What If We Are Graduating Utilitarians?

Abstract

Senior undergraduate business students at a Christian university surprise the author during presentations of personally-held values by failing to describe their top value of truthfulness in terms of Christian virtue. This leads to a 30-month grounded theory study. Observations of students’ top value of truthfulness may indicate utilitarian precognitive tacit knowledge, suggesting bias engaged without deliberate thought. Implications are discussed at the end of the paper. Informed by literature on the social psychology of moral decision-making, the author suggests a transformational integration approach may be required for preparing students for the problems associated with Utilitarianism in the marketplace.