Individual differences and structures of social knowledge in ethical reasoning were examined with 234 graduate business school students to see, among other things, what would be the role of gender in ethical reasoning. Individuals bring a variety of psychological, philosophical, and ethical orientations to organizational life, challenging traditional managerial assumptions concerning appropriate responses to ethical dilemmas. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, this research demonstrated that the individual characteristics of gender, learning style, and personality characteristics are significantly more influential in the use of an ethic of care or an ethic of justice in ethical reasoning than are the structures of social knowledge. In this study, social knowledge was measured through the preference for an organic or mechanistic world view and a communitarian or consequentialist moral orientation.
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