Abstract
Understanding the relationship between ethical ideologies and Machiavellian traits provides valuable insights for enhancing moral education and governance structures. The main thrust of the study was to determine the relationship between ethical position Ideologies and the Machiavellian personality traits of the faculty, employees, and students of Bohol Island State University (BISU), Bohol, Philippines. Thus, the occurrence of the following features was considered: (1) the Ethics Position Ideologies, (2) the Ethics Position Classification, (3) the Machiavellianism score of the respondents, (4) and the correlation between the ethics position ideology and Machiavellianism trait. This quantitative correlational study employed descriptive methodology utilizing Forsyth's Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) and Christie's Machiavellianism Scale (Mach-IV). A simple random sampling method created a sample of 477 respondents (134 instructors, 78 employees, 265 students) across five BISU campuses. Pearson correlation coefficients and t-tests were used to analyze relationships between variables. Forsyth's taxonomy of Ethics Position found that the respondents are situationists in their ethics position classification with high idealism (mean=7.09) and relativism idealism (mean=6.39). The Machiavellianism score (Mach-IV) revealed that the respondents lean towards the Machiavellianism personality trait with an overall score of 53.57 over 100 points. Fundamentally, the result shows a significant negative correlation between Machiavellianism (-0.1285, t=-2.582) and a significant positive correlation between Relativism and Machiavellianism (0.2565, t=5.288). These results indicate that tertiary-educational institutions should improve ethics education by combining flexible ideas with fundamental moral values. The predominance of situationist ethical positioning presents both opportunities and challenges for academic integrity. Situationists' context-dependent approach may undermine the consistent application of academic standards while striving for positive outcomes. Moreover, educational institutions should develop ethics education programs that center on the development of individual moral principles that ultimately foster academic excellence and integrity.
