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Measuring the ethical nature of tourism operators
Pergamon www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 928±943, 1999 # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/99/$20.00+0.00
PII: S0160-7383(99)00032-8
MEASURING THE ETHICAL NATURE OF TOURISM OPERATORS David A. Fennell Brock University, Canada David C. Malloy University of Regina, Canada Abstract: Selected ecotourism, adventure, ®shing, cruiseline, and golf operators were studied in an effort to determine possible ethical differences among them as distinct groups. Through the implementation of a multidimensional ethics scale, the resulting data illustrate that ecotourism operators were in fact more ethical than their counterparts in the other groups. This became apparent on the basis of analyzing their responses to ethical economic, social, and ecological issues outlined in three scenarios. The paper examines the in¯uence of education, organizational size, and the use of codes of ethics in day-to-day business operation and practice to help explain the differences that exist among the participating groups. Keywords: tourism operator, ethics, deontology, justice, relativism, scenario. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Âsume Â: Le mesurage de la nature Âethique des dirigeants de tourisme. On a Âetudie Re quelques directeurs choisis dans l'eÂcotourisme, le tourisme d'aventure, la peÃche, les croisieÁres et le golf pour deÂterminer s'il existait des diffeÂrences Âethiques entre les diffeÂrents groupes. Les donneÂes qui ont reÂsulte de l'application d'une Âechelle Âethique aÁ multiples dimensions montrent que les dirigeants de l'eÂcotourisme avaient plus de principes Âethiques que leurs homologues des autres groupes. Ceci est devenu apparent apreÁs une analyse de leurs reÂactions aux questions Âethiques Âeconomiques, sociales et Âecologiques qui ont Âete preÂsenteÂes dans trois sceÂnarios. Cet article examine l'in¯uence de la formation, l'importance de l'organisation et l'utilisation de codes Âethiques dans l'opeÂration et la pratique quotidiennes de l'entreprise pour aider aÁ expliquer les diffeÂrences entre les groupes. MotsÂs: dirigeants du tourisme, Âethique, deÂontologie, justice, relativisme, sceÂnario. # 1999 cle Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION Tourism as an industry and a sociocultural phenomenon is rapidly expanding. With this tremendous growth and transformation has come a relatively recent interest in the ethical conduct of the tourism industry (Fennell and Malloy 1995; Hultsman 1995; Karwacki and Boyd 1995; Malloy and Fennell 1998a, 1998b; Przeclawski 1996). Despite this concern, very little has been written regarding David Fennell is Assistant Professor of recreation and leisure studies at Brock University (St Catharines, Ontario, L2S 3A1 Canada. Email < [email protected] >). His research interests include ecotourism, outdoor recreation planning and management, and tourism ethics. David Malloy is Associate Professor of physical activity studies at University of Regina. His research interests include ethics and philosophy of administration in sport, tourism, education, and business.
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the ethical issues and practices of this industry. As the ®eld of applied ethics gains more attention from scholars in business, medicine, education, and sport, ethical conduct in tourism may experience a heightened level of academic scrutiny. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical groundwork for some initial understanding of the ethical nature of one of selected tourism operators.
MEASURING OPERATORS
THE
ETHICAL
NATURE
OF
TOURISM
Contemporary Moral Philosophies In the realm of applied ethics, there is a propensity in the literature to focus upon two schools of thought, teleology and deontology (i.e., the ends and means of ethical/unethical behavior, respectively). Generally, research and conceptual models dichotomize ethical behavior in terms of Kantian imperatives and utilitarian calculus (Brady 1985; Hunt and Vitell 1986; MacDonald and BeckDudley 1994). While these opposing views represent the dominant normative and a priori views of ethical thought, they may not be representative of the richness and diverse nature of our actual ethical orientations. The empirical research of Reidenbach and Robin (1988, 1990) has demonstrated that rather than focusing upon one particular ethical orientation, people generally are eclectic in their views. However, in order to appreciate the moral heterogeneity that empirical research seems to uncover (Cohen, Plant and Sharp 1993; Hansen 1992; Henthorne and LaTour 1995; Schwepker and Ingram 1996), it is necessary ®rst to understand pure forms of ethical thought, that is, the theoretical building blocks of the eclectic reality. In this section ®ve normative theories that represent a continuum from deontology to teleology provide an a priori framework of ethics. The deontological position is based typically upon the work of Immanual Kant (1788/1977). He argued that ethical behavior is a function of one's good will or duty. This duty to act is driven by reason (which is uniquely and universally shared by all humans) and not inclination or instinct. Kant essentially summarizes the notion of duty in what he termed the categorical imperative. It states that one must ``act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law'' (1788/ 1977:38). Therefore one must never lie or break a promise regardless of the magnitude of the situation since otherwise it would not be universally valid. This perspective was modi®ed by Ross (1975) who suggested that the categorical imperative was acceptable unless under certain primae facie conditions to do so would be unreasonable. For example, to promise to provide a tourism experience into a location that has recently come under dangerous political turmoil would be a legiti-
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mate break with the categorical imperative according to Ross who states that if as almost all moralists except Kant are agreed, and as most plain men think, it is sometimes right to tell a lie or to break a promise, it must be maintained that there is a difference between prima facie duties and the actual or absolute [e.g., the categorical imperative] (1975:104).
Therefore, deontological behavior on the part of the tourism operator would re¯ect standards of conduct that would be homogeneous across industry and cultural boundaries. What is considered right for the ecotourism operator in Belize is right for the mass tourism operator in neighboring Mexico or Guatemala. Theories of justice are, broadly speaking, deontological in nature as they are fundamentally rule-based. However, these theories generally provide much more prescriptive guidance for the decision maker than does Kant's categorical imperative. Perhaps the two best known positions come from both ancient and contemporary sources. First, the notion of justice has a long philosophical tradition dating back to the Socratic era. Aristotle paid considerable attention to it in his Nichomachean Ethics in which he stated that ``[j]ustice . . . is not a part of virtue but the whole of virtue; its opposite, unjustice, is not part of vice but the whole of vice'' (Aristotle 1971:157). He distinguishes between distributive and recti®catory or corrective justice. Distributive justice refers to the principle which states that equals ought to be treated equally and unequals ought to be treated unequally (i.e., justice is proportionate). Recti®catory justice refers to the principle which suggests that inequalities ought to be restored to form just proportions. In a second view, Rawls (1971) provides a contemporary perspective of justice. His theory is concerned primarily with the notion of social justice and the means to obtain maximization of rewards for the disadvantaged. His approach begins with the introduction of the ideal observer who, under a ``veil of ignorance'', must develop principles of justice in a society where one cannot know one's station in life (i.e., advantaged or disadvantaged, Catholic or Buddhist, male or female). Rawls proposes that each person will be bound to the principles formulated in future circumstances the peculiarities of which cannot be known and which might well be such that the principle is then to his disadvantage . . . . The principles will express the conditions in accordance with which each person is the least unwilling to have his interests limited in the design of practices, given the competing interests of the others, on the supposition that the interests of the others will be limited likewise (1971:373±374).
The result of this deductive process, according to Rawls, is the formulation of two principles, the liberty principle and the difference principle. The former refers to the equal access for all persons to such basic human liberties as freedom of speech and religion, and freedom to own property. The latter provides the conditions allow-
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ing the ®rst principle to be overridden. That is, inequality can be accepted when the advantage of all persons is the result of the transgression of the liberty principle. For example, tourists visiting lesser developed countries may have access to a variety of services and privileges that locals do not. However, in order to support tourism in the particular country, such inequity must be permissible for the greater good of the population. Rawls suggests that individuals acting in their self-interest will generally place emphasis upon the principle of liberty and then agree to the allowable departures from it. In other words, the individual will choose to err on the side of one's own advantage. The relativist schools of thought argue that ethical judgements are either individuallyÐor culturally-speci®c. What is right for one person or society is not necessarily right for another. Herskovits (1972) suggests that ``judgments are based upon experience, and experience is interpreted by each individual in terms of his enculturation''. Further, he cautions that [c]ultural relativism, in all cases must be sharply distinguished from concepts of relativity of individual behavior, which would negate all social controls over conduct. Conformity to the code of a group is a requirement for any regularity in life (1972:33±34)
Relativists reject the notion that there are universal moral principles (cf. Kant). They argue that ethical behavior ``is relative to an ethos and limited to that ethos. `What is moral in India can get a man hanged in France''' (Solomon 1993:19). Relativists claim that differences in ethical perspectives are much more than subtle preferences or peculiarities from society to society. Rather, perceptions of morality can be fundamentally different from individual to individual and culture to culture. As a consequence, a universal notion of right or good conduct is impossible and any attempt to globalize moral conduct is tantamount to moral colonialism. The implication of this orientation, super®cially, is perhaps a broadened awareness and/or respect for individual and cultural diversity. However, a more thorough analysis of this school of thought reveals that interaction between individuals and societies holding fundamentally different moral stances would be little short of chaos if every ethical stance was homogeneically valid (Hodgkinson 1983). For example, a tourism operator in country ``A'' may hold strongly the belief that contracts made with clients or other tour business partners are binding; whereas in country ``B'' no such commitment is expected in any business interaction. The result is perhaps obvious, no business dealing would be possible between these two groups because their frame of reference for ethical business practices are incompatible. No tourist from country ``A'' would dare venture to country ``B'' because the reliability of their excursion would be extremely questionable. Teleology is the name given to a school of thought that regards ethical behavior as satisfying the greatest pleasure or good and the least pain for the individual (hedonism) or for the group (utilitar-
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ianism). Unlike its deontological counterpart, teleology is ends driven and regards the means toward desired ends as, at best, secondary. Hedonism can be viewed from both a physical and an intellectual level. For example, the tourist who is a physical hedonist will seek the club-med type or adventure tourism vacation experience in order to satisfy sensual needs; whereas the tourist who is an intellectual hedonist may prefer a more cultural or eco-educational (such as ecotourism) vacation experience in order to satisfy cognitive needs. As opposed to the pleasure of the individual, utilitarianism is focused upon the desires of the collectiveÐthe greatest good for the greatest number. Ethical behavior is the result of the calculation and evaluation of possible alternatives that will best serve this end (i.e., the summum bonum). Utilitarianism is the philosophical underpinning for not only democratic theory but also for the typical method by which we determine cost±bene®t decisions from a microeconomic perspective (Toner 1996). Dif®culties arise when attempts are made to calculate the greatest good. For example, is it possible to actually know what is in fact the greatest good? For whom? For what period of time? Is it possible to factor the qualitative as well as the quantitative aspects of human reality into the cost±bene®t ratio (e.g., what is a value worth)? In the context of tourism, the utilitarian view would be to act in such a manner as to bene®t the greatest number of stakeholders and harm the least number of them in the conduct of one's business. Therefore, the industry would be obliged to factor all social costs and production costs into the economic operation of its business. STUDY METHOD In this study the Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES) developed by Reidenbach and Robin (1988, 1990) was used to gauge the ethical nature of selected tourism operator types. The MES is a semantic differential scale consisting of eight items representing three dimensions of ethical behavior. These dimensions are the result of factor analysis of a list of 33 items developed a priori from deontological, justice, teleological, and relativistic theories of ethics. The analysis yielded consistently three dimensions. They include broadbased moral equity, relativistic, and contractualism dimensions. Broad-based moral equity describes a construct that includes aspects of deontological, justice, and relativistic theories. Reidenbach and Robin claim that ``decisions are evaluated in terms of their inherent fairness, justice, goodness and rightness. Moreover, this dimension incorporates the idea of family acceptance'' (1990:646). They suggest that this dimension is a re¯ection of the early training by family and religion to understand the right and the fair. The relativistic dimension places emphasis upon the sociocultural context of the system in which the moral agent is acting. What is important is ``how the game is played here''. Fundamental to this construct is the belief that ``tradition and cul-
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ture shape our beliefs, values, and attitudes in all aspects of life and certainly in¯uence our notions of what is right or wrong'' (1990:646). The third dimension is deontological in nature. It emphasizes one's obligation to abide by rules, contracts, and duties. Reidenbach and Robin state that: business exchanges involve a quid pro quo wherein one party is obligated to provide a product, service, employment, or perform some action in return for something of value . . . . Violation of these implicit ideas would result in the condemnation of the exchange process or at least part of the process as unethical (1990:647).
Respondents are given ethical scenarios and asked to respond in terms of the eight item scale (Reidenbach and Robin 1988, 1990). The MES has been developed for and used extensively in business/ marketing contexts (Barnett, Bass and Brown 1996; Clark and Dawson 1996; Cohen, Plant and Sharp 1993; Hansen 1992; Henthorne and LaTour 1995; Schwepker and Ingram 1996; Tsalikis and Ortiz-Buona®na 1990; Tsalikis and LaTour 1995). In order to more accurately contextualize the responses of the participants, in this study new tourism-speci®c scenarios were developed by the researchers. These scenarios were then sent to academics in the ®eld of tourism for comment and revision. The analysis of the content of the scenarios yielded three tourism situations that were thought to provoke ``real life'' responses from the sample (Table 1). Scenario 1 was based on an economic dilemma (adapted from Reidenbach and Robin 1990), Scenario 2 was based on a social dilemma, and Scenario 3 was ecological in its orientation. In addition, a number of other organization and demographic questions were included. The study concentrated on soliciting responses from tourism operators in the western United States and Canada (including Alaska). In total 714 operators were identi®ed through a search of the Internet, the Specialty Travel Index, and various other outdoor recreation periodicals. Of this number, 529 were from the United States and 185 were from Canada. Each of the identi®ed operators was mailed the survey instrument in September of 1997, and the survey was addressed to the President/Owner/Manager of the operation as it was important to understand the organization's ethical perspective from the highest level. A reminder letter was sent approximately three weeks after the initial mail-out. Ecotourism, adventure, ®shing, golf, and cruiseline operators were targeted for analysis and were selected in order to represent certain activity-based segments of the market. Ecotourism was selected due to its non-consumptive, educational focus, adventure for its activity-risk orientation, ®shing was selected as an example of consumptive outdoor recreational use, and the cruiseline/golf businesses were included in the study (and combined as one group) based on their mass or mainstream market focus, and their larger organizational structures, in comparison to the other more specialized niche markets of the other groups. In total, 167 surveys were
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MEASURING THE ETHICAL NATURE OF TOURISM OPERATORS Table 1. The Three Tourism Scenarios
Please read each of the following three scenarios and indicate your beliefs with respect to the action described at the end of the scenario, by circling one of the seven numbers between each of the opposing views that follow. Please do this for all eight of the scale items for each scenario. Scenario Number 1 A young man who has been recently hired to develop strategies to attract visiting international tourists to a day-use tourism site, has been working very hard to favorably impress his boss with his selling ability. To lure-in the tourists, he exaggerates the number and quality of attractions at the site and withholds relevant information concerning the tourism product/experience he is trying to sell. No fraud or deceit is intended by his actions, he is simply over-eager. Action: His boss, the manager of the site, is aware of the salesman's actions but has done nothing to stop such practice. Your response to the manager's action is that it is . . . Fair 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Unfair Just 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Unjust Morally right 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Not morally right Acceptable to my family 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Unacceptable to my family Traditionally acceptable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Traditionally unacceptable Culturally acceptable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Culturally unacceptable Violates an unspoken promise 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Does not violate an unspoken promise Violates an unwritten contract 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Does not violate an unwritten contract Scenario Number 2 An international resort development ®rm has recently built a large resort on an island (a small underdeveloped country) which has not experienced a high level of tourist development in the past. One of the policy conditions of the development was that the resort be fairly self-contained so as not to allow the expected high use to adversely affect the traditional lifestyles of aboriginal people living and working in the more peripheral regions of the island. Despite the initial attempts at control, there has been signi®cant contact between tourists and local people all over the island, based primarily on the selling of trinkets and souvenirs at local markets. Action: Although the resort's management realizes the situation, nothing is done to curtail the emerging pattern which is seen as having both positive and negative spinoffs. Your response to the resort management's action is that it is . . . (same scale as above) Scenario Number 3 A community organization that operates a spectacular private mountain nature reserve on land it owns, has the dual mandate of protecting the resource and allowing some visitation. In recent years it has been experiencing an increasing amount of tourism to their site. One of the main problems in reaching the reserve is a lengthy, rough, unsurfaced road. As a result, the organization is entertaining the notion of paving the road in an attempt to provide better access to the site. In doing so, they anticipate even more of an increase in tourism to this sensitive ecosystem in coming years. The economic bene®t from this increased visitation will, they believe, provide more money in order to upgrade the quality of trails, facilities, and overall conditions for both staff and tourists, despite the fact that there are some concerns that, at present, the reserve seems too crowded. Action: The organization goes ahead with the plans to develop. Your response to this action is that it is . . . (same scale as above)
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returned, representing a response rate of 23.4% (39 in ecotourism, 49 in adventure, 45 in ®shing, and 34 in golf/cruiseline). General Findings and Statistical Tests The level of education varied among the four operator groups. Approximately 91% of the cruiseline/golf operators possessed at least an undergraduate degree; however, very few had any postgraduate training. Comparatively, 15.4% of the ecotourism operators had a PhD or equivalent, with some 81% having at least an undergraduate degree. Approximately 71% of the adventure operator respondents had attained at least an undergraduate degree, with 4.1% holding a PhD or equivalent. On average, ®shing operators were found to have the lowest level of education when compared to the other three groups (51% of ®shing operators had at least one degree). More males (71.1%) than females ran the ®shing business than any of the other groups. This was followed by ecotourism (66.7%), adventure tourism (55.1%), and cruiseline/golf (52.9%). Mixed results were attained with respect to who completed the survey within the organization, despite the request to have the highest ranking individual in the company respond to the instrument. For example, only 64.7% of those completing the survey on behalf of the cruiseline/golf operators were CEOs, owners, or upper management. Comparatively, 93.3% of ®shing operator responses were by CEOs, owners, or upper management, followed by ecotourism (87.2%), and adventure (83.7%). The difference between operators on this measure is no doubt due to the difference in sizes of the organizations in the study. For example, the average size of the cruiseline/ golf operators contained within this study was 399 employees. In comparison, adventure operations averaged 6.2 employees in size, followed by ecotourism (5.9), and ®shing (2.7) as the smallest. The latter respondents were the oldest (49.3 years), followed by ecotourism operators (47.5 years), and adventure and cruiseline/golf operators (both 44.0 years). Data were further uncovered concerning the length of time the operator had been in existence and the length of time the respondent had worked for the company. In the former, cruiseline/golf operations had been in business the longest (20.2 years). This was followed by adventure (16.5 years), ®shing (15.2 years), and ecotourism (14.6 years). However, a similar trend was not found in relation to the average length of time respondents were working in their respective operations. Whereas the cruiseline/golf operations had been in existence longest, the employees who completed the survey had, on average, fewer years working in the ®eld when compared to the other sample groups. Adventure (11.3) and ®shing (11.0) operators had spent the longest time working in their operations, followed by ecotourism (9.0 years). The data further revealed that 95.5% of the ecotourism operators followed a code of ethics in the delivery of their product. Of this,
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81.0% followed their own code, 9.5% followed someone else's code, and another 9.5% followed both their code and someone else's. The number of adventure operators following a code of ethics was also relatively high (91.8%), as was the number of ®shing operators (86.7%). Seventy-®ve percent of the cruiseline/golf operators stated that they followed a code of ethics. Initially a 3 4 repeated measures analysis of variance was employed with type of operator (4 groups) as a between subject variable and scenarios (3) as a within subject measure, on the 8 item scale. The results of this test con®rmed that there was a signi®cant operator by scenario interaction [F(6, 238)=2.57, P=0.02] suggesting that the operators were in fact responding to the scenarios differently (Table 2). Upon further analysis, the ecotourism operators were found to be more ethically oriented than ®shing operators, with the appearance of a trend between ecotourism and cruiseline/golf operators (ecotourism operators being more ethically oriented in their responses). A signi®cant main effect of scenarios was observed [F(2, 118)=71.78, P < 0.001] with post hocs indicating that scenario one (economic) was signi®cantly different than scenarios two and three (Figure 1). This ®nding suggests that from a combined scenarios perspective, regardless of type, operators responded more positively to the economic scenario and hence felt that the action employed by the operator was unethical, in comparison to the actions outlined in the social and ecological scenarios. A signi®cant main effect of operators was also observed on the overall combined operator scores for the three scenarios (Figure 2) [F(3, 119)=3.39, P=0.02]. Subsequent analysis con®rmed that cruise/golf operators were less ethically oriented in their responses than those in ecotourism (a trend was detected between ecotourism and ®shing operators, with the former responding in a more ethically oriented fashion than the latter). As the survey was designed around three subscales (deontology, justice, and relativism), a 3 4 repeated measures analysis of variance was performed on the three scales. The results indicated that there was a signi®cant operator by scenario interaction [F(18, Table 2. Operator Mean Scores for the Three Scenarios Scenario Scenario One (Economic) Scenario Two (Social) Scenario Three (Ecological) a
Operator Mean Scores Ecotourism
Adventure
Fishing
Cruise/Golf
6.2 5.2a,b 4.8
5.8 5.0 4.7
6.2 4.2a 4.2
5.7 4.2b 4.4
Indicates where the statistically signi®cant difference exists between operators at the 0.05 level. b Indicates a trend between the two operators.
FENNEL AND MALLOY
Figure 1. Combined Scenario Scores
Figure 2. Overall Combined Operator Scores
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MEASURING THE ETHICAL NATURE OF TOURISM OPERATORS Table 3. Justice Subscale Analyses Scenario 1 (Economic)
2 vs. 3 (P=0.09)a,c 2 vs. 4 (P=0.07)c 3 vs. 4 (P=0.04)b
Scenario 2 (Social) 1 1 2 2
vs. vs. vs. vs.
3 4 3 4
Scenario 3 (Ecological)
(P=0.07)c (P=0.03)b (P=0.09)c (P=0.04)b
a
Operators: 1, ecotour; 2, adventure; 3, ®shing; 4, golf/cruiseline. Indicates where the statistically signi®cant difference existsbetween operators at the 0.05 level. c Indicates a trend between the two operator types. b
348)=1.78, P=0.27]. Univariate analysis indicated that these differences were limited to the justice subscale [F(6, 238)=2.34, P=0.03], as the other two subscales were not found to be signi®cantly different [deontology subscale: (F(6, 238)=0.59, n.s.); (relativism subscale: F(6,238)=1.89, P=0.08)]. Post hoc analyses (Scheffe) were performed on the justice subscale and indicated differences in scenarios one and two, but not three (Table 3). Ecotour and adventure tourism operators were not found to be different from each other on any scenario. This was most evident in scenario two where these two groups were found to be more ethically inclined than ®shing and golf/cruiseline operators (there were no other signi®cant differences observed). Ethical Orientation The ®ndings of this study suggest that operators in the tourism industry cannot be considered homogeneous in terms of their ethical orientation. Speci®cally, the results demonstrate that ecotourism operators appear to have a more heightened sense of ethical conduct than do their peers in other ventures (such as ®shing operators). In two theoretical papers on ethics and ecotourism, Fennell and Malloy (1995) and Malloy and Fennell (1998a) argued that while no empirical evidence was available, ecotourism appeared to have an ethically different outlook on its business practices. The ®ndings of this study con®rm these earlier theoretical speculations. The basis for this heightened ethical orientation may be a function of three variables. First, the educational level of the ecotourism operator was signi®cantly higher than that of other cohorts. According to Kohlberg (1984) and subsequent empirical investigations in business contexts pro®t educational level has a positive correlation with the ability to make more cognitively complex moral decisions (Ford and Richardson 1994; Sims and Keon 1997). As a consequence, those with the ability to recognize and assess ethical dilemmas in more detailed fashion would be able to respond in an ethically advanced manner (Rest 1984). Therefore, if the ecotourism operators were capable of recognizing and reasoning through dilem-
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mas more comprehensively as a function of their educational level than their peers in other tourism sectors, it would follow that their ethical orientation would also be advanced. A second rationale for this ®nding is that ecotour operators reported the use of codes of ethics in their business practices to much greater degree (95%) than other tourism operators. Codes of ethics are designed to set the ethical standard, guide, communicate, and educate organizational members (Malloy and Fennell 1998b; Payne and Dimanche 1996). Presumably then, those operators that have codes of ethics and, perhaps more importantly, implement them in their day-to-day functioning are more likely to have a heightened awareness of acceptable conduct and a consistent ethical approach throughout their business operation. A third rationale deals with organizational size. The literature generally contends that the larger the organization, the less likely a consistent ethical approach can be maintained as a function of physical and psychological proximity to the central leadership (Ford and Richardson 1994; Wiley 1998). The more dissipated the organization, the more likely members are to rely upon immediate work group members as opposed to the ``head of®ce'' for ethical guidance (Weber 1990; Trevino 1990). In this study it was found that by far the cruiseline/ golf operators were the largest in terms of organizational size as compared to ecotour, adventure, and ®shing operators. They were also the least ethical of the four cohorts. With regard to the study's methodology, in particular MES, two ®ndings are signi®cant. First, it was found that the economic scenario elicited the strongest response among subjects. It may be that this scenario was recognized more explicitly as an ethical dilemma by the respondents and thus more easily judged. This result may also be a function of the reality that tourism is a business and economic concerns may be more ethically intensive to operators than the more temporally and proximately (physical and psychological) distant concerns of social and ecological issues (Jones 1991). Alternatively, the social and ecological scenarios may have been perceived to be more ambiguous and hence more dif®cult to judge. In a theoretical model developed by Malloy and Fennell (1998a) a hierarchy of organizational cultures was proposed that had as its starting point ethical behavior based upon market or economic forces. Ethical behavior here was driven by reward and/or punishment by the consumer for ethical/unethical practices. The model proposed that two additional levels of an organization's cultural development was possible. These two levels represented a sociobureaucratic and a principled (and ecologically sound) organizational culture. If the conceptual work of Malloy and Fennell (1998a) is juxtaposed with this study, it could be argued that the tourism industry in general is functioning at the basic level of the market culture. In other words, generally issues of immediate ethical importance to operators are ones that concern economic or market viability. While this is not surprising, there is justi®cation for a higher sense of ethical responsibility directed toward social and ecological issues. These
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MEASURING THE ETHICAL NATURE OF TOURISM OPERATORS
``advanced'' concerns and cultures appear at this time to be conceptual goals rather than empirical realities. However, as the awareness of and demand for ethical conduct increases more advanced levels of ethical standards may yet be realized. The ®nal aspect of the discussion concerns the application of the three subscales of ethical theory (justice, deontology, and relativism). The results demonstrated that the justice subscale (fair/ unfair; just/unjust) generated the only statistically signi®cant differences among the three used. Speci®cally, ecotour, adventure, and ®shing operators employed the justice scale to a greater extent than did the golf/cruiseline operators (Table 3). This ®nding may be indicative of the general heightened sense of ethical conduct among the former three cohorts of operators (Table 2). It may also be a function of the much larger size of the golf/cruiseline organizations. As sheer size creates a myriad of organizational challenges, the inculcation of a shared sense of justiceÐif addressed at all (Murphy, Smith and Daley 1992; Trevino 1990)Ðmay be dif®cult. The notion of justice, in particular, may be dif®cult to foster as it is a much more global/universal and thus potentially vague concept to utilize as opposed to the more contextualized items presented in the deontological and relativistic subscales (such as culturally/traditionally acceptable, or acceptable to one's family). For example, one may ask ``fair or unfair, just or unjust to whom''. In contrast, in smaller ecotour, adventure, and ®shing organizations, the formal and informal communication, socialization, and operationalization of ethics in general and justice in particular may be much more easily achieved.
CONCLUSION While ethical practices in business contexts generally have received considerable attention by practitioners and researchers in recent years, the investigation of the ethical aspects of tourism is at a relatively early stage. In particular, the study of the ethical orientation of managers and other stakeholder groups in tourism is virtually untapped. Therefore, challenge for researchers is to interpret and use the growing volume of literature on ethics that exists outside the tourism ®eld in a way that is meaningful to the planning, development, and management of the industry. For example, the measurement of operator ethical viewpoints may set researchers on a new course in their efforts to understand similarities and differences among distinct types of tourism. While tourist typologies abound in the literature, researchers need to more closely examine the characteristics that separate one form of tourism from another. Consequently, an understanding that different types have different ethical viewpointsÐsocial, economic, and environmentalÐmay be used to arm decision makers with the ability to foresee potential bene®ts and problems in the development of tourism, and hence provide the needed push to act proactively instead of reactively.
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Ethics, in the way it was addressed in this paper, is but one approach that may be used to accomplish this end. At present, few industry associations or political jurisdictions employ the use of any ethical standards in the evaluation of tourism businesses. While this appears to be changing (the Australian ecotourism accreditation process is a good example), the ®eld is wide open with respect to how ethics may aid in determining what is to be viewed as acceptable and unacceptable behavior by tourists and those working in the ®eld. Codes of ethics, organizational behavior, ethical scales, and the relationship that exists between theoretical and applied ethics, are some of the forces needed to help shape a new frontier of tourism research and scholarship. This paper used the work of Reidenbach and Robin (1988, 1990) and their multidimensional ethics scale to con®rm that ecotour operators, over other types of tourism operators, were more likely to indicate that the actions within the scenarios outlined in the paper are unethical. Conversely, the cruiseline sector respondents were less likely to ®nd ``ethical fault'' in the scenarios. This methodology will continue to hold great potential for future research in this area. However, researchers may wish to consider other theoretically- and empirically-based work to broaden the understanding of the ethical nature of the industry. The work of Fraedrich (1993) who developed the ethical behavior scale, and Rest (1979) who developed the de®ning issues test, may be quite easily adapted in determining the moral behavior of various tourism stakeholder groups.& REFERENCES Aristotle 1971 Aristotle on Man and the Universe. Roslyn NY: Black. Barnett, T., K. Bass, and G. Brown 1996 Religiosity, Ethical Ideology, and Intentions to Report a Peer's Wrongdoing. Journal of Business Ethics 15:1161±1174. Brady, N. F. 1985 A Janus-Headed Model of Ethical Theory: Looking Two Ways at Business/ Society Issues. Academy of Management Review 10:568±576. Clark, J. W., and L. E. Dawson 1996 Personal Religiousness and Ethical Judgments: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Business Ethics 15:359±372. Cohen, J., L. Plant, and D. Sharp 1993 A Validation and Extension of a Multidimensional Ethics Scale. Journal of Business Ethics 12:13±26. Fennell, D. A., and D. C. Malloy 1995 Ethics and Ecotourism: A Comprehensive Ethical Model. Journal of Applied Recreation Research 20:163±183. Ford, R. C., and W. D. Richardson 1994 Ethical Decision Making: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Journal of Business Ethics 13:207±224. Fraedrich, J. P. 1993 The Ethical Behavior of Retail Managers. Journal of Business Ethics 12:207±218.
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Hansen, N. S. 1992 A Multidimensional Scale for Measuring Business Ethics: A Puri®cation and Re®nement. Journal of Business Ethics 11:523±534. Henthorne, T. L., and N. S. LaTour 1995 A Model to Explore the Ethics of Erotic Stimuli in Print Advertising. Journal of Business Ethics 14:561±569. Herskovits, M. 1972 Cultural Relativism. New York: Vintage Books. Hodgkinson, C. 1983 The Philosophy of Leadership. Oxford: Blackwell. Hultsman, J. 1995 Just Tourism: An Ethical Framework. Annals of Tourism Research 22:553± 567. Hunt, J. W., and S. J. Vitell 1986 A General Theory of Marketing Ethics. Journal of Macromarketing 6:5±16. Jones, T. M. 1991 Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An IssueContingent Model. Academy Management Review 16:366±395. Kant, I. 1788/1977 Critique of Practical Reason. Indianapolis IN: Bobbs±Merrill. Karwacki, J., and C. Boyd 1995 Ethics and Ecotourism. Business Ethics 4:225±232. Kohlberg, L. 1984 The Philosophy of Moral Development. New York: Harper & Row. MacDonald, J. E., and C. L. Beck-Dudley 1994 Are Deontology and Teleology Mutually Exclusive? Journal of Business Ethics 13:615±623. Malloy, D. C., and D. A. Fennell 1998a Ecotourism and Ethics: Moral Development and Organizational Cultures. Journal of Travel Research 36:47±56. 1998b Codes of Ethics and Tourism: An Exploratory Content Analysis. Tourism Management 19(5):453±461. Murphy, P. R., J. E. Smith, and J. M. Daley 1992 Executive Attitudes, Organizational Size and Ethical Issues: Perspectives on a Service Industry. Journal of Business Ethics 11:11±19. Payne, D., and F. Dimanche 1996 Towards a Code of Conduct for the Tourism Industry: An Ethics Model. Journal of Business Ethics 15:997±1007. Przeclawski, K. 1996 Deontology of Tourism. Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research 2(3):239±245. Rawls, J. 1971 A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Reidenbach, R. E., and D. P. Robin 1988 Some Initial Steps Toward Improving the Measurement of Ethical Evaluations of Marketing Activities. Journal of Business Ethics 7:871±879. 1990 Toward the Development of a Multidimensional Scale for Improving Evaluations of Business Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 9:639±653. Rest, J. R. 1979 Development in Judging Moral Issues. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1984 The Major Components of Morality. In Morality, Moral Behavior and Moral Development, W. M. Kutines and J. L. Gewrtz, eds., pp. 24±40. New York: Wiley. Ross, W. D. 1975 The Right and the Good. In Ethics in Perspective, K. J. Struhl and P. R. Struhl, eds., pp. 100±107. New York: Random House. Schwepker, C. H., and T. N. Ingram 1996 Improving Sales Performance through Ethics: The Relationship between Salesperson Moral Judgement and Job Performance. Journal of Business Ethics 15:1151±1160.
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Sims, R. L., and T. L. Keon 1997 Ethical Work Climate as a Factor in the Development of Person± Organization Fit. Journal of Business Ethics 16:1095±1105. Solomon, R. C. 1993 Ethics: A Short Introduction. Dubuque IA: Brown. Toner, L. T. 1996 The Ethics of Management. Toronto: Irwin. Trevino, L. K. 1990 A Cultural Perspective on Changing and Developing Organizational Ethics. Research on Organizational Change and Development 4:195±230. Tsalikis, J., and M. Ortiz-Buona®na 1990 Ethical Beliefs' Differences of Males and Females. Journal of Business Ethics 9:509±517. Tsalikis, J., and N. S. LaTour 1995 Bribery and Extortion in International Business: Ethical Perceptions of Greeks Compared to Americans. Journal of Business Ethics 14:249±264. Weber, J. 1990 Managers' Moral Reasoning: Assessing their Responses to Three Moral Dilemmas. Human Relations 43:687±702. Wiley, C. 1998 Reexamining Perceived Ethical Issues and Ethical Roles among Employment Managers. Journal of Business Ethics 17:147±161. Submitted 26 August 1998. Resubmitted 2 December 1998. Accepted 22 December 1998. Final version 8 January 1999. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Krzysztof Przeclawski.
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 928±943, 1999 # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/99/$20.00+0.00
PII: S0160-7383(99)00032-8
MEASURING THE ETHICAL NATURE OF TOURISM OPERATORS David A. Fennell Brock University, Canada David C. Malloy University of Regina, Canada Abstract: Selected ecotourism, adventure, ®shing, cruiseline, and golf operators were studied in an effort to determine possible ethical differences among them as distinct groups. Through the implementation of a multidimensional ethics scale, the resulting data illustrate that ecotourism operators were in fact more ethical than their counterparts in the other groups. This became apparent on the basis of analyzing their responses to ethical economic, social, and ecological issues outlined in three scenarios. The paper examines the in¯uence of education, organizational size, and the use of codes of ethics in day-to-day business operation and practice to help explain the differences that exist among the participating groups. Keywords: tourism operator, ethics, deontology, justice, relativism, scenario. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Âsume Â: Le mesurage de la nature Âethique des dirigeants de tourisme. On a Âetudie Re quelques directeurs choisis dans l'eÂcotourisme, le tourisme d'aventure, la peÃche, les croisieÁres et le golf pour deÂterminer s'il existait des diffeÂrences Âethiques entre les diffeÂrents groupes. Les donneÂes qui ont reÂsulte de l'application d'une Âechelle Âethique aÁ multiples dimensions montrent que les dirigeants de l'eÂcotourisme avaient plus de principes Âethiques que leurs homologues des autres groupes. Ceci est devenu apparent apreÁs une analyse de leurs reÂactions aux questions Âethiques Âeconomiques, sociales et Âecologiques qui ont Âete preÂsenteÂes dans trois sceÂnarios. Cet article examine l'in¯uence de la formation, l'importance de l'organisation et l'utilisation de codes Âethiques dans l'opeÂration et la pratique quotidiennes de l'entreprise pour aider aÁ expliquer les diffeÂrences entre les groupes. MotsÂs: dirigeants du tourisme, Âethique, deÂontologie, justice, relativisme, sceÂnario. # 1999 cle Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION Tourism as an industry and a sociocultural phenomenon is rapidly expanding. With this tremendous growth and transformation has come a relatively recent interest in the ethical conduct of the tourism industry (Fennell and Malloy 1995; Hultsman 1995; Karwacki and Boyd 1995; Malloy and Fennell 1998a, 1998b; Przeclawski 1996). Despite this concern, very little has been written regarding David Fennell is Assistant Professor of recreation and leisure studies at Brock University (St Catharines, Ontario, L2S 3A1 Canada. Email < [email protected] >). His research interests include ecotourism, outdoor recreation planning and management, and tourism ethics. David Malloy is Associate Professor of physical activity studies at University of Regina. His research interests include ethics and philosophy of administration in sport, tourism, education, and business.
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the ethical issues and practices of this industry. As the ®eld of applied ethics gains more attention from scholars in business, medicine, education, and sport, ethical conduct in tourism may experience a heightened level of academic scrutiny. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical groundwork for some initial understanding of the ethical nature of one of selected tourism operators.
MEASURING OPERATORS
THE
ETHICAL
NATURE
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TOURISM
Contemporary Moral Philosophies In the realm of applied ethics, there is a propensity in the literature to focus upon two schools of thought, teleology and deontology (i.e., the ends and means of ethical/unethical behavior, respectively). Generally, research and conceptual models dichotomize ethical behavior in terms of Kantian imperatives and utilitarian calculus (Brady 1985; Hunt and Vitell 1986; MacDonald and BeckDudley 1994). While these opposing views represent the dominant normative and a priori views of ethical thought, they may not be representative of the richness and diverse nature of our actual ethical orientations. The empirical research of Reidenbach and Robin (1988, 1990) has demonstrated that rather than focusing upon one particular ethical orientation, people generally are eclectic in their views. However, in order to appreciate the moral heterogeneity that empirical research seems to uncover (Cohen, Plant and Sharp 1993; Hansen 1992; Henthorne and LaTour 1995; Schwepker and Ingram 1996), it is necessary ®rst to understand pure forms of ethical thought, that is, the theoretical building blocks of the eclectic reality. In this section ®ve normative theories that represent a continuum from deontology to teleology provide an a priori framework of ethics. The deontological position is based typically upon the work of Immanual Kant (1788/1977). He argued that ethical behavior is a function of one's good will or duty. This duty to act is driven by reason (which is uniquely and universally shared by all humans) and not inclination or instinct. Kant essentially summarizes the notion of duty in what he termed the categorical imperative. It states that one must ``act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law'' (1788/ 1977:38). Therefore one must never lie or break a promise regardless of the magnitude of the situation since otherwise it would not be universally valid. This perspective was modi®ed by Ross (1975) who suggested that the categorical imperative was acceptable unless under certain primae facie conditions to do so would be unreasonable. For example, to promise to provide a tourism experience into a location that has recently come under dangerous political turmoil would be a legiti-
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mate break with the categorical imperative according to Ross who states that if as almost all moralists except Kant are agreed, and as most plain men think, it is sometimes right to tell a lie or to break a promise, it must be maintained that there is a difference between prima facie duties and the actual or absolute [e.g., the categorical imperative] (1975:104).
Therefore, deontological behavior on the part of the tourism operator would re¯ect standards of conduct that would be homogeneous across industry and cultural boundaries. What is considered right for the ecotourism operator in Belize is right for the mass tourism operator in neighboring Mexico or Guatemala. Theories of justice are, broadly speaking, deontological in nature as they are fundamentally rule-based. However, these theories generally provide much more prescriptive guidance for the decision maker than does Kant's categorical imperative. Perhaps the two best known positions come from both ancient and contemporary sources. First, the notion of justice has a long philosophical tradition dating back to the Socratic era. Aristotle paid considerable attention to it in his Nichomachean Ethics in which he stated that ``[j]ustice . . . is not a part of virtue but the whole of virtue; its opposite, unjustice, is not part of vice but the whole of vice'' (Aristotle 1971:157). He distinguishes between distributive and recti®catory or corrective justice. Distributive justice refers to the principle which states that equals ought to be treated equally and unequals ought to be treated unequally (i.e., justice is proportionate). Recti®catory justice refers to the principle which suggests that inequalities ought to be restored to form just proportions. In a second view, Rawls (1971) provides a contemporary perspective of justice. His theory is concerned primarily with the notion of social justice and the means to obtain maximization of rewards for the disadvantaged. His approach begins with the introduction of the ideal observer who, under a ``veil of ignorance'', must develop principles of justice in a society where one cannot know one's station in life (i.e., advantaged or disadvantaged, Catholic or Buddhist, male or female). Rawls proposes that each person will be bound to the principles formulated in future circumstances the peculiarities of which cannot be known and which might well be such that the principle is then to his disadvantage . . . . The principles will express the conditions in accordance with which each person is the least unwilling to have his interests limited in the design of practices, given the competing interests of the others, on the supposition that the interests of the others will be limited likewise (1971:373±374).
The result of this deductive process, according to Rawls, is the formulation of two principles, the liberty principle and the difference principle. The former refers to the equal access for all persons to such basic human liberties as freedom of speech and religion, and freedom to own property. The latter provides the conditions allow-
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ing the ®rst principle to be overridden. That is, inequality can be accepted when the advantage of all persons is the result of the transgression of the liberty principle. For example, tourists visiting lesser developed countries may have access to a variety of services and privileges that locals do not. However, in order to support tourism in the particular country, such inequity must be permissible for the greater good of the population. Rawls suggests that individuals acting in their self-interest will generally place emphasis upon the principle of liberty and then agree to the allowable departures from it. In other words, the individual will choose to err on the side of one's own advantage. The relativist schools of thought argue that ethical judgements are either individuallyÐor culturally-speci®c. What is right for one person or society is not necessarily right for another. Herskovits (1972) suggests that ``judgments are based upon experience, and experience is interpreted by each individual in terms of his enculturation''. Further, he cautions that [c]ultural relativism, in all cases must be sharply distinguished from concepts of relativity of individual behavior, which would negate all social controls over conduct. Conformity to the code of a group is a requirement for any regularity in life (1972:33±34)
Relativists reject the notion that there are universal moral principles (cf. Kant). They argue that ethical behavior ``is relative to an ethos and limited to that ethos. `What is moral in India can get a man hanged in France''' (Solomon 1993:19). Relativists claim that differences in ethical perspectives are much more than subtle preferences or peculiarities from society to society. Rather, perceptions of morality can be fundamentally different from individual to individual and culture to culture. As a consequence, a universal notion of right or good conduct is impossible and any attempt to globalize moral conduct is tantamount to moral colonialism. The implication of this orientation, super®cially, is perhaps a broadened awareness and/or respect for individual and cultural diversity. However, a more thorough analysis of this school of thought reveals that interaction between individuals and societies holding fundamentally different moral stances would be little short of chaos if every ethical stance was homogeneically valid (Hodgkinson 1983). For example, a tourism operator in country ``A'' may hold strongly the belief that contracts made with clients or other tour business partners are binding; whereas in country ``B'' no such commitment is expected in any business interaction. The result is perhaps obvious, no business dealing would be possible between these two groups because their frame of reference for ethical business practices are incompatible. No tourist from country ``A'' would dare venture to country ``B'' because the reliability of their excursion would be extremely questionable. Teleology is the name given to a school of thought that regards ethical behavior as satisfying the greatest pleasure or good and the least pain for the individual (hedonism) or for the group (utilitar-
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ianism). Unlike its deontological counterpart, teleology is ends driven and regards the means toward desired ends as, at best, secondary. Hedonism can be viewed from both a physical and an intellectual level. For example, the tourist who is a physical hedonist will seek the club-med type or adventure tourism vacation experience in order to satisfy sensual needs; whereas the tourist who is an intellectual hedonist may prefer a more cultural or eco-educational (such as ecotourism) vacation experience in order to satisfy cognitive needs. As opposed to the pleasure of the individual, utilitarianism is focused upon the desires of the collectiveÐthe greatest good for the greatest number. Ethical behavior is the result of the calculation and evaluation of possible alternatives that will best serve this end (i.e., the summum bonum). Utilitarianism is the philosophical underpinning for not only democratic theory but also for the typical method by which we determine cost±bene®t decisions from a microeconomic perspective (Toner 1996). Dif®culties arise when attempts are made to calculate the greatest good. For example, is it possible to actually know what is in fact the greatest good? For whom? For what period of time? Is it possible to factor the qualitative as well as the quantitative aspects of human reality into the cost±bene®t ratio (e.g., what is a value worth)? In the context of tourism, the utilitarian view would be to act in such a manner as to bene®t the greatest number of stakeholders and harm the least number of them in the conduct of one's business. Therefore, the industry would be obliged to factor all social costs and production costs into the economic operation of its business. STUDY METHOD In this study the Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES) developed by Reidenbach and Robin (1988, 1990) was used to gauge the ethical nature of selected tourism operator types. The MES is a semantic differential scale consisting of eight items representing three dimensions of ethical behavior. These dimensions are the result of factor analysis of a list of 33 items developed a priori from deontological, justice, teleological, and relativistic theories of ethics. The analysis yielded consistently three dimensions. They include broadbased moral equity, relativistic, and contractualism dimensions. Broad-based moral equity describes a construct that includes aspects of deontological, justice, and relativistic theories. Reidenbach and Robin claim that ``decisions are evaluated in terms of their inherent fairness, justice, goodness and rightness. Moreover, this dimension incorporates the idea of family acceptance'' (1990:646). They suggest that this dimension is a re¯ection of the early training by family and religion to understand the right and the fair. The relativistic dimension places emphasis upon the sociocultural context of the system in which the moral agent is acting. What is important is ``how the game is played here''. Fundamental to this construct is the belief that ``tradition and cul-
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ture shape our beliefs, values, and attitudes in all aspects of life and certainly in¯uence our notions of what is right or wrong'' (1990:646). The third dimension is deontological in nature. It emphasizes one's obligation to abide by rules, contracts, and duties. Reidenbach and Robin state that: business exchanges involve a quid pro quo wherein one party is obligated to provide a product, service, employment, or perform some action in return for something of value . . . . Violation of these implicit ideas would result in the condemnation of the exchange process or at least part of the process as unethical (1990:647).
Respondents are given ethical scenarios and asked to respond in terms of the eight item scale (Reidenbach and Robin 1988, 1990). The MES has been developed for and used extensively in business/ marketing contexts (Barnett, Bass and Brown 1996; Clark and Dawson 1996; Cohen, Plant and Sharp 1993; Hansen 1992; Henthorne and LaTour 1995; Schwepker and Ingram 1996; Tsalikis and Ortiz-Buona®na 1990; Tsalikis and LaTour 1995). In order to more accurately contextualize the responses of the participants, in this study new tourism-speci®c scenarios were developed by the researchers. These scenarios were then sent to academics in the ®eld of tourism for comment and revision. The analysis of the content of the scenarios yielded three tourism situations that were thought to provoke ``real life'' responses from the sample (Table 1). Scenario 1 was based on an economic dilemma (adapted from Reidenbach and Robin 1990), Scenario 2 was based on a social dilemma, and Scenario 3 was ecological in its orientation. In addition, a number of other organization and demographic questions were included. The study concentrated on soliciting responses from tourism operators in the western United States and Canada (including Alaska). In total 714 operators were identi®ed through a search of the Internet, the Specialty Travel Index, and various other outdoor recreation periodicals. Of this number, 529 were from the United States and 185 were from Canada. Each of the identi®ed operators was mailed the survey instrument in September of 1997, and the survey was addressed to the President/Owner/Manager of the operation as it was important to understand the organization's ethical perspective from the highest level. A reminder letter was sent approximately three weeks after the initial mail-out. Ecotourism, adventure, ®shing, golf, and cruiseline operators were targeted for analysis and were selected in order to represent certain activity-based segments of the market. Ecotourism was selected due to its non-consumptive, educational focus, adventure for its activity-risk orientation, ®shing was selected as an example of consumptive outdoor recreational use, and the cruiseline/golf businesses were included in the study (and combined as one group) based on their mass or mainstream market focus, and their larger organizational structures, in comparison to the other more specialized niche markets of the other groups. In total, 167 surveys were
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MEASURING THE ETHICAL NATURE OF TOURISM OPERATORS Table 1. The Three Tourism Scenarios
Please read each of the following three scenarios and indicate your beliefs with respect to the action described at the end of the scenario, by circling one of the seven numbers between each of the opposing views that follow. Please do this for all eight of the scale items for each scenario. Scenario Number 1 A young man who has been recently hired to develop strategies to attract visiting international tourists to a day-use tourism site, has been working very hard to favorably impress his boss with his selling ability. To lure-in the tourists, he exaggerates the number and quality of attractions at the site and withholds relevant information concerning the tourism product/experience he is trying to sell. No fraud or deceit is intended by his actions, he is simply over-eager. Action: His boss, the manager of the site, is aware of the salesman's actions but has done nothing to stop such practice. Your response to the manager's action is that it is . . . Fair 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Unfair Just 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Unjust Morally right 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Not morally right Acceptable to my family 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Unacceptable to my family Traditionally acceptable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Traditionally unacceptable Culturally acceptable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Culturally unacceptable Violates an unspoken promise 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Does not violate an unspoken promise Violates an unwritten contract 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Does not violate an unwritten contract Scenario Number 2 An international resort development ®rm has recently built a large resort on an island (a small underdeveloped country) which has not experienced a high level of tourist development in the past. One of the policy conditions of the development was that the resort be fairly self-contained so as not to allow the expected high use to adversely affect the traditional lifestyles of aboriginal people living and working in the more peripheral regions of the island. Despite the initial attempts at control, there has been signi®cant contact between tourists and local people all over the island, based primarily on the selling of trinkets and souvenirs at local markets. Action: Although the resort's management realizes the situation, nothing is done to curtail the emerging pattern which is seen as having both positive and negative spinoffs. Your response to the resort management's action is that it is . . . (same scale as above) Scenario Number 3 A community organization that operates a spectacular private mountain nature reserve on land it owns, has the dual mandate of protecting the resource and allowing some visitation. In recent years it has been experiencing an increasing amount of tourism to their site. One of the main problems in reaching the reserve is a lengthy, rough, unsurfaced road. As a result, the organization is entertaining the notion of paving the road in an attempt to provide better access to the site. In doing so, they anticipate even more of an increase in tourism to this sensitive ecosystem in coming years. The economic bene®t from this increased visitation will, they believe, provide more money in order to upgrade the quality of trails, facilities, and overall conditions for both staff and tourists, despite the fact that there are some concerns that, at present, the reserve seems too crowded. Action: The organization goes ahead with the plans to develop. Your response to this action is that it is . . . (same scale as above)
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returned, representing a response rate of 23.4% (39 in ecotourism, 49 in adventure, 45 in ®shing, and 34 in golf/cruiseline). General Findings and Statistical Tests The level of education varied among the four operator groups. Approximately 91% of the cruiseline/golf operators possessed at least an undergraduate degree; however, very few had any postgraduate training. Comparatively, 15.4% of the ecotourism operators had a PhD or equivalent, with some 81% having at least an undergraduate degree. Approximately 71% of the adventure operator respondents had attained at least an undergraduate degree, with 4.1% holding a PhD or equivalent. On average, ®shing operators were found to have the lowest level of education when compared to the other three groups (51% of ®shing operators had at least one degree). More males (71.1%) than females ran the ®shing business than any of the other groups. This was followed by ecotourism (66.7%), adventure tourism (55.1%), and cruiseline/golf (52.9%). Mixed results were attained with respect to who completed the survey within the organization, despite the request to have the highest ranking individual in the company respond to the instrument. For example, only 64.7% of those completing the survey on behalf of the cruiseline/golf operators were CEOs, owners, or upper management. Comparatively, 93.3% of ®shing operator responses were by CEOs, owners, or upper management, followed by ecotourism (87.2%), and adventure (83.7%). The difference between operators on this measure is no doubt due to the difference in sizes of the organizations in the study. For example, the average size of the cruiseline/ golf operators contained within this study was 399 employees. In comparison, adventure operations averaged 6.2 employees in size, followed by ecotourism (5.9), and ®shing (2.7) as the smallest. The latter respondents were the oldest (49.3 years), followed by ecotourism operators (47.5 years), and adventure and cruiseline/golf operators (both 44.0 years). Data were further uncovered concerning the length of time the operator had been in existence and the length of time the respondent had worked for the company. In the former, cruiseline/golf operations had been in business the longest (20.2 years). This was followed by adventure (16.5 years), ®shing (15.2 years), and ecotourism (14.6 years). However, a similar trend was not found in relation to the average length of time respondents were working in their respective operations. Whereas the cruiseline/golf operations had been in existence longest, the employees who completed the survey had, on average, fewer years working in the ®eld when compared to the other sample groups. Adventure (11.3) and ®shing (11.0) operators had spent the longest time working in their operations, followed by ecotourism (9.0 years). The data further revealed that 95.5% of the ecotourism operators followed a code of ethics in the delivery of their product. Of this,
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MEASURING THE ETHICAL NATURE OF TOURISM OPERATORS
81.0% followed their own code, 9.5% followed someone else's code, and another 9.5% followed both their code and someone else's. The number of adventure operators following a code of ethics was also relatively high (91.8%), as was the number of ®shing operators (86.7%). Seventy-®ve percent of the cruiseline/golf operators stated that they followed a code of ethics. Initially a 3 4 repeated measures analysis of variance was employed with type of operator (4 groups) as a between subject variable and scenarios (3) as a within subject measure, on the 8 item scale. The results of this test con®rmed that there was a signi®cant operator by scenario interaction [F(6, 238)=2.57, P=0.02] suggesting that the operators were in fact responding to the scenarios differently (Table 2). Upon further analysis, the ecotourism operators were found to be more ethically oriented than ®shing operators, with the appearance of a trend between ecotourism and cruiseline/golf operators (ecotourism operators being more ethically oriented in their responses). A signi®cant main effect of scenarios was observed [F(2, 118)=71.78, P < 0.001] with post hocs indicating that scenario one (economic) was signi®cantly different than scenarios two and three (Figure 1). This ®nding suggests that from a combined scenarios perspective, regardless of type, operators responded more positively to the economic scenario and hence felt that the action employed by the operator was unethical, in comparison to the actions outlined in the social and ecological scenarios. A signi®cant main effect of operators was also observed on the overall combined operator scores for the three scenarios (Figure 2) [F(3, 119)=3.39, P=0.02]. Subsequent analysis con®rmed that cruise/golf operators were less ethically oriented in their responses than those in ecotourism (a trend was detected between ecotourism and ®shing operators, with the former responding in a more ethically oriented fashion than the latter). As the survey was designed around three subscales (deontology, justice, and relativism), a 3 4 repeated measures analysis of variance was performed on the three scales. The results indicated that there was a signi®cant operator by scenario interaction [F(18, Table 2. Operator Mean Scores for the Three Scenarios Scenario Scenario One (Economic) Scenario Two (Social) Scenario Three (Ecological) a
Operator Mean Scores Ecotourism
Adventure
Fishing
Cruise/Golf
6.2 5.2a,b 4.8
5.8 5.0 4.7
6.2 4.2a 4.2
5.7 4.2b 4.4
Indicates where the statistically signi®cant difference exists between operators at the 0.05 level. b Indicates a trend between the two operators.
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Figure 1. Combined Scenario Scores
Figure 2. Overall Combined Operator Scores
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MEASURING THE ETHICAL NATURE OF TOURISM OPERATORS Table 3. Justice Subscale Analyses Scenario 1 (Economic)
2 vs. 3 (P=0.09)a,c 2 vs. 4 (P=0.07)c 3 vs. 4 (P=0.04)b
Scenario 2 (Social) 1 1 2 2
vs. vs. vs. vs.
3 4 3 4
Scenario 3 (Ecological)
(P=0.07)c (P=0.03)b (P=0.09)c (P=0.04)b
a
Operators: 1, ecotour; 2, adventure; 3, ®shing; 4, golf/cruiseline. Indicates where the statistically signi®cant difference existsbetween operators at the 0.05 level. c Indicates a trend between the two operator types. b
348)=1.78, P=0.27]. Univariate analysis indicated that these differences were limited to the justice subscale [F(6, 238)=2.34, P=0.03], as the other two subscales were not found to be signi®cantly different [deontology subscale: (F(6, 238)=0.59, n.s.); (relativism subscale: F(6,238)=1.89, P=0.08)]. Post hoc analyses (Scheffe) were performed on the justice subscale and indicated differences in scenarios one and two, but not three (Table 3). Ecotour and adventure tourism operators were not found to be different from each other on any scenario. This was most evident in scenario two where these two groups were found to be more ethically inclined than ®shing and golf/cruiseline operators (there were no other signi®cant differences observed). Ethical Orientation The ®ndings of this study suggest that operators in the tourism industry cannot be considered homogeneous in terms of their ethical orientation. Speci®cally, the results demonstrate that ecotourism operators appear to have a more heightened sense of ethical conduct than do their peers in other ventures (such as ®shing operators). In two theoretical papers on ethics and ecotourism, Fennell and Malloy (1995) and Malloy and Fennell (1998a) argued that while no empirical evidence was available, ecotourism appeared to have an ethically different outlook on its business practices. The ®ndings of this study con®rm these earlier theoretical speculations. The basis for this heightened ethical orientation may be a function of three variables. First, the educational level of the ecotourism operator was signi®cantly higher than that of other cohorts. According to Kohlberg (1984) and subsequent empirical investigations in business contexts pro®t educational level has a positive correlation with the ability to make more cognitively complex moral decisions (Ford and Richardson 1994; Sims and Keon 1997). As a consequence, those with the ability to recognize and assess ethical dilemmas in more detailed fashion would be able to respond in an ethically advanced manner (Rest 1984). Therefore, if the ecotourism operators were capable of recognizing and reasoning through dilem-
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mas more comprehensively as a function of their educational level than their peers in other tourism sectors, it would follow that their ethical orientation would also be advanced. A second rationale for this ®nding is that ecotour operators reported the use of codes of ethics in their business practices to much greater degree (95%) than other tourism operators. Codes of ethics are designed to set the ethical standard, guide, communicate, and educate organizational members (Malloy and Fennell 1998b; Payne and Dimanche 1996). Presumably then, those operators that have codes of ethics and, perhaps more importantly, implement them in their day-to-day functioning are more likely to have a heightened awareness of acceptable conduct and a consistent ethical approach throughout their business operation. A third rationale deals with organizational size. The literature generally contends that the larger the organization, the less likely a consistent ethical approach can be maintained as a function of physical and psychological proximity to the central leadership (Ford and Richardson 1994; Wiley 1998). The more dissipated the organization, the more likely members are to rely upon immediate work group members as opposed to the ``head of®ce'' for ethical guidance (Weber 1990; Trevino 1990). In this study it was found that by far the cruiseline/ golf operators were the largest in terms of organizational size as compared to ecotour, adventure, and ®shing operators. They were also the least ethical of the four cohorts. With regard to the study's methodology, in particular MES, two ®ndings are signi®cant. First, it was found that the economic scenario elicited the strongest response among subjects. It may be that this scenario was recognized more explicitly as an ethical dilemma by the respondents and thus more easily judged. This result may also be a function of the reality that tourism is a business and economic concerns may be more ethically intensive to operators than the more temporally and proximately (physical and psychological) distant concerns of social and ecological issues (Jones 1991). Alternatively, the social and ecological scenarios may have been perceived to be more ambiguous and hence more dif®cult to judge. In a theoretical model developed by Malloy and Fennell (1998a) a hierarchy of organizational cultures was proposed that had as its starting point ethical behavior based upon market or economic forces. Ethical behavior here was driven by reward and/or punishment by the consumer for ethical/unethical practices. The model proposed that two additional levels of an organization's cultural development was possible. These two levels represented a sociobureaucratic and a principled (and ecologically sound) organizational culture. If the conceptual work of Malloy and Fennell (1998a) is juxtaposed with this study, it could be argued that the tourism industry in general is functioning at the basic level of the market culture. In other words, generally issues of immediate ethical importance to operators are ones that concern economic or market viability. While this is not surprising, there is justi®cation for a higher sense of ethical responsibility directed toward social and ecological issues. These
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MEASURING THE ETHICAL NATURE OF TOURISM OPERATORS
``advanced'' concerns and cultures appear at this time to be conceptual goals rather than empirical realities. However, as the awareness of and demand for ethical conduct increases more advanced levels of ethical standards may yet be realized. The ®nal aspect of the discussion concerns the application of the three subscales of ethical theory (justice, deontology, and relativism). The results demonstrated that the justice subscale (fair/ unfair; just/unjust) generated the only statistically signi®cant differences among the three used. Speci®cally, ecotour, adventure, and ®shing operators employed the justice scale to a greater extent than did the golf/cruiseline operators (Table 3). This ®nding may be indicative of the general heightened sense of ethical conduct among the former three cohorts of operators (Table 2). It may also be a function of the much larger size of the golf/cruiseline organizations. As sheer size creates a myriad of organizational challenges, the inculcation of a shared sense of justiceÐif addressed at all (Murphy, Smith and Daley 1992; Trevino 1990)Ðmay be dif®cult. The notion of justice, in particular, may be dif®cult to foster as it is a much more global/universal and thus potentially vague concept to utilize as opposed to the more contextualized items presented in the deontological and relativistic subscales (such as culturally/traditionally acceptable, or acceptable to one's family). For example, one may ask ``fair or unfair, just or unjust to whom''. In contrast, in smaller ecotour, adventure, and ®shing organizations, the formal and informal communication, socialization, and operationalization of ethics in general and justice in particular may be much more easily achieved.
CONCLUSION While ethical practices in business contexts generally have received considerable attention by practitioners and researchers in recent years, the investigation of the ethical aspects of tourism is at a relatively early stage. In particular, the study of the ethical orientation of managers and other stakeholder groups in tourism is virtually untapped. Therefore, challenge for researchers is to interpret and use the growing volume of literature on ethics that exists outside the tourism ®eld in a way that is meaningful to the planning, development, and management of the industry. For example, the measurement of operator ethical viewpoints may set researchers on a new course in their efforts to understand similarities and differences among distinct types of tourism. While tourist typologies abound in the literature, researchers need to more closely examine the characteristics that separate one form of tourism from another. Consequently, an understanding that different types have different ethical viewpointsÐsocial, economic, and environmentalÐmay be used to arm decision makers with the ability to foresee potential bene®ts and problems in the development of tourism, and hence provide the needed push to act proactively instead of reactively.
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Ethics, in the way it was addressed in this paper, is but one approach that may be used to accomplish this end. At present, few industry associations or political jurisdictions employ the use of any ethical standards in the evaluation of tourism businesses. While this appears to be changing (the Australian ecotourism accreditation process is a good example), the ®eld is wide open with respect to how ethics may aid in determining what is to be viewed as acceptable and unacceptable behavior by tourists and those working in the ®eld. Codes of ethics, organizational behavior, ethical scales, and the relationship that exists between theoretical and applied ethics, are some of the forces needed to help shape a new frontier of tourism research and scholarship. This paper used the work of Reidenbach and Robin (1988, 1990) and their multidimensional ethics scale to con®rm that ecotour operators, over other types of tourism operators, were more likely to indicate that the actions within the scenarios outlined in the paper are unethical. Conversely, the cruiseline sector respondents were less likely to ®nd ``ethical fault'' in the scenarios. This methodology will continue to hold great potential for future research in this area. However, researchers may wish to consider other theoretically- and empirically-based work to broaden the understanding of the ethical nature of the industry. The work of Fraedrich (1993) who developed the ethical behavior scale, and Rest (1979) who developed the de®ning issues test, may be quite easily adapted in determining the moral behavior of various tourism stakeholder groups.& REFERENCES Aristotle 1971 Aristotle on Man and the Universe. Roslyn NY: Black. Barnett, T., K. Bass, and G. Brown 1996 Religiosity, Ethical Ideology, and Intentions to Report a Peer's Wrongdoing. Journal of Business Ethics 15:1161±1174. Brady, N. F. 1985 A Janus-Headed Model of Ethical Theory: Looking Two Ways at Business/ Society Issues. Academy of Management Review 10:568±576. Clark, J. W., and L. E. Dawson 1996 Personal Religiousness and Ethical Judgments: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Business Ethics 15:359±372. Cohen, J., L. Plant, and D. Sharp 1993 A Validation and Extension of a Multidimensional Ethics Scale. Journal of Business Ethics 12:13±26. Fennell, D. A., and D. C. Malloy 1995 Ethics and Ecotourism: A Comprehensive Ethical Model. Journal of Applied Recreation Research 20:163±183. Ford, R. C., and W. D. Richardson 1994 Ethical Decision Making: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Journal of Business Ethics 13:207±224. Fraedrich, J. P. 1993 The Ethical Behavior of Retail Managers. Journal of Business Ethics 12:207±218.
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