The Influence of Personal Values on Decision Making

Studies have shown that individual ethical decision making is influenced by their personal values and their situational surrounding. This study combined both personal variable and situational variable to explore whether these two have any affect on decision making in ethical dilemmas. . This finding implies that in order for public relations practitioners to be able to make ethical decision making, they need to possess benevolence values such as being honest, being helpful, being loyal as well as being responsible. In terms of work climate, a caring climate was found to be the one that would encourage ethical decision making the most. This climate fosters harmony and emphasises on the good of all people. Therefore organisations must try to strive creating this type of work climate aside from encouraging their employees to honour and adhere to benevolence. This study contributes to public relations by extending and expanding ethics through its identification of the characteristic of personal values and perceived organisational culture which foster ethical decision making in organisations.