Tsahuridu, Eva E.2019-09-252019-09-252010-03-10http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12424/174064Many researchers identified the discrepancy between the moral behaviour of people in business organisations and their moral behaviours outside of the organisation. Efforts are made to identify the factors that make ‘good’ people do ‘bad’ things (Bersoff, 1999), to differentiate judgement and action in their private and organisational/business life. Understanding and exploring anomie at work may improve our understanding of work and behaviour at work. Anomie is the lack of purpose, identity, or values in a person or in a society, and leads to a breakdown of norms that rule the conduct of people and assure the social order (Kuczmarski & Kuczmarski, 1995, cited in Roshto, 1995). This paper reports on a research project that explores anomie in the business and general life spheres, organisational ethical climates (Victor & Cullen, 1998) and personal ethical ideologies (Forsyth, 1980). Rose (1966) explains that Durkheim attributed a state of chronic anomie to the business realm but argues the same attribution is applicable to all realms that disable actors to predict the behaviours of others due to lack of knowledge. This research seeks to explore whether a distinction in the levels of anomie between people’s perception of the organisational and general life context exists, that is whether people are more likely to feel more hopeless and helpless in their work or non work life, and whether people in different organisations have significantly different levels of anomie. The implications of the findings on persons and organisations are discussed in terms of moral autonomy, responsibility and behaviour.engWith permission of the license/copyright holderbusiness ethicsmoralityresponsibilityEconomic ethicsBusiness ethicsPreprint