Violation of Buddhist Five Precepts,Money Consciousness,and the Tendency to Pay Bribes among Organizational Employees in Bangkok,Thailand

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between violation of the Buddhist Five Precepts (Buddhist code of ethics), money consciousness, and the tendency to pay bribes among organizational employees in Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 385 organizational employees in Bangkok participated in the study. Structural equation models were used to test the relationships. The fitted model shows a mediation effect of money consciousness on the relationship between violation of the Buddhist Five Precepts and the tendency to pay bribes. Results indicate that the extent of violation of the Buddhist Five Precepts is associated with money consciousness to predict the tendency to pay bribes. Observing the Buddhist Five Precepts and not allowing money consciousness to influence behaviors may reduce ethical problems.

Keywords

money consciousness Buddhist Five Precepts bribe payments corruption

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abbink

(2004). Staff rotation as an anti-corruption policy: An experimental study. European Journal of Political Economy, 20(4), 887–906.

Argandona

(2005). Corruption and companies: The use of facilitating payments. Journal of Business Ethics, 60, 251–264.

Ariyabuddhiphongs

(2007). Money consciousness and the tendency to violate the Five Precepts among Thai Buddhists. [Research]. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 17(1), 37–45.

Ariyabuddhiphongs

& Jaiwong

(2010). Observance of Buddhist Five Precepts, subjective wealth, and happiness among Buddhists in Bangkok, Thailand. Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 32, 327–344.

Bailes

(2006). Facilitation payments: Culturally acceptable or unacceptably corrupt? Business Ethics: A European Review, 15(3), 293–298.

Bandura

(1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Bangkok Post. (2008, July 9). Verdicts hammer govt., p. 1.

Bangkok Post. (2008, October 22). Thaksin convicted, p. 1.

Bangkok Post. (2010, August 8). Thai tobacco officials “took B62m bribes.” Retrieved from http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/190021/thai-tobacco-officials-took-b190062m-bribes.

10.

Bose

(2004). Bureaucratic delays and bribe-taking. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 54(3), 313–320.

11.

Byrne

B. M.

(1998). Structural equation modeling with LISREL, PRELIS, and SIMPLIS: Basic concepts, application, and programming. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

12.

Chang

C. S.

Chang

N. J.

& Freese

B. T.

(2001). Offering gifts or offering bribes? Code of ethics in South Korea. Journal of Third World Studies, 18(1), 125–139.

13.

Chiu

Y. C.

Smith

K. C.

Morlock

& Wissow

(2007). Gifts, bribes and solicitations: Print media and the social construction of informal payments to doctors in Taiwan. Social Science and Medicine, 64, 521–530.

14.

Connelly

B. S.

& Ones

D. S.

(2008). The personality of corruption: A national level analysis. Cross-Cultural Research, 42(4), 353–385.

15.

Diamantopoulos

& Siguaw

J. A.

(2000). Introducing LISREL: A guide for the uninitiated. London: Sage.

16.

Gatti

Paternostro

& Rikgolini

(2003). Individual attitudes toward corruption: Do social effects matter? World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3122. World Bank. Washington D.C.

17.

Hill

P. C.

& Pargament

K. I.

(2003). Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of religion and spirituality: Implication for physical and mental health research. American Psychologist, 58(1), 64–74.

18.

Holmbeck

G. N.

(1997). Toward terminological, conceptual, and statistical clarity in the study of mediators and moderators: Examples from the child-clinical and pediatric psychology literature. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65(4), 599–610.

19.

Ivanovski

& Malhi

G. S.

(2007). The psychological and neurophysiological concomitants of mindfulness forms of meditation. Acta Neuropsychiatrica, 19, 76–91.

20.

Joh

Parian

. (1992). Thai customs and auspicious ceremonies. Bangkok: Amnuaysarn Press. Thai.

21.

Jong-Sung

& Khagram

(2005). A comparative study of inequality and corruption. American Sociological Review, 70(1), 136–157.

22.

Joreskog

& Sorbom

(1993). LISREL 8: Structural equation modeling with the SIMPLIS command language. Chicago: Scientific Software International.

23.

Kasser

& Ryan

R. M.

(1993). A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(2), 410–422.

24.

Khantipalo Bhikkhu

(1994). Buddhism explained. Chiangmai, Thailand: Silkworm Books.

25.

Krejcie

& Morgan

(1970). Determining sample size for research activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30, 607–610.

26.

Lavers

(2008). The global corruption barometer 2006. Global corruption report 2007. Retrieved from http://www.transparency.org/publications/gcr/download_gcr.

27.

Lewis

(2007). Informal payments and the financing of health care in developing and transition countries. Health Affairs, 26(4), 984–997.

28.

Triandis

H. C.

& Yu

(2006). Cultural orientation and corruption. Ethics and Behavior, 16(3), 199–215.

29.

Lindgren

H. C.

(1980). Great expectations: The psychology of money. Los Altos, CA: Kaufmann.

30.

MacCallum

R. C.

Wegener

D. T.

Uchino

B. N.

& Fabrigar

L. R.

(1993). The problem of equivalent models in applications of covariance structure analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 114(1), 183–199.

31.

Miller

W. L.

Grodeland

A. B.

& Koshechkina

T. Y.

(2000). “If you pay, we'll operate immediately.” Journal of Medical Ethics, 26(5), 305–311.

32.

Mutebi

A. M.

(2008). Explaining the failure of Thailand's anti-corruption regime. Development and Change, 39(1), 147–171.

33.

National Statistical Office. (2000). Table 5: Population by religion, age group, sex and area: 2000. Retrieved from http://service.nso.go.th/nso/nso_center/project/search_center/23project-th.htm.

34.

National Statistical Office. (2008a). Table 1: Average monthly income per household by sources of income, region and area: 2006. Retrieved from http://service.nso.go.th/nso/nso_center/project/table/files/S-ses/2549.

35.

National Statistical Office. (2008b). Table 3: Population from registration by age group, Bangkok: 2006. Retrieved from http://service.nso.go.th/nso_center/project/table/files/1500300/2549.

36.

Park

(2003). Determinants of corruption: A cross-national analysis. Multinational Business Review, 11(2), 29–48.

37.

Phongpaichit

& Piriyarangsan

(1994). Corruption and democracy in Thailand. Chiangmai, Thailand: Silkworm Books.

38.

Quah

J. S. T.

(2006). Curbing Asian corruption: An impossible dream? Current History, 105, 176–179.

39.

Solberg

E. C.

Diener

Wirtz

Lucas

R. E.

& Oishi

(2002). Wanting, having, and satisfaction: Examining the role of desire discrepancies in satisfaction with income. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 725–734.

40.

Srivastava

Locke

E. A.

& Bartol

K. M.

(2001). Money and subjective well-being: It's not the money, it's the motives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(6), 959–971.

41.

Tang

T. L. P.

& Chen

Y.-J.

(2008). Intelligence vs. wisdom: The love of money, Machiavellianism, and unethical behavior across college major and gender. Journal of Business Ethics, 82(1), 1–26.

42.

Tang

T. L. P.

& Chiu

R. K.

(2003). Income, money ethic, pay satisfaction, commitment, and unethical behavior: Is the love of money the root of evil for Hong Kong employees? Journal of Business Ethics, 46(1), 13–30.

43.

Tavits

(2005). Causes of corruption: Testing competing hypotheses. Retrieved from http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/Politics/papers/2005/Tavits%20Nuffield%20WP.pdf.

44.

Transparency International. (2011a). Corruption Perceptions Index. Retrieved from http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results.

45.

Transparency International. (2011b). FAQS: Frequently asked questions about corruption. Retrieved from http://transparency.org/news_room/faq/corruption_faq.

46.

Treisman

(2007). What have we learned about the causes of corruption from ten years of cross-national empirical research? Annual Review of Political Science, 10(1), 211–244.

47.

(2005). Corporate governance and corruption: A cross-country analysis. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 18(2), 151–170.

48.

Xin

& Rudel

T. K.

(2004). The context of political corruption: A cross-national analysis. Social Science Quarterly, 85(2), 294–309.

49.

Zikmund

W. G.

(2000). Business research methods. Mason, OH: South-Western.