four bribery vignettes. The respondents seemed to differentiate quite distinctly that the need to give a bribe to do business may be a necessary evil but to ask for one was really not acceptable. This distinction seemed to fall within the argument put forth by Hwa (1998). It is wrong to ask for a bribe but circumstances may make it necessary to give one. The other two bribery vignettes may also be considered as an unavoidable necessity in order to do business. Vignette “E” with a mean score of 2.17 described a consulting fee paid to a foreign official to secure a contract and vignette “U” with a mean score of 1.90 also involved a gift to a purchasing agent. Although both involve gifts to purchasing agents, the nature of the two scenarios was viewed to be different by the respondents. The gift in vignette “H” with a mean score of 2.75, was given during the festive season to purchasing agents as a group of business relationships and not directly related to a specific transaction. This has to be contrasted with the gift in vignette “U”, with mean score of 1.90, which was targeted at a specific potentially large customer. Moreover the scenario in vignette “U” specified that the decision “violate(s) company policy”.

Ten of the 25 vignettes had mean scores below 2.0 indicating that these scenarios are generally unacceptable to the respondents as a group. Of these, two involve bribes and two were deemed illegal by Conroy and Emerson (2004). Perhaps vignette “B”, mean score of 1.55 and the third least acceptable of the 25 vignettes, should also be included as illegal as the words “…exceeded legal limits…” would indicate illegality. It is surprising that vignette “Q” is the second most unacceptable of the vignettes. In Conroy and Emerson (2004) this is the most unacceptable vignette. They reasoned that this could be because the vignette “…contains two controversial components – one of which is clearly illegal (rolling back odometers of used cars)…” (p 387) In this study the illegal component was retained whilst the legally ambiguous component of using high-pressure sales techniques was removed. With this change it would be reasonable to expect that the vignette should be less unacceptable. Nonetheless, the degree of unacceptability of this vignette remained very high. Conroy and Emerson (2004) explained that the low score may not be due so much to the illegal aspect but that respondents could easily identify with the “victims” in the vignette. Perhaps their explanation was applicable also to this study.

In summary the overall response to the 25 vignettes provided an overview of the ethical attitudes of the respondents. The overall mean to the 25 vignettes at 2.28 did indicate that the attitude of the respondents to the vignettes was generally one of unacceptability. However, there was no discernible pattern to the spread of responses to the vignettes. Those describing illegal behavior were spread over the spectrum of unacceptability. This implies that the respondents did not consider an illegal act as automatically unethical. Some illegal acts were more acceptable than others. Similarly, the four vignettes involving bribers were also well spread out across the spectrum of unacceptability.


Overall Response to Religiousness Scale

Besides attendance at Sunday worship services, the other eight items in the religiousness scale were designed to tap into the degree of involvement in other common religious activities to determine degree of religiousness. Activities are observable and a respondent should have no difficulty in determining his or her level of participation. Response bias, and in this case religious acceptability bias, is possible. However the anonymity of the questionnaire should minimize this effect.

The response to the religiousness scale is summarized in Table 4. It can be seen that 97% of the respondents attend Sunday worship services often or very often. The “very often” group by itself was 86.3%. This was to be expected as the questionnaire package was addressed to Christians in business attending the specified churches. The percentage of the respondents attending small group meetings scoring 4 or 5 for this statement was 74%. Of this almost half of the respondents, 49%, were attending very often. Those attending church organized Bible study often and very often was 40.1%. The response to the other organized religious activities showed somewhat lower overall intensity among the respondents with church organized prayer meetings rated at 33.4%, Christian conferences and seminars 25.4%, and fellowship meetings during the week 24.6%. Personal devotion, i.e., having a period of personal prayer and Bible study usually in the morning was practiced often and very often by 65% of the respondents. An almost equal percentage at 59.9% prayed for business issues and decisions. It would appear that most do this on their own as only 20.0% pray with business associates and/or people in the company.

Classifying the respondents into different levels of religiousness from their responses to the nine religious activities produced no meaningful difference to their ethical attitudes. It would appear that the other measures of religiousness were not helpful in looking at the relationship between ethical attitudes and religiousness. This was similar to the experience of Conroy and Emerson (2004). They used a number of different measures for religiousness but had to settle for participation in worship services as the main criterion. For this study, there is a high degree of homogeneity in the respondents to Sunday Service attendance with 97% attending often and very often. Determining the level of religiousness through this dimension would not be fruitful.
Table 4 - Responses to Religiousness

Rating
Measure of Religiousness n 1 2 3 4 5 Mean S.D.
1 Sunday church services 300 0.3
(1) 0.7
(2) 2.0
(6) 10.7
(32) 86.3
(259) 4.82 0.52
2 Church small group meetings 300 1.7
(5) 11.7
(35) 12.3
(37) 25.3
(76) 49.0
(147) 4.08 1.11
3 Church Bible studies 299 4.7
(14) 29.1
(87) 26.1
(78) 25.4
(76) 14.7
(44) 3.16 1.14
4 Church prayer meetings 300 8.0
(24) 39.0
(117) 19.7
(59) 20.7
(62) 12.7
(38) 2.91 1.19
5 Christian conferences and seminars 299 3.7
(11) 39.5
(118) 31.4
(94) 20.4
(61) 5.0
(15) 2.84 0.96
6 Fellowship meetings during work week 297 19.2
(57) 38.7
(115) 17.5
(52) 15.5
(46) 9.1
(27) 2.57 1.22
7 Personal Devotion 300 0.3
(1) 7.7
(23) 26.7
(80) 34.7
(104) 30.7
(92) 3.88 0.95
8 Pray for business issues etc 299 1.0
(3) 12.0
(36) 27.1
(81) 35.5
(106) 24.4
(73) 3.70 1.00
9 Praying with associates 300 26.3
(79) 37.33
(112) 16.3
(49) 14.3
(43) 5.7
(17) 2.36 1.18
Note: The numbers in parenthesis refers to frequencies


To address the first research question, “Are there differences in ethical attitude between Christians in business with different levels of religiousness?” required a meaningful classification of the respondents into different levels of religiousness based on their participation in Christian activities. As 97% of the respondents attend Sunday worship services often or very often this was taken to be the base activity of Christians. This base activity was combined with one or more of the other eight activities to generate different classifications of religiousness. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare differences in their attitude towards the 25 vignettes. A meaningful classification of two level of religiousness was achieved by combining just two out of the nine items in the religiousness scale; that of Sunday service attendance and personal devotion. Other combinations did not produce meaningful differentiation. There are 256 respondents (85.3%) scoring an average of 4.0 or higher for these two items and 44 (14.7%) scoring less than 4.0. The first group was classified as the more religious as they participated often or very often in both these religious activities. The second group was considered the less religious group. It was decided that it may be meaningful to use these two activities as a measure for religiousness. Attendance at Sunday worship services is almost obligatory for a practicing Christian, and for this group of respondents it was certainly the case. For a Christian in business, the other activities may prove to be too time consuming. But personal devotion, i.e., having a personal quiet time to read and study the Bible, to pray and to meditate can be done at any convenient time. As it is a personal activity, the self-declaration of the level of participation can be a meaningful measure of religiousness.

Using these two levels of religiousness, their attitude towards the 25 ethical vignettes are summarized in Table 5. As the Likert Scale is an ordinal scale the Mann-Whitney Test is applied in this exercise. This method replaces raw data with ranks. In so doing the focus was on the ordinal relationships among the raw measures; i.e. “greater than”, “less than” and “equal to”. The raw data was not assumed to be from an interval scale as some researchers may find it to be convenient (Lowry 2006). The results showed that there was an overall difference in the ethical attitudes between the more religious and the less religious; Z value was -2.368 at a significance level of p ≤ 0.05 There were six vignettes in which there were significant differences; vignettes “C”, “H”, “L”, “Q”, “T”, and “U”. In all the six cases the less religious found the scenarios described more acceptable than the more religious. Therefore it can be surmised that the more religious had stronger ethical attitudes than the less religious, at least in six of the vignettes. Three of these six vignettes depicted scenarios involving bribes. It should be noted that there were only four vignettes involving bribes from the total list of 25 vignettes. So it seemed that a significant difference in ethical attitudes between the two groups was in their attitudes towards bribery and corruption. The more religious were less agreeable to the practice of bribery and corruption.





Table 5 - Comparison between the Less Religious and the More Religious in
their attitude towards 25 vignettes using Mann-Whitney Test

Vignette Brief description of
Vignette Mean Rank Score Z
value Sig.
Less Religious
(N = 44) More religious
(N = 256)
A Pad expense account 150.85 140.09 -0.780
B Exceed legal limit -pollution 158.39 149.14 -0.758
C Recommend bad stock 174.93 145.70 -2.342 *
D Underreport income for tax 170.73 146.42 -1.921
E Bribe to foreign official 170.95 145.18 -1.928
F Hire employee to get secret 169.09 146.20 -1.668
G Collusion to reduce competition 166.19 146.01 -1.501
H Bribe to purchasing agent 178.31 145.72 -2.389 *
I Insider stock purchase 162.44 147.85 -1.084
J Promotion of friend over other 149.45 150.68 -0.089
K Safety design flaw cover up 162.06 147.32 -1.136
L Accounting tricks to conceal 175.10 145.67 -2.155 *
M Hire male employee 143.91 151.05 -0.523
N Deceptive advertising 169.92 147.16 -1.664
O Hire consultant to deceive 143.48 147.62 -0.333
P Free software violation of copyright 170.83 147.01 -1.746
Q Roll back odometer 188.02 143.44 -3.718 ***
R Editor pulls name from expose 166.02 147.24 -1.419
S Donate obsolete computers 164.42 146.92 -1.306
T Announce open to bribe 174.75 146.33 -2.326 *
U Bribe manager to make sale 179.27 144.95 -2.599 **
V Charitable giving from profits 157.72 147.48 -0.764
W Cut cost increase risk of harm 154.43 149.82 -0.394
X Not upgrade smokestack 139.02 151.31 0.931
Y Noisy factory in residential area 148.97 150.18 -0.090
Overall Mean of 25 vignettes 164.34 131.52 -2.368 *

Note: *** Significant at p ≤ 0.001
** Significant at p ≤ 0.01
* Significant at p ≤ 0.05





The data from personal profiles provided another possible measure of religiousness. Using age as a Christian as a measure for religiousness the respondents can be divided into two groups; those who had been in the faith for more than five years and those younger. The difference in ethical attitudes is summarized in Table 6. There were seven vignettes in which there were significant differences in their attitudes; vignettes “D”, “E”, “H”, “I”, “Q”, “T”, and “U”. In all these seven vignettes the younger Christians were more accepting of the scenarios than the older Christians. It was also interesting that four of the seven vignettes with significant difference in ethical attitudes involved bribes. Indeed all the four vignettes involving bribes were included. Again bribery seemed to dominate the difference between the two groups. Therefore it can be said that older Christians have better ethical attitudes than younger Christians especially in the area involving bribery and corruption. This can be contrasted to chronological age. Comparing the respondents of up to 40 years of age to those older yielded only three vignettes, “H”, “J” and “O”, with significant differences in ethical attitudes at p≤0.05. Of these, two vignettes, ”H” and “O” were more acceptable to the older respondents whilst the other vignette, “J”, was more acceptable to the younger respondents. So chronological age did not seem to provide any meaningful difference in ethical attitudes among Malaysian Christians in business.

From the above discussion it would appear that two useful measures of religiousness had surfaced in this study. The first measure of religiousness can be based on the level of participation in two religious activities; Sunday worship service and personal devotion. The first is a very public congregational activity whilst the second is a private and personal activity. The second measure of religiousness can be determined as a function of the duration of time participating in the faith, i.e., age as a Christian. Table 7 shows that there is a positive correlation (Pearson Chi-Square = 0.010) between these two measures of religiousness. This is only to be expected in that as a person persisted in the practice of the faith, the level of religious activity as defined by the attendance at Sunday worship services and personal devotion would be more and more frequent.


Table 6 - Comparison between “Younger Christians” and “Older Christians” attitude
towards 25 vignettes using Mann-Whitney Test


Vignette
Brief description of Vignette Mean Rank Score
1-5 years as Christian
(N = 37) Above 5 years as Christian
(N = 251) Z
Value Sig.
A Pad expense account 160.41 134.36 -1.845
B Exceed legal limit -pollution 157.31 142.61 -1.162
C Recommend bad stock 144.84 143.88 -0.075
D Underreport income for tax 183.43 138.16 -3.461 ***
E Bribe to foreign official 182.97 137.22 -3.271 ***
F Hire employee to get secret 163.39 140.54 -1.622
G Collusion to reduce competition 151.57 142.30 -0.664
H Bribe to purchasing agent 170.59 140.65 -2.119 *
I Insider stock purchase 174.09 139.55 -2.484 *
J Promotion of friend over other 129.66 146.69 -1.196
K Safety design flaw cover up 153.19 142.64 -0.784
L Accounting tricks to conceal 151.15 142.94 -0.580
M Hire male employee 137.58 144.95 -0.521
N Deceptive advertising 155.51 142.88 -0.892
O Hire consultant to deceive 145.31 140.37 -0.380
P Free software violation of copyright 166.30 141.29 -1.772
Q Roll back odometer 166.33 140.80 -2.035 *
R Editor pulls name from expose 163.39 141.13 -1.626
S Donate obsolete computers 141.93 143.73 -0.130
T Announce open to bribe 170.09 140.73 -2.334
U Bribe manager to make sale 168.12 140.43 -2.028 *
V Charitable giving from profits 140.63 143.34 -0.193 *
W Cut cost increase risk of harm 143.30 144.68 -0.114
X Not upgrade smokestack 138.12 144.30 -0.454
Y Noisy factory in residential area 129.93 146.08 -1.162
Overall Mean value 154.53 129.57 -1.711

Note: *** Significant at p ≤ 0.001
** Significant at p ≤ 0.01
* Significant at p ≤ 0.05





Table 7 – Religiousness and Age as Christian

Age as Christian
Religiousness
1-5 years >5 years Total
Less Religious
25.6
(10) 74.4
(29) 13.5
(39)
More Religious
10.8
(27) 89.2
(222) 86.5
(249)
Total 12.8
(37) 87.2
(251) 100.0
(288)

Note: Χ2 = 6.59 Significant at p < 0.01 The numbers in parenthesis refer to frequencies It can be concluded that there are differences in ethical attitudes among Christians in business with different levels of religiousness. The higher the level of participation in Sunday worship services and personal devotion, the better the ethical attitude. They will find questionable ethical scenarios less acceptable. Similarly the longer a person remains in the faith the better the ethical attitudes. Those who have been in the faith longer will find the questionable ethical scenarios less acceptable. There seems to be a positive correlation (at p ≤ 0.01) between the level of participation in religious activities and age as a Christian. These findings strengthen the findings of Longenecker et al. (2004) and Conroy and Emerson (2004), providing a sort of funneling effect: from the general to the specific. From 1,234 respondents drawn from a random sample of 10,000 businesspersons in the United States, Longenecker et al. (2004) found a strong relationship between religion and ethical attitudes. Respondents with a self declared personal importance of religious values, regardless of religious affiliation, were less accepting of ethical questionable decisions. They further found that, from among this group, evangelical Christians showed a higher level of ethical awareness. The second study, Conroy and Emerson (2004), had a sample of 850 students drawn from two universities, one public and the other private and religiously affiliated. The measure for religiosity was related to the Christian faith. The main finding was that church attendance can be a “statistically significant predictor of responses in a number of ethical scenarios” (Conroy & Emerson 2004, p. 383). Narrowing the measure of religion further, the present study focused on the evangelical Christian business segment within the wider Christian community. Again there was evidence to suggest that there were differences in ethical attitudes between the more religious and the less religious. Response to the Love of Money Scale It is perceived that Christians, although practicing the same faith, may have different attitudes towards money. These attitudes can be translated into different money profiles. Christians with different money profiles may have different attitudes toward business ethics. The objective of this part of the analysis was to answer the research question, “Are there differences in ethical attitude between Christians in business with different love of money profiles?”. This analysis followed the methodology used by Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004). The respondents were grouped into clusters with defining characteristics. From the defining characteristics each cluster could be identified with an appropriate label. The responses from each of the clusters to the 25 ethical vignettes were then compared to those of the other clusters to determine if there were indeed differences in ethical attitudes. The response to this part of the questionnaire is summarized in Table 8. The objective of the cluster analysis is to group the homogenous respondents into distinctive clusters with small within-cluster variations but large between-clusters variations. This study followed that of Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) and tested the data with 4 clusters using the QUICK CLUSTER program in SPSS. However, the resultant 4 clusters did not exhibit the defining characteristics similar to that of Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004). Clear distinguishing factors were also not evident from the four clusters. Separate runs using the QUICK CLUSTER program were made for 3 and 5 clusters. It was found that the 3 cluster analysis provided clear and well defined distinguishing factors. The defining factors are summarized in Table 9. Taking the definitions from Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004), factor Success indicated that money is accepted as a sign of success and money is how success is measured. Factor Budget provided an indication whether one manages money carefully. Factor Motivator indicated that people are motivated to work hard to make money. Factor Equity dealt with two types of equity; internal equity where higher level jobs should be paid more and individual equity where better performance in the same job should be paid more. Factor Evil measured the notion that the love of money is the root of all evil and this can lead to unethical behavior. Table 8 - Responses to statements regarding money attitudes Rating MONEY ATTTIUDES n 1 2 3 4 5 Mean S.D. Budget 1- I pay my bills immediately to avoid interest or penalties 299 0.7 (2) 6.7 (20) 14.4 (43) 45.5 (136) 32.8 (98) 4.03 0.90 2- I do financial planning for the future 298 0.3 (1) 4.7 (14) 21.5 (64) 60.4 (180) 13.1 (39) 3.81 0.73 3- I use my money very carefully 299 0.7 (2) 5.4 (16) 23.1 (69) 56.5 (169) 14.4 (43) 3.79 0.78 4- I budget my money very well 300 2.0 (6) 9.0 (27) 28.0 (84) 48.3 (145) 12.7 (38) 3.61 0.89 Overall attitude on budget 3.81 0.58 Evil 1- The love of money is the root of evil 299 2.7 (8) 8.0 (24) 6.7 (20) 25.8 (77) 56.9 (170) 4.28 1.06 2- People perform unethical acts to maximize their monetary gains 298 3.4 (10) 5.4 (16) 16.8 (50) 54.4 (162) 20.1 (60) 3.83 0.93 3- Money undermines one’s Ethical norms and standard of conduct 294 5.4 (16) 23.8 (70) 18.4 (54) 41.8 (123) 10.5 (31) 3.28 1.10 4- Money is evil 300 33.7 (101) 38.7 (116) 16.7 (50) 4.3 (13) 6.7 (20) 2.12 1.13 Overall attitude on evil 3.37 0.64 Equity 1- People on same job should be paid based on merit 299 1.0 (3) 5.4 (16) 7.0 (21) 53.2 (159) 33.4 (100) 4.13 0.83 2- Lower-level job with little responsibility should be paid less 300 0.3 (1) 15.3 (46) 18.3 (55) 58.0 (174) 8.0 (24) 3.26 1.07 3- People on the same job should be paid equally 300 7.0 (21) 47.0 (141) 16.3 (49) 24.0 (72) 5.7 (17) 2.74 1.07 Overall attitude on equity 3.66 0.61 Success 1- money is a symbol of success 300 8.0 (24) 26.3 (79) 21.3 (64) 39.0 (117) 5.3 (16) 3.04 1.09 2- Money represents one’s achievement 298 6.0 (18) 30.5 (91) 20.8 (62) 39.3 (117) 3.4 (10) 3.03 1.04 Overall attitude on success 3.05 0.91 Motivator 1- money is a motivator 300 1.7 (5) 7.0 (21) 13.3 (40) 67.7 (203) 10.3 (31) 3.78 0.79 2- I am motivated to work hard for money 300 2.7 (8) 18.3 (55) 29.7 (89) 45.3 (136) 4.0 (12) 3.30 0.90 Overall attitude on motivator 3.54 0.69 Overall Mean 3.49 0.34 Table 9 - Means of the Love of Money Scale for Three Clusters Variables Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster paired comparison** Whole sample N = 288 Successful Money Achiever n = 147 Careful Money Manager n = 87 Money Apathetic Individual n = 54 Percentage (%) 51.04 30.21 18.75 Success 3.78 2.22 2.43 1>3; 1>2
Budget
3.81 3.96 3.57 1>3; 2>3
Motivator
3.88 3.25 3.05 1>3; 1>2
Equity
3.68 4.06 2.90 1>3; 2>3; 2>1
Evil
3.47 3.14 3.45 3>2; 1>2
Note: ** p<0.01; Scheffe’s test. The highest and lowest means are in bold face. The lowest means are also underlined. There were 147 (51.04%) participants in Cluster 1, 87 (30.21%) in Cluster 2 and 54 (18.75%) in Cluster 3. Cluster 1 had highest means in factor Success, Motivator as well as Evil. This group was labeled as Successful Money Achiever. The second cluster had the highest means in factors Budget and Equity but lowest in factors Success and Evil and was labeled as Careful Money Manager. The last cluster had the lowest means in factors Budget, Motivator and Equity. It would appear that this group was rather apathetic to issues relating to money or rather unconcerned about money matters. This last group was labeled as Money Apathetic Individual. The defining factors can be more clearly shown as in Table 10. Table 10 - Defining Factors of the 3 Clusters Successful Money Achiever Careful Money Manager Money Apathetic Individual Success Highest Lowest Budget Highest Lowest Motivator Highest Lowest Equity Highest Lowest Evil Highest Lowest From Table 10 it was determined that it would be reasonable to examine possible variation in ethical attitudes across the three clusters. Table 11 indicates that there was significant differences between the three clusters in the overall mean on the 25 vignettes (p ≤ 0.001). The mean rank scores appeared to follow the three profiles with Successful Money Achievers ranked the highest followed by Careful Money Managers and finally by Money Apathetic Individual. This meant that the degree of acceptability of the 25 ethical scenarios generally also followed this pattern. Of the 25 vignettes, significant differences can be seen in 15 of the vignettes among the three clusters. This could be taken as a validation of the clusters in the analysis. In all of the 15 vignettes, Successful Money Achievers were more accepting of the scenarios depicted as against the other two groups. This implied that those with higher scores in factors Motivator and Success would not be as adverse to unethical practices. Vignette Brief description of Vignette Mean Rank Score Χ2 Successful Money Achiever Careful Money Manager Money Apathetic Individual A Pad expense account 150.55 119.59 125,52 10.04** B Exceed legal limit -pollution 160.73 120.99 130.19 17.23*** C Recommend bad stock 158.93 119.41 143.24 15.74*** D Underreport income for tax 160.47 116.91 142.32 18.62*** E Bribe to foreign official 161.21 121.92 126.38 16.43*** F Hire employee to get secret 158.81 131.93 123.40 10.51** G Collusion to reduce competition 144.91 147.37 133.25 1.14 H Bribe to purchasing agent 160.94 132.89 118.46 13.69*** I Insider stock purchase 159.01 127.61 129.81 10.73** J Promotion of friend over other 148.76 147.41 128.21 2.72 K Safety design flaw cover up 147.48 139.38 141.88 0.66 L Accounting tricks to conceal 162.94 127.96 120.95 15.97*** M Hire male employee 152.35 147.91 117.64 7.55* N Deceptive advertising 157.93 133.91 124.99 8.77* O Hire consultant to deceive 144.23 136.66 144.47 0.64 P Free software violation of copyright 155.41 133.48 132.56 5.56 Q Roll back odometer 151.15 130.22 146.79 4.90 R Editor pulls name from expose 148.52 136.51 146.43 1.33 S Donate obsolete computers 149.43 149.00 123.82 4.53 T Announce open to bribe 158.98 122.08 141.21 15.55*** U Bribe manager to make sale 158.71 123.48 139.69 11.43** V Charitable giving from profits 144.80 152.52 125.60 3.94 W Cut cost increase risk of harm 153.85 126.36 148.26 8.92* X Not upgrade smokestack 151.79 146.72 117.93 7.51* Y Noisy factory in residential area 152.68 132.04 139.55 3.94 Overall Mean of 25 vignettes 149.09 114.43 105.98 16.68*** Table 11 - Comparison of the three Love of Money profiles in their attitude towards the 25 vignettes using Kruskal-Wallis Test Note: *** Significant at p ≤ 0.001 ** Significant at p ≤ 0.01 * Significant at p ≤ 0.05 In 9 of the 15 vignettes, Careful Money Manager had lower mean rank scores than Money Apathetic Individual but in the remaining 6 vignettes; “F”, ”H”, ”L”, ”M”, “N”, and “X”, the reverse was true. Therefore it appears that Careful Money Manager was less accepting of the relevant ethical scenarios than Money Apathetic Individual. Successful Money Achievers had the strongest positive attitude towards money. They would be motivated to work hard for their money and see their money as a measure of their success. Their money attitudes may cause them to be less critical of unethical practices. Yet they saw that the love of money could be the root of evil. Careful Money Mangers would budget their money carefully and would be most concerned about the fairness of compensation and income for the job they do. Although they may be motivated to work hard for their money they appeared to be less concerned about money being a reflector of their success. However, they were less prone to think that the love of money is the root of evil. Money Apathetic Individuals appeared to the least concerned about money. They would not be motivated to work hard for money. They would be least concerned about the fairness of pay for their jobs and they did not care too much about budgeting their money. Although not ranked as the highest, their score indicated that they did think that the love of money is the root of evil. These results indicate that Malaysian Christians in business, despite their apparent homogeneity in religious affiliation, can be classified into different money profiles according to their attitudes to money. Those in different money profiles did exhibit different attitudes towards the ethical vignettes presented. It would therefore be reasonable to conclude that Christians in business with different love of money profiles have different ethical attitudes. If religion affects the attitude towards the love of money it can be expected that there would be a correlation between the love of money profiles and the level of religiousness. Table 12 shows the cross-tabulation of the three love of money profiles against the two levels of religiousness based on participation in Sunday worship services and personal devotion. The Pearson chi-square value of 7.051 with 2 degrees of freedom was significant at p < 0.05. Therefore, there was a positive correlation between the three clusters and the level of religiousness. Of the less religious, 65.9% had the profile of Successful Money Achiever as compared to 48.4% among the more religious. Among the more religious, 33.2% were Careful Money managers against only 13.6% from the less religious group. The difference in the profile of Money Apathetic Individual did not appear to be very significantly different. Table 12 – Love of Money Profile and Religiousness Religiousness Successful Money Achiever Careful Money Manager Money Apathetic Individual Total Less religious 65.9% (29) 13.6% (6) 20.5% (9) 15.3% (44) More religious 48.4% (118) 33.2% (81) 18.4% (45) 84.7% (244) Total 51.0% (147) 30.2% (87) 18.8% (54) 100% (288) Note: Χ2 = 7.051 Significant at p<0.05 The figures in parenthesis are the frequencies. It was shown earlier in Table 7 that there was a positive correlation between the level of religiousness and the age as a Christian. When a cross tabulation between the three love of money profiles and age as a Christian, the second measure of religiousness used in this study in Table 13 was analyzed, there was a positive correlation in the relationship. The Pearson chi-square value of 7.07 with 2 degrees of freedom was significant at p<0.05. A higher proportion of those younger in the faith (55.6%) came under the profile of Successful Money Achiever as against the 49.8% from those older in the faith. Only 13.9% of those younger in the faith were in the group of Careful Money Manager as compared to the 33.2% for those older in the faith. The trend was reversed in the profile of Money Apathetic Individual. Those younger in the faith had 30.6% in this group whereas those older had only 17.0%. Table 13 – Love of Money Profile and Age as Christian Age as Christian Successful Money Achiever Careful Money Manager Money Apathetic Individual Total 1-5 years 55.6% (20) 13.9% (5) 30.6% (11) 13.0% (36) > 5 years 49.8%
(120)
33.2%
(80) 17.0%
(41) 87.0%
(241)
Total 50.5%
(140) 30.7%
(85)
18.8%
(52) 100%
277

Note: Χ2 = 7.07 Significant at p<0.05 The numbers in parenthesis refer to frequencies The above two cross-tabulations indicated that the three love of money profiles are related to the two measures for religiousness. Conclusion Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004) asserted that the recent spate of corporate scandals and corruption was motivated by greed and it was all related to money and the love of money. Christians in business can similarly be motivated by greed and the love of money as were alleged in the Enron and WorldCom cases. When that happens, the repercussions are felt within the community of faith and the credibility of Christianity itself may be brought into question. The relationship between religion and business ethics is a topic of current and increasing interest. However the findings thus far had been rather inconclusive. This study sought to add to the understanding of this relationship. The interest in this study was not to compare Christians and non-Christians but to look within the Christian community to see whether the level of religiousness among themselves could make a difference in ethical attitudes. It is recognized that there are various measures of religiousness. In this study religiousness was taken from the self-declared participation in Sunday worship services and personal devotion. It should be noted that Sunday worship services are public events, observable by others and may be motivated by a variety of reasons. Personal devotion or “quiet time” would be done in private and probably not generally known to others. The motivation would be very personal. It was found that those who were more intense in these two religious activities displayed better ethical attitudes. Secondly, the study also showed that those who had been longer in the faith also displayed better ethical attitudes. Perhaps those younger in the faith had not absorbed enough of Christian ethical teachings. Thirdly, age as a Christian could be positively correlated to the level of religiousness. Therefore, the continued practice of the faith in Sunday service attendance and personal devotion over a longer period of time may be related to improved ethical attitudes. This added confirmation to the general claim that religion does form our values and our ethics. The other significant finding was that, even within a somewhat homogenous group, there were different love of money profiles arising from their different money attitudes. They read from the same Bible, heard the same sermons but they looked at money differently. Those who looked at money with more interest and were success motivated were more accepting of the unethical scenarios. Those who managed their money carefully were less accepting of such scenarios. And those who viewed money with less interest had better ethical attitudes. This suggests that if money attitudes could be moderated, ethical attitudes could improve. The three love of money profiles were positively correlated to religiousness and age as a Christian. The question is how Christianity can help its constituents acquire money attitudes more consistent with the religion. This can be a double-edged sword. Christianity is keen to show that Christians can be successful within the faith. The desire to succeed must not be dampened. At the same time Christianity does not want to face the embarrassment of having its business heroes put on public display as villains. The difficulty is how to make money righteously, in a Christian way. When it comes to the tension between God and money, the power of money cannot be underrated. That is why the Bible has this admonition, “You cannot serve both God and money” (NIV Bible Luke 16:13). At the moments of truth, decisions have to be made to serve one or the other. This study indicates that the probability of a decision on the side of God can be enhanced through higher levels of religiousness and more appropriate money attitudes. Limitation of the Study It should be noted that the sample for this study was drawn from a targeted population, i.e., Christians in business from three large evangelical churches with a small representation from the smaller churches within the Kuala Lumpur area. This was not a random sample of Malaysian Christians in business but a sample of convenience. The results should not be generalized to be representative of other groups of Christians in business. Even within the three large churches and those attending the financial seminar from the smaller churches, the problem of response bias could be a real problem. It was apparent from the response that those who participated in the survey were generally the more fervent and committed members of the congregation. Ninety-seven percent of the respondents attend Sunday worship services often or very often. It would appear that the less fervent were underrepresented. However, this is within the design of the study. The respondents of interest to the study were those who attended church regularly and held positions of manager or higher in a business enterprise. The other limitation was that the study tapped into the respondents’ ethical attitudes and not behavior. Although attitudes can usually be relied upon to predict behavior, in a study on business ethics it would be hazardous to assume that attitudes can be a good predictor of behavior. Especially in a Christian environment the response bias arising from the conscious and unconscious need to appear consistent with the requirement of the faith may distort the expression of true attitudes. Unfortunately, in a questionnaire survey it would not be possible to capture behavior. Nonetheless the study has provided additional input to the relationships between ethical attitudes and religiousness and between ethical attitudes and the love of money with particular reference to the Christian community in Malaysia. Research Paper 3 The Influence of Religion on the Business Attitudes of Malaysian Christians in Business ABSTRACT Religion is said to be one of the most important sources for a person’s moral norms (Van Buren 1995). Western business ethics is generally known to have Judeo-Christian roots (McMahon 1985; Calkins 2000) and De George (1986) felt that it started off as an extension of religious ethics. The objective of this study is to determine the influence of religion on the business attitudes of practicing Christians. Guided by a set of nine open-ended questions, twelve selected Malaysian Christians in business were interviewed. All the respondents were the key decision makers in their respective businesses. From their responses it would appear that religion has a dominating and profound influence on their business lives as well as their business attitudes. They claim that their business conduct and ethics as well as their attitude towards money are guided by Biblical principles and Christian teachings. There are business practices that may be common and generally accepted in the Malaysian business arena but not acceptable within their faith. As Christians they would not compromise their religion and engage in such practices. As a result they may suffer business disadvantages. However, they believe that their God will somehow honor their faith and help them still succeed in business. When it comes to the crunch, Christian religious imperatives are said to supercede business imperatives. Of the common religious activities, including attendance at Sunday worship service, the activity seen as contributing most to their business lives is the activity of personal devotion. Personal devotion sometimes referred to as “personal quiet time” is the personal and private activity of studying the Bible, meditation and prayer. The other activities are seen as beneficial but as contributing more to their spiritual lives. Therefore the influence on their business lives is said to be indirect, i.e. through the strengthening of their spiritual lives. Although most of the activities are church based, the panel did not see the pastors as having an impact on their business lives. One of the reasons for this perceived lack of contribution is the acceptance that the role of the pastor is in the spiritual dimension only. The second common reason is the opinion that pastors are not adequately competent to contribute. They do not understand business and the issues confronting the Christian in business. Furthermore, in large churches it is perceived that the pastors would not have the time to minister to each Christian in business individually. When asked how the situation can be improved, only two positive suggestions were made. They would like the church and the pastors to encourage the development of small groups in which Christians in business can come together to share of their experiences and to seek counsel and support from each other. Secondly, a programme of mentoring should be instituted for those older Christians in business who had weathered the difficulties to living the faith in the marketplace to help those younger and less experienced. Introduction Religion is said to be one of the most important sources for a person’s moral norms (Van Buren 1995). It is recognized that the universal moral tenets such as the Ten Commandments found in the major monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and other Biblical traditions are relevant to the provision of moral guidance (Ali, Camp & Gibbs 2000; Friedman 2000). Indeed, “An Interfaith Declaration – A Code of Ethics on International Business for Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1993”, refers to “the best of contemporary business practice… as enjoined by divine injections.” (An Interfaith Declaration 1993, p. 2) Western business ethics is generally known to have Judeo-Christian roots (McMahon 1985; Calkins 2000). De George (1986) felt that western business ethics started off as an extension of religious ethics. The Judeo-Christian tradition may be so influential, especially in the west, that even the general population may be responsive to discuss business ethics from a strictly Christian point of view. This can be traced back to the 17th century with the development of the Protestant works ethic which promoted the integration of economic activities into the practice of the Christian faith (Nakata 1998). Even at that time businesses were established and managed on Christian principles with biblical precepts guiding decision making and other management functions. More than any other factors, the commitment to and the practice of a religious faith are strong determinants of personal values (Magill 1992; Weaver & Agle 2002). Personal religiosity provides the background for ethical evaluation and influences both attitudes and behavior. The values and roles expected by and of that religion when internalized can be expected to influence behavior (Magill 1992; Weaver & Agle 2002). Although it is generally acknowledged that religion contributes positively towards ethical judgment the relationship has not been well established. (Longenecker, McKinney & Moore 2004; Vitell, Paolillo & Singh 2005). Longenecker et al. (2004) declared that, “To date, research has failed to provide a clear assessment of the significance of religious values as they may affect ethical attitudes or behavior in business” (p. 373). The evidence is simply not adequate. The relationship between religiosity and ethics deserves further and deeper research especially when it comes to personal religiosity and personal ethical judgments (Weaver & Agle 2002; Vitell et al. 2005). The findings from the relatively small number of previous empirical studies has been decidedly mixed and rather inconclusive. For example, McNichols and Zimmerer (1985) reported that strong religious beliefs are related to a negative attitude toward certain unacceptable behaviors. On the other hand, Clark and Dawson (1996) found that the religious may be more accepting of ethically questionable corporate behavior. Agle and Van Buren (1999) found no support to the relationship between religious upbringing and corporate social responsibility. Religious practice and Christian beliefs appeared to have only a weak influence in the respondents’ corporate social responsibility. The weak and inconsistent evidence left Agle and Van Buren (1999) to conclude that “religion has only a marginal effect on people’s attitudes toward corporate social responsibility” (Agle & Van Buren 1999, p. 580). In more recent studies the findings had been more positive; in particular, Conroy and Emerson (2004) and Longenecker et al. (2004). Using church attendance to indicate religiosity, Conroy and Emerson (2004) found that religiosity reduces the acceptability of certain ethically questionable business scenarios. Longenecker et al. (2004) had two significant findings. Regardless of religious affiliation, those who self-declared that religion was of moderate or high level of importance to them had a higher level of ethical judgment. The evidence was that religion did influence ethical awareness. Their second finding was that evangelical Christians have a higher level of ethical judgment than Christians from a non-evangelical background. This reinforces Kennedy and Lawton (1998) who also found that evangelical students were far less likely to be willing to engage in unethical practices than those from Catholic and public colleges. The findings of Research Paper 2 The questionnaire survey in Research Paper 2 that preceded this study found that there were significant differences in the ethical attitudes of those who are more religious as compared to those who were less religious. The more religious were defined as those who attended Sunday worship service and engaged in personal devotion on an often or very often basis. The more religious would find questionable ethical scenarios less acceptable. Another finding was that those who have been in the faith for five years and longer appeared to have stronger ethical attitudes than those who were younger in the faith. Those who had been in the faith longer also found the questionable ethical scenarios less acceptable. There was also a positive correlation between the level of religiousness and age as a Christian. These findings are consistent with the findings of the two recent studies conducted by Longenecker et al. (2004) and Conroy and Emerson (2004). From 1,234 respondents drawn from a random sample of 10,000 businesspersons in the United States, Longenecker et al. (2004) found a strong relationship between religion and ethical attitudes. The construct for religion consisted of Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Others (Identified), or No Religion. In the second study, Conroy and Emerson (2004) had a sample of 850 students drawn from two universities, one public and the other private and religiously affiliated. The measure for religiosity was related to the Christian faith. The main finding was that “religiosity is a statistically significant predictor of responses in a number of ethical scenarios” (Conroy & Emerson 2004, p. 383). The measure of religiosity was based on church attendance. It was found that for the vignettes in which religiosity was significant, religiosity reduced the acceptability of these vignettes. The questionnaire survey in Research Paper 2 also tapped into the love of money profile of the respondents using the Love of Money Scale from Luna-Arocas and Tang (2004). Malaysian Christians in business, despite the apparent homogeneity in religious affiliation, can be classified into three different love of money profiles according to their attitudes to money. Those in the different love of money profiles did exhibit different attitudes towards the ethical vignettes presented. It was found that there were significant differences in their attitudes to 16 of the 25 ethical vignettes. The findings of the questionnaire survey are of practical relevance to the Christian business community and the Christian church in Malaysia. If the more religious and those longer in the faith can be expected to exhibit better business ethics and if attitudes towards money can make a difference to ethical awareness then the church and the Christian community may be able to use the findings to encourage Christians in business towards better business behavior. Discussion should ensue to determine what can be done to help Malaysian Christians in business better integrate their faith with their business. To help enrich the discussion and to have a better understanding of the business attitudes of Malaysian Christians in business, this study probed deeper into their actual marketplace experiences as they sought to live a life of faith and at the same time seeking for success in the business arena in Malaysia, a developing country. Objective of study This is a qualitative study which explored the self-declared direct responses from Malaysian Christians in business on their religious activities, their experiences from such activities, as well as their experiences as Christians in business. One of the significant findings in the questionnaire survey in Research Paper 2 was that the more religious were less accepting of some of the ethically questionable scenarios. In arriving at the classification of the more religious and the less religious the data analysis had to rely on the respondents’ participation in Sunday worship service and personal devotion. Using participation in other Christian religious activities like church organized Bible study, church organized prayer meeting and Christian seminars and conferences to demarcate levels of religiousness did not produce any significant differences. It would appear that from the questionnaire survey, personal devotion was a significant religious activity that could make a difference to the ethical attitudes of the respondents. The primary purpose of this Paper 3 is therefore to probe deeper, through in-depth personal interviews, into the perception of Malaysian Christians in business on the relative relevance and importance of each of the commonly available Christian religious activities. If the finding of the questionnaire survey is collaborated that personal devotion is indeed an important and significant religious activity contributing to their business lives, then this activity can be emphasized to the benefit of Christians in business and the church. Therefore, the first research question is: 1. What is the perception of Malaysian Christians in business of the contribution of the various Christian religious activities to their business lives? Although the church plays an active role in promoting the practice of personal devotion, this activity is personal and private and does not require the participation of the church. If church organized religious activities are relatively less relevant to their business lives, then the contribution of the church and the pastors need to be examined. Therefore the next two research questions would be: 2. What is the perception of Malaysian Christians in business of the contribution of the church pastors to their business life? 3. How can the church improve its contribution to the business life of Malaysian Christians in business? Besides enriching the discussion emanating from the questionnaire survey the interviews would also provide an opportunity to probe into the relationship between religion and business as perceived by Malaysian Christians in business. The interviewees would be asked to share on their personal experiences integrating their religious faith and their business lives. As such, a further research question to be addressed in the study is: 4. What is the perception of Malaysian Christians in business as to the influence of religion on their business attitudes? Methodology The Paper 2 questionnaire survey had responses from 300 Malaysian Christians in business. In that study participation was restricted to those who considered themselves as Christians in business attending one of the three selected churches or the designated financial seminar and holding a position of manager or higher in any business enterprise. It was recognized that the designation of manager did not guarantee decision-making capacity. However, the delineation at the title of manager was deemed appropriate to denote some degree of decision making authority. For this study it was decided that the focus must be on those Christians in business with actual decision making authority, i.e., they must be the primary decision makers in their organizations. A list of known Christian owners of businesses and CEOs was compiled from information provided by leaders from the three churches which participated in the questionnaire survey. It was decided that it would be difficult to secure interviews with those really high profiled Christians in business. Moreover, because of their public persona the problem of response bias could be greater. From the remaining names those in the professions like lawyers, accountants, doctors and engineers were left out. The ethical environment that professionals operate under is very much determined by their respective professional bodies. The focus was on owners and CEOs of small-medium sized business enterprises or SMEs. Twelve Malaysian Christians in business were identified to be interviewed for the study. Each of the identified Christians in business was reputed to be successful in his business and attends church regularly. There was no preconception of their religious beliefs, their opinion on the church or their pastors or any other factor which could skew their responses to the interview. The pastors of the three churches were not consulted and their opinions of the selected interviewees were not sought. Some of interviewees could have participated in the questionnaire survey but this was not a point of consideration. As the questionnaire survey was anonymous their participation was not enquired into during the interview. Consent to be interviewed was obtained through an initial telephone call to explain the purpose of the interview and to set up the appointment. Preceding the interview the following procedures were adhered to. A copy of the information letter was handed over to be read by the interviewee. Two copies of the consent form for taping the interview was handed over. The interviewee signed one and returned it to the researcher and kept the other for record. The tape recording was subsequently transcribed. As the responses may not be very grammatical, additional words from the researcher were added within parenthesis, wherever necessary, to enhance clarity. As the interviews are confidential the source of the quotes was identified anonymously as Businessman A to L. The identification alphabet is not related to the interview numbers in Table 1, i.e. Businessman A is not Interviewee No. 1. The profile of the interviewees is summarized in Tables 1 to 3. Ten of the interviewees are owners and CEOs of their own companies. These businesses are constituted as “Sendirian Berhad” or private limited companies. Of the remaining two interviewees, one is a significant shareholder and chairman of two stock exchange listed companies. The other is the Malaysian country-head and managing director of an American multinational company. As is evident from Table 1 the interviewees come from a diverse range of businesses and industries. They are all in their middle age, from 40 to 60 years old with an average age of 49.6 years. Eleven of the interviewees have been in the faith for more than 10 years with 4 of them for more than 20 years. Only one considered himself a younger Christian although he had attended church for some years when growing up. Having departed from the faith some years ago he returned to be a practicing Christian just three years ago. He reckoned his spiritual age to be three years from the time he returned to the faith. Taking this into consideration the average age of the panel in the faith was 21.8 years. Table 1 – Nature of business and position Interviewee No. Description of Business and Position 1 Owner and CEO of a publisher and distributor of professional legal publications 2 Owner and CEO of an engineering company 3 Owner and CEO of an IT company 4 Restaurateur and substantial shareholder of a stock exchange listed bulk mailing company 5 Owner and CEO of a pest control company 6 Owner and CEO of a distributor of engineering parts 7 Owner and CEO of a construction company 8 Owner and CEO of an electrical manufacturing and trading company 9 Significant shareholder and chairman of two stock exchange listed companies 10 Owner and CEO of a printing company 11 Owner and CEO of a distributor for herbal health supplements 12 Malaysian country-head of an American multinational IT company Table 2 – Age of Interviewees Age Group (years) Number 40 to 45 3 46 to 50 5 51 to 55 2 56 to 60 2 Table 3 – Years as Christian Years Number 0 to 5 1 6 to 10 0 11 to 20 7 > 20 4


Each interview took between 40 minutes to one hour 20 minutes with only the researcher and the interviewee present. Ten of the interviews were conducted in the interviewee’s office and two were done in the restaurant of a private members club. With their specific and signed authorization, the interviews were taped and subsequently transcribed. The interview was guided by a set of nine open-ended questions as attached in Appendix 1.


Findings and Discussion

From the interview it was determined that each of the interviewees is the sole or primary decision maker in their respective organization. However, the interviewee who is the country-head of an American multinational would have to work within head office policies and directives. The flexibility to make his own decisions was somewhat restricted. This is reflected in his statement that whatever decision he made must be justifiable and defendable.
The ensuing discussion is arranged in accordance to the 4 research questions which is not in the same order as the questions in the interview guide. Indeed the order had been reversed so that the interviews could progress from the more general issues, allowing the interviewees to feel more at ease, before responding to the more specific issues.



The contribution of Christian religious activities

The first research question looked at the contribution of Christian religious activities to the business life of Malaysian Christian in business. The level of participation in the common Christian activities is summarized in Table 4. All the twelve respondents attended Sunday worship service regularly, i.e. every Sunday. Besides Sunday worship service, the other activities with a consistently high level of participation from all twelve respondents were life group meetings, mid-week fellowship meetings and personal devotion. Life group meeting has become a required Christian activity as churches grow bigger and the pastors are not able to provide pastoral care to the large congregations. These meetings sometimes called “cell meetings” are small groups of around ten to twenty members, usually meeting in the residence of the group leader. As such the leader provides the pastoral care to the individual member. The pastors of the three churches in the questionnaire survey had indicated that approximately 50% of those who regularly attend Sunday worship services would attend these small group meetings. It is not surprising that eleven (92%) of the interviewees attended such meetings often or very often with only one on a fairly often basis. Nine out of the twelve (75%) also participated often or very often in mid-week lunch time fellowship meetings. For this group of Christians in business this was an important activity. The term “personal devotion” is commonly understood in the Christian community to mean a personal time of reading the Bible, reflecting on its teachings and prayer. This is a personal and private activity, usually unobserved by others. Ten (83%) of the interviewees performed this activity very often with two doing it fairly often.

The overall participation level in the other remaining Christian activities was a little patchy, with varying levels of involvement from the respondents. These activities were church organized Bible studies, church organized prayer meetings and Christian seminars and conferences. It would appear that other than Sunday worship service and life group meeting, the participation level in the other church organized activities was relatively low.


Table 4 – Participation in Christian activities
Businessman Sunday Worship Service Bible Study Prayer Meeting Life Group Meeting Seminars and Conferences Mid-week Fellowship Personal Devotion
A 5 3 3 5 3 5 5*
B 5 4 4 5 3 5 5*
C 5 2 1 5 4 5 5*
D 5 5 5 4 3 2 5*
E 5 3 3 5 2 1 5*
F 5 4 3 5* 3 5 5*
G 5 4 5 5 3 5 5*
H 5 5 1 5 1 5 5*
I 5 1 1 4 1 1 5*
J 5 1 3 5 3 5* 3*
K 5 4 2 4 3 4 3*
L 5 2 2 3 3 5* 5
Note: * = contributing most to business life
Key:
1 = Never, 2 = Seldom, 3 = Fairly Often, 4 = Often, 5 = Very Often

It was evident that everyone on the panel was an active and committed Christian. These were not “Sunday Christians” who only attended Sunday worship services. People may attend Sunday worship services for a variety of reasons including, family obligation, to meet people or for social contacts. (Clark & Dawson 1996) However for these Christians with heavy business commitments the willingness to participate consistently in several other religious activities was an indication of their commitment.

From Table 4 it can be seen that the religious activity that was most significant was the activity of personal devotion. It was not only the second most popular activity after Sunday worship service with ten (83%) of the respondents engaging in it very often and the remaining two fairly often, it was also the single activity rated by the panel as contributing most to their business lives; well ahead of all other religious activities including Sunday worship service.

Personal devotion, sometimes called “personal quiet time” is an activity which is private and personal and usually done in the morning soon after waking up or at night just before retiring for the night. Christians are encouraged to make this a daily routine. It involves not just reading the Bible but studying and understanding the teachings. It usually includes a period of meditation and prayer. To engage in this activity requires a personal commitment of time and effort arising from the belief that it contributes to the development and growth of the spiritual life. The commitment and dedication of the practitioner is not noticed by others. Therefore it can be deduced that the practitioner must be deriving some personal benefits from consistently engaging in this practice. Several benefits were quoted by the panel.

Three (25%) of the respondents mentioned that personal devotion helped establish a personal relationship with God. As the term denotes, this is a time of personal encounter with God. The Christian is not listening to a sermon or participating in an activity that involves others. It was seen as an activity that is strictly between God and the Christian. As Businessman A put it:

“The presence of God is so real and that alone is enough knowing that God is with you. And He will guide you and He will lead you. Christianity is not a religion but a relationship.”

The enhancement of the relationship with God was seen as providing a greater degree of confidence to face the challenges of the business world.

“I find that when I have a close relationship (with God) in my devotional life, I find I have more confidence.” (Businessman D)

“Quiet time really prepares you for the day. It gives you the joy and the confidence as well. That is actually very important.” (Businessman A)

Three (25%) of the respondents mentioned that engaging in a personal time of devotion strengthens their faith. For example Businessman E said:

“I think when you are reading the Word you are being inspired, and that becomes the guiding principles. As you read the Word of God it strengthens your faith.”

There were five mentions (42%) of experiencing divine guidance when engaging in this activity. They claimed that the time spent in personal devotion actually helped them directly in their business decisions. This perception means that these Christians in business believed that God was guiding them in their business decisions. This is consistent with what was reported on Francis Yeoh, a prominent Malaysian in business. Yeoh ascribed his phenomenal success to the blessings of God (Baker 2003, Ellis 2002). He was quoted as saying that he “does business with a huge advantage as Christ is his wise advisor” (Ellis 2002). Baker (2003) quoted him as saying, “God and Mammon converge and God wins all the time. You must be master (of Mammon) and not the other way around”. Some of the opinions from this panel include:

“If you want to run a business successfully you have no other choice. You are not running the business yourself but it is your Master who is there to guide you to run the business. If you allow the master to guide you to run the business there is no question that you should fail. His way and not your way, then you should have success upon success, victory upon victory. Quiet time is very very important. “(Businessman C)

“It is very important because sometime in the morning we get insight into the problems that may crop up during the day. Generally speaking this had happened and has helped us to make decisions and prevented us from making major blunders and errors.”(Businessman F)

“(Personal devotion) contributes a lot (to my business life). Before reading the Word of God I always pray first. After reading the Word I will commit to the Lord. That is the time, really the time with God and me. If I believe that God is the most important person and He is the source of wisdom who else better to talk to? “ (Businessman I)

“In making decisions, I need to know my own direction. I spend time and I read the Bible and I pray, I get direction from God what I am supposed to do next.” (Businessman J)

Besides being the second most popular religious activity among the panel, personal devotion was also considered to contribute most to their business lives. Eleven (92%) of the panel rated this activity as most important including two, Businessmen J and K, who engaged in this activity only on a fairly often basis. Only Businessman L, although practising this activity very often, considered the mid-week fellowship to have contributed more to his business life. The reasons given in support of the assertion that it contributed most to their business life are as follows:

“It is really the relationship, the time spent with God alone that has been the most helpful.” (Businessman A)

“Reading the Word and digging into God’s word and understanding it and going to find some books and see what ever does it mean. You initiate. You want to dig deeper. I think that helps me more than going to church.” (Businessman B)

“Devotion is one of the keys because it is a daily discipline that you want to seek out His will and His direction. So having devotion and prayer, that is the key of all. The other activities you have once a week but here you need to have it daily.” (Businessman E)

“We have to be (in) daily contact with God, in communion with God. Sometimes we tend to forget and before we realise it we don’t know what we are doing. We tend to be carried away by our work. When we are in contact with God, in our prayer God is going with us. We recognize the presence of God is there and we remember to look from God’s point of view.” (Businessman G)

“When you spend time reading God’s word, meditating, I think you really have a deeper relationship with God. When you have a deeper relationship with God so you walk with him and a lot of things you will not do, which the world will do you will not do.” (Businessman H)

“if you spend sufficient time with God and in prayer and meditation and sometimes certain decisions you are to make you know deep inside the recesses of your heart you know if it is the right thing to do.” (Businessman J)

The key to the importance of this activity to the panel appeared to be its daily nature which would require discipline. It is also a personal activity which allows time for understanding, reflection and implementation in the daily challenges of business. The other activities are carried out usually on a weekly basis or even of lesser frequency. Although seen as beneficial to their business lives the impact of the other activities appeared to be lower.

All of the panel attended Sunday worship services regularly and consistently. Yet none of the respondents rated this activity as contributing most to their business lives. Although they recognized that the sermons at Sunday worship services were usually not related to their business lives, they acknowledged that Sunday worship services were nonetheless an important part of their spiritual lives. There was an acceptance that the sermons preached did have an impact because what was of general relevance could also be applicable to business situations. It was then a matter of taking the message and interpreting it into their particular business situation to which a spiritual input was desired.

“Sermons shared (are) often relevant to today’s challenges, whether in business or private life. And I learned a lot.” (Businessman B)

“Sermons (are) definitely enriching and refreshing. (They) may not be all the time relevant to our business life. (It) depends on how you adopt the teaching and translate (the) teaching into (your) business life.” (Businessman C)


The contribution of attending Sunday worship was acknowledged. This includes help in decision making:

“There were many occasions that through the Sunday messages it has ministered to me and helped me make decisions especially when you are in a crisis and when in need.” (Businessman A)

“The message(s) shared from the pulpit do impact decisions because it helps me look at the situation in (a) new perspective. A lot of time(s), certain questions in my mind have been answered in a Sunday service. At the same time it has enabled me to focus more on what is really important in life; God.” (Businessman F)

However a contrary opinion was expressed by another:

“When you go to church your main focus is trying to get message from God for your own life, never on the direction for your business.” (Businessman J)

One of them equated the Sunday worship service to a “battery charger”. During the work week he would get so drained that when he attended Sunday worship services he would feel recharged. Generally there was a sense that the practice of coming together to worship God on the Sunday was said to be uplifting and refreshing.

“The worship service itself brings us into contact with God. Reminds us of the presence of God in our life wherever we are. The sermons remind us of the teachings and principles, the personal values about what are the things that should be important to us. Make conscious some of those things that we do (that) we know that it does not please God.” (Businessman G)

“Hearing God’s word increases your faith. It encourages you and especially the steps that you have taken. Time and again it has not failed to inspire and empower (me) to walk with the Lord.” (Businessman E)

The level of participation in the other two church based activities, church organised Bible studies and prayer meetings, was less encouraging. Only six of the twelve (50%) often or very often attended church organized Bible studies. The contribution to their business lives would depend on the topic under study. Generally even for those who attended, the comments seemed to indicate that they did not consider this activity to contribute very meaningfully to their business lives. This activity must not be confused with the personal reading and understanding of the Bible, which is an activity usually taken to be part of “personal devotion”.

Similarly, church organized prayer meeting must not be confused with personal prayer. Usually these prayer meetings focus on general needs. Although personal needs including business needs may be brought up for prayer, the main purpose is usually to intercede for general needs. Only three (25%) of the respondents participated in this activity on an often or very often basis. The contribution to their business lives appeared to be indirect. As the interviewees believed in prayer, engaging in the activity itself enriched their spiritual life. Others who also believed in the power of prayer did not go to church organized prayer meetings.

Christian seminars and conferences may be organized by the church or para-church organizations. Only one (8%) of the respondents participated in this activity on an often basis. For this panel this was considered to be a relatively insignificant activity and its contribution to business life was rather marginal.

Small group meeting, sometimes called life group meeting or cell meeting, was also well attended by members of the panel. Eleven (92%) of the respondents participated in this activity on an often or very often basis while the remaining one rated his attendance as fairly often. Although he valued the benefit of such meetings his travelling schedule precluded him from more regular participation. Such groups are usually organized by the church according to geographic location. As there is no standard format the effectiveness of such small groups depends very much on the leader as well as the participants. Seven (58%) of the interviewees commented positively on the benefits of these small group meetings. The structure of the small groups allows for the building up of relationship in an atmosphere of mutual trust and support. It allows for intimate sharing of personal issues including problems and needs. As the churches grow too big the small groups are the basic source of pastoral care. Of the seven with positive comments, six (86%) responded that they did bring up business issues at such meetings for prayer especially for help in decision making and to pray for resolution of business problems. One of the respondents related how it was difficult for him to give up a business deal. He was however encouraged by those in the small group who supported his decision.

“I find life group very helpful. We encourage one another. We really build each other up. Life group support is very important. If the church has grown too big the pastor cannot respond to the needs of every individual.” (Businessman C)

But one respondent, Businessman K, opined that these small group meetings were just a time of fellowship. He would not take his business problems or issues to the small group meeting. He deemed it inappropriate as the people there would not be able to relate to the issues. He would not even ask them to pray over the issues as they would not have the necessary understanding to pray intelligently. He preferred to take his needs to those who are involved in business. This may be because most of these groups are organized according to geographic proximity and may have various mix of participants. Some groups may not have a good representation of Christians in business to be able to contribute meaningfully to business issues.

For this group of Christians in business the mid-week fellowship meeting was also an important activity. These meetings are usually held during the lunch hour on a working day. The most popular day was Friday when the governmental offices have an extended lunch hour lasting about two hours for Muslims to go for their Friday prayers. Nine (75%) of the respondents attended this activity often or very often with eight in the very often category. The remaining one was restricted by his travelling schedule. Of the nine who attended these meetings, eight (89%) were attending the meetings organized by the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship Malaysia. The other one, Businessman L, attended a meeting that he organised for his industry. The main ingredient of such meetings is the sharing of personal testimonies: the personal experiences relating to what God has done in their lives and how God has helped them or provided for them. All those who participated in this activity found that it was helpful to their business lives.

“There are some good testimonies that men shared. I think the FGB (Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship) has been a great blessing to businessmen. Where others are struggling and they can hear how this person has struggled and how the Lord has helped him and guided him and also the number of men who come out and share how they stood up for God in the business world and how the Lord has opened doors for them. As you begin to apply faith, as you begin to honour God and see what happens.” (Businessman A)

“Because they are working people and businessmen. Yes, the others see how God is working in their lives and it encourages the others.” (Businessman B)

“The midweek FGB meeting has been very very helpful. I get to meet a lot of Christians who are also in business and we help each other. We also have prayer meetings and get to help others in trouble. We pray with them. I don’t just pray for them. Sometimes when they are really in need I help them with action.” (Businessman H)

“All of us have our ups and downs moments, our mountain moments and our valley moments. And in those valley moments we need people who will be there to encourage us, admonish us with the Word. It is lonely when you are a leader up there. You need to know there are people behind you, praying for you and supporting you.” (Businessman J)

The usefulness of the mid-week fellowship meeting appeared to be the mutual support afforded to the participants through the sharing of personal experiences, advice and encouragement. Businessman L rated this activity as contributing most to his business life. This may be due to the fact that the mid-week fellowship meeting that he attended was organised by him and was industry specific. All the participants were from the same industry and the business issues faced by Businessman L would be familiar to most, if not all, of the participants.

From the above discussion the importance of personal devotion is apparent. Whilst all the activities are seen to be contributing to their business lives, directly or indirectly, the one activity deemed to be contributing most was the personal time spent reading the Bible, meditating and praying. This addressed the first research question. Therefore it can be concluded that this group of Malaysians Christians in business considered personal devotion to be the single most important religious activity to their business lives. The other activities were seen to contribute indirectly. As these other activities strengthened the spiritual life the business life would also benefit.

This finding is relevant and consistent with the finding of the questionnaire survey. In the questionnaire survey, combining Sunday worship service with any one or more of the other activities did not produce significant differences in business ethical attitudes except when combined with the activity of personal devotion. It was found that those who were more intense in the practice of the two religious activities, Sunday worship service and personal devotion, displayed better ethical attitudes. As such the finding from the questionnaire survey is collaborated.


The contribution of church pastors

The second research question looked at the contribution of the church pastors to the business life of Malaysian Christian in business. When asked on whether they had ever discussed business issues with their pastors, only one had. The remaining eleven (92%) had never discussed business issues with their church pastors. The responses are summarised in Table 5. Of the eleven, six (55%) of them responded that in their view, the church pastors and leaders had not contributed to their business lives. The remaining five (45%) felt that the contribution was indirect; through the influence and impact of the pastors upon their spiritual lives. As Christianity is a holistic religion, the spiritual life was seen as encompassing all of life, including their business lives. Biblical principles received at sermons and other church organized activities would also be applicable in the business world. Even the one who had discussed business issues with his pastors felt that the contribution was more in the spiritual realm than direct relevance to business. Examples of comments are:

“They have contributed more to my spiritual life than (to) my business life. As they put my spiritual life on the right track my business (life) also follows the right track. In that sense they have contributed more to my spiritual life than my business life.” (Businessman A)

“(For) every business issue, every business situation, there is a Biblical principle in its application. Even though they may not be able to give you subject matter expertise or be able to help you through a business situation; they give you the Biblical principle. It is really the application of the Biblical principle that will get you out of a situation or take you through a business situation.” (Businessman L)


Table 5 – Contribution of church pastors to business life
Pastors contribute to business life Discuss business issues with pastors
Number Percent Number Percent
Yes - - 1 8
Indirect 6 50 - -
No 6 50 11 92
TOTAL 12 100 12 100


One of the reasons for the perceived lack of contribution from the pastors was the acceptance that the role of the pastor is in the spiritual dimension only. There was little expectation that the pastor would be able to contribute to their business lives.

“The spiritual is their calling and business is, maybe, our calling.” (Businessman B)

“I believe that different people got different strengths and different offices. I think the office of the church and ministry of the church is different and the calling is different.” (Businessman J)

The second common reason was the opinion that pastors are not adequately competent to contribute. They do not understand business and the issues confronting the Christian in business. Most pastors would have come directly from theological schools and would not have any hands-on experience in the marketplace. Four (33%) of the respondents specifically mentioned that they did not think the pastors could understand.

“They do not know how. They do not understand the need. They cannot help much because they don’t understand.” (Businessman B)

“All these years as a Christian I really don’t find that the pastors or leaders of the church are able to contribute much to my business life, truly. They find it a sensitive matter to touch into your personal business situation.” (Businessman C)

Without a personal understanding of the issues, problems and ethical dilemmas that are prevalent in the business world, the pastors would not be able to help the Christians in business navigate through the so-called “grey areas”. However an exception was made for those pastors who had have marketplace experiences before becoming full-time ministers. One of the respondents suggested that he would consult his pastor if the pastor had previous business experience.

“Provided the pastors have been in business before. Otherwise it is quite difficult for them to understand the issues facing the businessmen.” (Businessman G)

Another gave the example of his own pastor who was previously a medical doctor. He felt that his pastor would be able to contribute, yet he had never brought up any business issue with his pastor. The other reason for not involving the pastors in their business lives was that the church congregation may be too large for the pastors to be in the position to minister to each Christian in business individually. The physical constraints just would not allow for personal business issues to be handled by the pastors in the church. Four of the respondents suggested that the pastors, especially those with big congregations, might simply be too busy for them.

“I try not to consult the pastors simply because the pastors are too busy.” (Businessman F)

“We do not discuss business issues with the pastor maybe because we do not want to trouble him. He has a big congregation. They may not be in the mainstream of business to understand your situation. So to bring a business problem to them, they may not have the background to understand.” (Businessman I)

This finding that church pastors had little or no direct influence on the business life of Christians in business is consistent with the findings of Nash (2001) and Van Buren (1998). They both recognized the great distance between pew and pulpit on questions of business. Business people are distrustful that the church can understand their roles and responsibilities, much less help them in their walk of faith in business. Nash (2000) quoted a business person saying;

“I’d like to do things differently, but it is not an option for me to adopt a strategy that suspends all rules of capitalism and depends on charity to create a financially viable business. Can’t my church offer something to say that doesn’t put me out of business?” (p. 2)

Van Buren (1998) contended that,
“Helping business people in the church make the Monday Connection – that is, bringing what they learn on Sunday to bear in their lives on Monday – is one of the least studied areas in Christian education.” (p. 449)

Recognizing this challenge, Van Buren (1998) highlighted three difficulties that erode the church’s influence over how Christians make ethical decisions in the marketplace. The specialization in careers has led to an inadequate knowledge of the specifics. The mobility of workers prevented the build up of close community relationship. The clergy is uncomfortable in discussing marketplace ethics. Van Buren (1998) deemed it a pivotal role for the church to help Christians make the Monday Connection. Otherwise, he claimed, the church would be of little use to its members.

In answer to the second research question, the responses from the interviews suggested that by and large the church pastors were not perceived to have contributed to the business life of Malaysian Christians in business. Due to the size of the congregation they were seen as being too busy to provide pastoral care to individual Christian in business. More importantly they were seen as lacking the necessary business knowledge or skills to interact meaningfully with Christians in business or to be able to appreciate and understand the business issues involved. As such there was little or no expectation from Christians in business that church pastors can contribute to their business lives. In short they had not contributed and were not expected to. This perception was extended to the third research question.
How the church can better contribute

The third research question explored how the church can better contribute to the business life of Malaysian Christians in business. When asked to suggest how the church can better contribute to their business lives, six (50%) of the respondents felt that the role of the church might not be in the area of business. The church’s contribution was viewed as indirect. The church was seen as a place of belonging, a spiritual home providing peace and solace. Through a peaceful mind, “God will give you insight, wisdom and knowledge to think more clearly and steer you in the right direction in life”. (Businessman C) The church helps build up the spiritual life, “because if our inner spirit is strong we are going out with much healthier attitude towards business and life and more positive in every situation” (Businessman G). The spiritual life was seen as encompassing all areas of life including the business life. There was therefore low expectation that the church can or should attempt to contribute directly to the believers’ business life. This was reflected in the suggestions as to how the church can improve its contribution.

Only two positive suggestions were made for the church to contribute more in this area. Both suggestions would not involve the pastors, although one respondent suggested that pastors should acquire business knowledge. Eight (66%) of the respondents felt that the church should encourage the development of small groups in which Christians in business can come together to share of their experiences and to seek counsel and support from each other. These would be very much like the life groups or cell groups. The only difference would be that the proposed groups would be homogenous in that it is made up entirely of Christians in business. Two of them specifically credited the Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship for spearheading this activity for Christians in the marketplace.

Three (25%) of the respondents further suggested that a programme of mentoring be instituted to help those younger and newer in the faith. When faced with the potential loss of business or the prospect of a financial disaster the younger Christians can become fearful. This may lead them to compromise Biblical principles and Christian teachings in order to keep the business viable. It was said that the younger Christians would have difficulty in resisting the intense emotional and mental pressure. It would be at such times that those who have gone through the vagaries of the business world and the ups and downs of the economy can stand alongside those weaker in faith. They can provide the support and encouragement for the younger Christians to persevere and not compromise.

The above two suggestions are in line with the proposals put forth by Van Buren (1998). Besides a seven-week Sunday-school course on business ethics, his proposal included an ethics support group which would meet regularly to discuss work situations and to offer assistance to group members.

“What is needed is some sort of communal experience to bring people interested in connecting faith and work together to talk about their experiences.” (Van Buren 1998, p. 458)

The answer to the third research question appears to be that the best the church can do is to encourage Christians in business to help each other. The church can encourage and facilitate the setting up of groups of Christians in business for mutual support and help. The process should also include a system of mentoring of those younger in the faith by those older.


The influence of religion on some general business attitudes

The fourth research question looked at the influence of religion on a number of general business attitudes of Malaysian Christian in business. These attitudes were deduced from responses to the first six questions in the interview guide. These attitudes included the way they do business, attitude towards business success, the tension between serving God and mammon, attitude towards money, the relevance of Biblical teachings in the business world, and the business ethics of non- Christians.


Influence of religion on the way they do business

As an overview, the entire panel believed that being a Christian did affect the way they do business. Elaborating, six (50%) of them mentioned specifically that they did not give bribes or engage in corrupt practices although this might be a common practice in the business environment in Malaysia. In refusing to participate in such activities they might have lost business opportunities. They also would not go to certain places engaging in business entertainment which they deemed to be inappropriate although this again might be a common business practice. This would include night clubs or massage parlours where women are available for immoral activities. Conversely, one of them mentioned that he would not accept bribes to do any favor although he had been offered many times.

The Malaysian country-head of the American multinational stated that his business practices were somewhat controlled by in-company code of conduct which he viewed as being very Biblical in nature. For example, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 in the United States governs how his company would do business in other countries. Nonetheless, when he exhibited integrity and Christian-like behavior he found that even non-Christians would respect him more. This view was shared by Businessman J who believed that being a Christian gave him “an added advantage” in that even non-Christians would trust a Christian a bit more.

Another of the respondents, Businessman H, acknowledged that in his personal experience, being a Christian had great impact on the way he did business. His business practices before and after becoming a Christian were from a “totally different value system, totally different world”. Even his language changed. He no longer used the vulgarity common in the language of business people in his industry. In so doing he found himself no longer treated as part of the participants in that particular industry.

Three of them, Businessmen B, E and F, mentioned that as Christians they emphasized on the quality of their services and products. They kept their promises. Integrity to Businessman E was expressed as “under-promise and over-deliver” as differing from the common practice of over-promise and under-deliver. He also complied with all governmental requirements, refusing to cut-corners to save costs. Another of the respondents declared that he would not sell pirated products or pass off pirated products as genuine.

Businessman B was more philosophical and said that being a Christian gave him a deeper purpose for his business; an enduring purpose that would last. “When I benchmark my purpose and core values with others in my industry, they have different values and different purposes”. He added that many of them were his good friends but their values were different.

Generally, the perception of the panel was that the business world is corrupt. As Christians the effect on the way they do business was that they could not be involved in certain practices even though these may well be generally accepted business practices in the community. Their refusal to engage in these practices may adversely affect the viability of their businesses. They may lose business deals and may even be ostracized as outsiders in that they do not exhibit the usual traits common in the business. As a consequence they would have to suffer. On the other hand some believed that because of their practices people will get to trust them more.

The propensity to conform to the dominant business practices was highlighted by Rashid and Ho (2003). In their study, they concluded that in Malaysia, the Malays and Indians in business adopted the business practices of the Chinese who play a dominant role in Malaysian business. Therefore, it was noteworthy that the respondents in the interview panel chose to project the image that they were counter-culture and would not conform to common business practices if these practices were deemed to be unacceptable to their faith. From their comments it would appear that their religion did make a significant difference in the way they do business.


Attitude towards success in business

These self-declared differences in business attitudes may appear to put the Christians in business at a disadvantage. However, this apparent disadvantage did not seem to dampen their belief that they can be successful in business whilst maintaining their faith; i.e., they can be successful Christians and successful businessmen at the same time. There was general consensus (100%) that they can.
Only five (42%) of the respondents submitted that to be successful in business whilst maintaining a strong Christian witness would be a struggle and would be a challenge. The challenge was not only to withstand the temptation of compromising Biblical teachings on issues like bribery and corruption but also to be able to maintain staff loyalty who may not understand why they were not allowed to practice what would be viewed as common in the business environment in Malaysia. One of the respondents mentioned that when he decided to stop engaging in corrupt practices he lost his entire sales team. The team members felt that without the additional inducement they would not be able to conclude any sales. In other words, they simply could not do business without conforming to the expectations of the market.

The difficulties in maintaining a Christian witness whilst striving for business success also depend on the particular industry. The respondent from the construction industry said it was “very difficult”. Similarly the one supplying power equipment to the construction industry was of the same view. It is generally perceived that construction and contracting are business activities most susceptible to bribery and corruption. On the other hand the restaurateur did not have such issues in his industry.

It would appear that their confidence that they can be successful in business despite their refusal to conform to common but unacceptable business practices flowed from their faith that their God will give them the success. Six of the respondents (50%) indicated that they can be successful in business whilst maintaining their faith because God was helping them. They attributed their successes to their God blessing them, honoring them or providing for them. Such confidence was embodied in statements like:

“The Lord has given us all wisdom and he is the provider.” (Businessman A)

“I believe that being successful in business and being successful as a Christian is one. There is no separation.” (Businessman B)

“You can be successful because God singles you out to bless you.” (Businessman J)

“If you believe and have the faith in God; basically, if you honor God and (have the) faith to believe, He will honor you and His favor is on you. I have seen in my personal dealings, when we stand firm God’s favor will come in. If we put God first we see his favor and everything else will follow. If you put God first in our business dealings all else will follow; not just relationships, not just financials, not just projects, everything in totality will just follow.” (Businessman L)

Another reason for their confidence was that they believed that their Christian values would help them conduct their business with integrity and honesty. These were traits that they believed contribute to business success. This was mentioned by six of them (50%). Some of the comments are:

“When you are able to adopt the good character or godly character then I believe that when you come into the business environment and carry with you the godly character then people who are dealing with you will feel more comfortable.” (Businessman C)

“It has proven over time that this type of ethical behaviour ultimately will give us better survivability and better success.” (Businessman F)

In my experience people trusted us more in terms of the integrity, in terms of the decisions we make and the words we say. They may not be Christians. They may not be believers but the very fact that they see us exhibiting the integrity and the Christian like behaviour they actually respect us more.” (Businessman L)


The tension in serving God and serving money

Nash (1994) found that for Christians in business there is a constant tension arising from the ethical dilemmas they face. They would find themselves in situations where they would have to decide between serving God and serving mammon. Some may choose to ignore the tension or pretend it does not exist. It is in dealing with the tension and seeking acceptable and appropriate resolution to the tension that a Christian in business would be able to integrate faith and business. From the present panel of twelve, five (42%) of the respondents felt that they did not experience any such tension in their business whilst seven (58%) related how they dealt with the tension.

Of those who said that they experienced no such tension the reasons given seemed to indicate that when confronted with an ethical dilemma, they automatically knew what to do. Profits and money was not a contender in the decision making process. Although making money is important for the business they did not focus on that aspect of the business. There was the belief that God will provide.

“God will prosper those who believe in Him.” (Businessman B)

“Actually there is not much tension because when we say that we serve God, we actually serve only God. So profit is actually secondary.” (Businessman F)

“We don’t serve money. We do business we will make money. We don’t pray to money. Serve God, yes, we do serve God. We know our purpose.” (Businessman K)

“Why is it that we have difficulty trusting God? That if we commit to put God first then He will take care of the business. Why is it that we have this struggle in the business world among Christian businessmen? It is because that we just cannot accept the fact that God in His supreme order has the capacity to bless us if we were to honour Him first.” (Businessman L)


For those experiencing the tension it would appear that the tension came from the countervailing forces of the potential profits and the difficulty in engaging in some required yet religiously unacceptable business practices. To make the decision on the side of God and sacrifice the potential profits would not be an easy decision. As one respondent remarked:

“The tension is definitely there. We must be able to lose. We must be able to say, ‘No, this is God’s way’. And then we hold on to it and God will do things differently.” (Businessman H)

Although they felt the tension they maintained that they would still make the right decision, i.e., on the side of God. This was especially so in situations where Biblical principles were quite clear. They knew they simply could not do it. In situations where it was not so clear they would seek the counsel of others and they would pray over the decision. Their ability to still make the right decision was founded on the same belief that God will provide.

“I think if we put God first, as the Bible says, ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Money can buy everything but it really can’t buy happiness. I wouldn’t compromise to make money. At the end it is what you want. I think I want God more than mammon.” (Businessman A)

“It is an uphill task, a tremendous challenge. When you want to make profits you will have to sometimes do something that is not right in the eyes of God. In my business I have been suffering in this aspect which to me has been a great great tussle. But thank God, I really looked up to God and been able to really seek God’s direction and been able to put things in place. The tension is always there. I do feel the tension but I will not allow this tension to affect my decisions. I would go back to God and ask God for direction. And if I don’t feel peace I don’t do. Even if I have to sacrifice profit I don’t do.” (Businessman C)

“There is always the choice to make. Unless we are constantly in contact with the Word of God, then we will (not) make the right choice, and choose the way of God. If we are clear that we are there not to just make profit but we are ambassadors for Christ, then we won’t feel so hurt.” (Businessman G)

“Money is not the motivating factor. It must not be the motivating factor. I do not pursue after money. I pursue to do my responsibility, whatever I have to do and do it properly. The fruit of it is the money. The money will come by itself.” (Businessman J)

One of the respondents, Businessman I, pointed out that the definition of “serving God and serving mammon” must be made. It would not be appropriate to apply the Biblical principles blindly. He asserted that although working on Sundays is prohibited by the Bible in that it is equated with the Sabbath day, this principle would not be practical if you are in the hotel business. You have to be open for business seven days a week. Similarly if you are a fund manager managing investments on behalf of clients you cannot insist that you do not purchase so-called “sin stocks”, e.g. shares in companies involved in gaming and alcoholic beverages. You may not invest in those shares yourself but buying those shares on behalf of clients cannot amount to serving mammon. A blind application of Biblical principles would not be wise. Nonetheless he maintained that, “if there is a clear departure from the Word of God then don’t do it. Have to honour God and refrain from doing it.”

The tension between serving God and serving mammon has to do with the respondents’ attitude towards money. All the respondents claimed that when faced with the ethical dilemmas they would choose to serve God and forego money. For those who did not feel the tension between serving God and mammon, it was either that their businesses did not present such situations to them or that they would not even consider violating Biblical principles for the sake of money.


Attitudes towards Money

When asked to comment on how their faith has affected their attitude towards money, five (42%) of the respondents viewed money as important or very important but then not as important as God was to them. Typical responses were as follows:

“To me money is very important. That is for sure. Otherwise why are we working? But I don’t think it is so important that it is going to control us. But if you don’t place money as the first priority then this would (not) be a problem.” (Businessman D)

“Biblical teaching (has) affected my attitudes towards money tremendously. I view money as important but not to the extent of sacrificing everything for the sake of money. There are other things that are more important that money can’t buy like relationships.” (Businessman F)

“Money is important but you must be able to take charge of it, you must be on top of it rather than let money influence you. Money is Important but not so important now.” (Businessman H)


To Businessman B:

“Money is important when you need it. If you don’t need it money is not important. I need money to meet the need. And you cannot serve both masters. The Bible says you serve God you cannot serve money. And I am serving God. And I know God will provide the money. Serve God and do His will and purpose.”

But he added:
“Money was not my driving factor. Was never my driving factor. And I said money will come if you do a good work. In business we want to make money but our priority is to do good work.” (Businessman B)
Two (17%) of the respondents viewed money as unimportant. It would appear that to them money was not a motivator:

“I don’t view money as a very big issue. I always say that life is a like a game of chess. Some are kings, some are pawns and some are castles. When the game is over, all go back into the box. So it does not matter whether you are a very rich man or fantastically rich man. The objective is to live your life and to live it right.” (Businessman J)

“Don’t chase after money. Do what you have to do and let money chase after you. A person who chase(s) money is always a poor person. A miserable businessman.” (Businessman K)

Four of the respondents (33%) specifically mentioned that money was a responsibility from God. This is consistent with the view that Christians are merely stewards for God. Indeed some may even view their businesses as such.

“We are the stewards. God has handed money to us.” (Businessman G)

“I ask God for wisdom how to handle money and also to earn money. Money must be money earned with honour, that we honour God by earning the money. We also spend the money in honour of God.” (Businessman I)

“The money that I am having here how am I going to use it? I think it is a question of accountability and responsibility towards the money that has been entrusted into our hand.” (Businessman L)

For this panel religion had affected their attitude towards money. Even for the 42% of the respondents who viewed money as important the profit imperative of business did not seem to be the dominant determinant. They seemed to be able to moderate the importance of money in their lives and were unwilling to compromise their faith for money. They claimed to draw guidance and direction from their faith and their God when looking at money. The Bible and Biblical teachings were said to be their guide.


Relevance of Biblical teachings to the business world.

All twelve of the respondents maintained that they were guided by Biblical principles in their running of their businesses. There was a strong conviction among the group that Biblical principles are still relevant today although they acknowledged that the business environment was getting more difficult. They saw the Bible as very relevant to their businesses. They claimed to have obtained insight from their religion and their religious activities in business decision making, direction and choices in business. Some even claimed that following Biblical principles would lead to business success. A typical response was:

“The more I spend time with God, the older I get, the more I realise that had I had that knowledge of God or (His) Word I think I would have been a lot more successful. It is still certainly applicable because God’s Word is a living word. If we are to apply Christian principles I think we will be even more successful in business. There are laws, precepts, guidelines, teachings in the Word of God to add on to our own strength. That is why Christians are very privileged. We have access to all those wisdom that comes from the Word of God.” (Businessman I)


The majority of the respondents conveyed the impression that it was in the application of the principles that produced the results. This was evident in the recounting of how they personally applied the principles in particular situations. One respondent declared,

“I think definitely you can have success in business. It is how close we can follow. “ (Businessman K)

It was claimed that the relevance of Biblical teachings to the business world eclipsed the more current principles pronounced by the latest management gurus. The country head of the American multi-national recalled reading a current top selling management book on a recent trip overseas. After reading it, he was of the opinion that he would have got more useful business guidance from the Bible than that book. He commented:

“Biblical principles are so clear on leadership, on accountability, on succession planning. Every aspect of leadership is all in the Bible. I think it is very very relevant. In fact it will get even more relevant.” (Businessman L)

This was echoed by another:

“The Bible way is better. If you subscribe to such values, (values from secular management gurus) then you would want to go, go, go and then you will struggle. You push yourself. You let others push you and then you will suffer. God’s ways are different from the world’s ways.” (Businessman H)

Three of them (25%) suggested that a good proportion of secular management principles are in fact adapted from the Bible. Principles taught by popular management writers like Stephen Covey and John Maxwell were said to be derived from Biblical teachings adapted to fit into today’s business environment. However one of the three cautioned that Biblical principles must be transposed into the modern day environment. The principles are still relevant and applicable but in applying them, consideration must be given to the changes in the nature and structure of business in the last two thousand years. Even the monetary currencies are different.

The popular concept of achieving “win-win” solutions with competitors was mentioned by three (25%) of the respondents. They attributed their practice of this principle to the Bible. It was the Bible which taught them to initiate such win-win approaches when faced with competitors who may not be even practicing Christian principles.


Business ethics of non-Christians

Of the twelve respondents, eleven (92%) felt that the business ethics of non-Christians were different from those of Christians. The one not giving an opinion avoided the question and instead talked about the general state of integrity and accountability. All the eleven with an opinion commented that as a group, generally Christians are more ethical than non-Christians. Two of them illustrated their responses from their own change in ethical attitudes, comparing their ethical attitudes when they were not Christians and after they became Christians. After becoming Christians the same or similar ethical situations would have drawn completely different responses. As Christians there are certain things they just would not do.

One of the respondents compared his personal ethical attitudes to those of his non-Christian partners. As a result of the perceived incompatibility he had to separate from them.

“My partners in Singapore, their ethics are different. They are very worldly, their ethics are different. That is the reason why I separated from them. I have struggled with them. Their priorities are different, their interests are different. They are prepared to do a lot of things just to benefit them.” (Businessman B)

However, seven of them (58%) took pains to mention that not all Christians are ethical. All twelve (100%), including the one who did not respond specifically to the question, mentioned during the course of the interviews that they had unpleasant experiences of unethical business conduct from Christians. Church attendance, and the label, “Christian”, would not be a guarantee of integrity. This was specifically mentioned by five (42%) of the respondents.

All the eleven who responded mentioned that non-Christians can also be ethical in their business conduct. They personally had experienced very ethical business behavior from non-Christians. Four (33%) mentioned that those who fear God are usually more ethical than those who do not have a religion and two of them specifically mentioned those from the Muslim faith. Indeed two of the respondents suggested that some non-Christians are actually following Christian principles:

“I think they abide by Biblical principles without knowing them.” (Businessman C)

It may seem odd but the responses seem to show that although they had bad experiences with Christians and they acknowledged that some non-Christians are very ethical, yet they still believed that generally Christians are more ethical than non-Christians.


Giving preference to Christians

The assertion that Christians are more ethical than non-Christians may generate a tendency to trust Christians more. This was admitted to by three (25%) of the respondents. This could explain the response to the question of giving preference or priority to Christians. Five (83%) of the six who responded were very clear that they would give preference or priority to Christians in their business decisions, all things being equal. Besides the perceived higher degree of trust, the most frequently quoted reason for giving preference was that “the Bible teaches us to help our brothers” (Businessmen C, G and H). Being of the same faith “puts us on the same page” (Businessman F), sharing the same vision and making communication easier.

“We will always favour Christian businesses because they are our brothers, particularly those who are underdogs. We try to give them a chance. Generally we try to help them a little bit more, simply because they are our brothers and we have a relationship.” (Businessman F)

However they claimed not to practise double standards in that all employees are treated equally, Christians and non-Christians. This appeared contradictory. However, this apparent contradiction could be reconciled through the application of the condition, “all things being equal”. As such being a Christian can be an added advantage in situations where the prerequisites for consideration were already met.

This has to be contrasted to the one who stated that he would not give preference to Christians.

“Being a Christian is not a passport to everything. It is not like a blank cheque. He has to earn it. And there are Christians who failed me as well. All are equal.” (Businessman B)

On further probing it was discovered that his position was similar to that of the others, i.e., all things being equal he would give preference to Christians.

It can be concluded that these six Christians in business would usually give preference and priority to other Christians, all things being equal. This could be attributed to their general belief that Christians are more trustworthy and being of the same faith facilitated understanding and communication. This attitude of preference to Christians did not seem to be affected by the acknowledgement that non-Christians can also be ethical and that not all Christians are ethical. It would appear that the preference was driven by Biblical obligation to help the brethren.


Conclusions

From the responses of these twelve Malaysian Christians in business it would appear that their religion has a dominating and profound influence on their business lives and their business attitudes. Business conduct and ethics as well as their attitude towards money were said to be guided by Biblical principles and Christian teachings. There are business practices that may be common and generally accepted in the Malaysian business arena but not acceptable within their faith. As Christians they said they would not compromise their religion and engage in such practices. As a result they may suffer business disadvantages. However, they believed that their God will somehow honor their faith and help them still succeed in business. When it came to the crunch, Christian religious imperatives were said to supercede business imperatives.

Their faith in God can be said to be nurtured through involvement and participation in religious activities. Whilst Sunday worship service was the foremost religious activity that all of them engaged in, the activity seen to contribute most to their business life was the time spent in personal devotion: reading the Bible, meditating and reflecting on the “Word of God” and in prayer. This is a personal and private activity which does not require the participation of the church or others. Church organized activities including the Sunday worship services were seen as having significantly lower contribution. As such church pastors did not appear to have any direct contribution to their business lives. They did not seek input from pastors on business issues as they did not believe that they can contribute in any meaningful way. Pastors were seen as contributing essentially to their spiritual lives. However, Christianity was seen as a holistic religion and the building up of their spiritual life would therefore flow into their business life. The Church can help them better integrate their faith and business through the setting up of homogenous small groups of business people to share experiences and provide mutual support and encouragement. A system of older and more experienced Christians in business providing mentoring to those younger in the faith can help the younger ones resist the temptation to compromise in the face of adversities. Although these proposed activities would not involve the participation of the pastors, the Church can be instrumental in initiating the activities.


Limitation of the Study

The panel of interviewees was drawn from those known to the researcher as representative of Christians in business, i.e., they were known to the researcher to be practicing Christians and they were owners and/or CEOs of established businesses. The sample was only twelve from the three churches with Sunday congregations in excess of one thousand. As such the results may not be generalized to the Christian business community in Malaysia.

The potential for selection bias and social desirability bias is acknowledged as each of the interviewee was known to the researcher as well as having a presence in the Christian community. By their own admission they were also known within their respective business segment as practicing Christians. The responses could be biased towards what was ethically acceptable within the context of the Christian religion. However, the responses on the contribution of various Christian activities and the contribution of church pastors appeared to be candid. What they shared was somewhat critical of the church and the pastors.

The interviews tapped into business attitudes and not business behavior. Although examples and illustrations were sometimes volunteered in support of their ethical decisions, this study was not able to enhance our appreciation of what they would actually do in situations of ethical dilemmas. What they said they would do and what they would actually do may be quite different. However, if attitudes are ethical, behavior may follow suit. If attitudes are unethical it would be unlikely that behavior could be otherwise. It is hoped that this study has extended our understanding of the self-declared business attitudes of Malaysian Christians in business as influenced by their religion.































Appendix 1
Interview Guide


1. From your own business life, how does being a Christian affect the way you do business?

2. Is it possible to be both a successful Christian and a successful businessman? Would this be generally representative of Christians in business or would the opposite be more true, that is, Christians who are successful in business are usually not very good Christians?

3. The Bible says you cannot serve both God and Mammon. But for a business to be viable it must make profits. What has been your experience in dealing with tension arising from these two demands?

4. How has the Bible and Christian teachings affected your attitudes towards money?

5. Can the Bible and Christian teachings be relevant to the business world today which is getting more and more complex and competitive?

6. From your experience do you see any difference in the business ethics of Christians and non-Christians? Where are the differences?

7. How often do you participate in the common Christian activities listed below? How has each of these Christian activities helped you in your business life particularly in making business decisions?

• Sunday worship service
• Church organized Bible study
• Church organised prayer meeting
• Life group meetings
• Christian seminars and conferences
• Mid-week fellowship meeting
• Personal devotion or quiet time


8. In your years as a Christian in what ways has the church, your pastors and church leaders been able to contribute to your business life?

9. In you opinion how can the church be of more help to you in your business life? What can the church do? What are you prepared to do?



Notes

1 Besides Francis Yeoh, the others were Tony and Alicia Tiah of TA Enterprise
Berhad and Khoo Kay Peng of MUI Group.

2 The term “mammon” as used in the Christian Bible is taken to mean money or
riches.


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