Dane K. Peterson

The Relationship between Perceptions of Corporate Citizenship and Organizational Commitment

The results of a survey of business professionals verified a relationship between perceptions of corporate citizenship and organizational commitment. More important, the results demonstrated that the relationship between corporate citizenship and organizational commitment was stronger among employees who believe highly in the importance of the social responsibility of businesses. The results also indicated that the ethical measure of corporate citizenship was a stronger predictor of organization commitment than the economic, legal, and discretionary measures. Last, the results revealed that the discretionary measure was more strongly associated with organizational commitment among female employees.

The Relationship between Unethical Behavior and the Dimensions of the Ethical Climate Questionnaire

This study examined the relationship between unethical employee behavior and the dimensions of the Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ). In order to explore the relationship between the dimensions of the ECQ and unethical behavior, the factor structure of five previously identified empirical models and the hypothesized nine-dimension model for the ECQ was tested with a confirmatory factor analysis. The analysis revealed that the hypothesized nine-dimension model provided as good or even better fit to the data than the five empirically derived models. Therefore, the nine-dimensional model was used to examine the criterion-related validity of the ECQ. The results demonstrated that the nine ethical climate dimensions were correlated with some of the unethical behaviors examined in this study, but not others. However, the results clearly demonstrated that most of the ethical climate dimensions were significantly related to an aggregate measure of unethical behavior. It was suggested that these results might account for the differences in previous studies on the criterion-related validity of the ECQ. The results also replicated a previous report that the association between unethical behavior and ethical climate is stronger in organizations that do not have a code of ethics. Finally, a difference was observed in the ethical climates for organizations with a code of ethics and organizations without a code of ethics.

Ethical Beliefs of Business Professionals: A Study of Gender, Age and External Factors

The present study examined how ethical beliefs and external factors affecting ethical beliefs are related to age and gender of business professionals. The results indicated that business professionals in the younger age group exhibited a lower standard of ethical beliefs. In the younger age groups, the females demonstrated a higher level of ethical beliefs, while in the older age group, the results suggested that the males had a slightly higher level of ethical beliefs. With regards to the influence of external factors on ethical beliefs, the results yielded a significant interaction between age and gender. The younger age groups, males in particular, were more susceptible to external factors. People at home had the most influence on beliefs about ethics, while the individuals supervisor had the least impact. The results were discussed in terms of theories of moral development.

Benefits of participation in corporate volunteer programs: employees' perceptions

This exploratory survey study investigated the alleged benefits associated with corporate volunteer programs. The results demonstrated that employees viewed volunteerism as an effective means of developing or enhancing several types of job‐related skills. This was particularly true for female employees and employees participating in a formal volunteer program. The results also demonstrated that organizational commitment was higher for volunteers from companies with a corporate volunteer program than for non‐volunteers with organizations without a corporate volunteer program. Finally, the results indicated that job satisfaction was related to volunteerism among female employees, but not for male employees.

Privacy Policy Statements and Consumer Willingness to Provide Personal Information

Consumers’ concerns about information privacy are a primary obstacle to the success of e-commerce. The adoption of privacy policy statements is a direct response to this concern. This exploratory study examined the willingness of graduate students (who, by virtue of age, education, and income, are representative of typical Internet consumers) to provide various types of personal information given varying degrees of protection offered by privacy policy statements. The results demonstrated that the willingness to provide information to Web merchants increased as the level of privacy guaranteed by the statements increased. More importantly, the level of privacy promised by the statements interacted with respondents’ prior familiarity with policy statements in terms of their willingness to provide personal information. The results also demonstrated that while most individuals were aware of privacy policy statements, less than half of the respondents had ever read a privacy statement.

Perceived leader integrity and ethical intentions of subordinates

This study examined the relationship between perceived leader integrity, belief in universal moral rules, and employees’ ethical intentions while controlling for socially desirable response tendencies. The results demonstrated that both higher perceived leader integrity and stronger beliefs in universal moral rules were associated with lower intentions to commit unethical acts. More importantly, the results revealed an interaction between perceived leader integrity and belief in universal moral rules. Individuals with a strong belief in universal moral rules exhibited low intentions of committing unethical acts, regardless of the perceived integrity of their leaders. For individuals who do not adhere to a belief in universal moral rules, intention to commit unethical acts decreased as the perceived integrity of the leaders increased.

The relationship between ethical pressure, relativistic moral beliefs and organizational commitment

Questionnaire data from 161 business professionals were analyzed to investigate a proposed interaction between pressure to engage in unethical work activity and relativistic moral beliefs with respect to business professionals’ organizational commitment and intentions to leave the organization. The results indicated that organizational commitment was lower and intention to leave was higher for professionals who felt pressured by their employer to engage in unethical work activity. The proposed interaction was also significant for organizational commitment demonstrating that organizational commitment was generally high, except for business professionals who felt pressured to engage in unethical behavior and did not adhere to a belief that ethics are relative.

The perceptions of information systems designers from the United States, Japan, and Korea on success and failure factors

This study examined the views of information systems (IS) designers from the United States, Japan and Korea on the importance of IS development factors in terms of how they contribute to both the success and failure of IS projects. IS designers from the US viewed Communication of the Project Goals and Characteristics of the IS Designers as more important than did the IS designers from Japan and Korea, but rated Characteristics of the Project Leader as less important. The results also indicated that the IS designers did not view the relative importance of the IS development factors, the same in terms of contributing to the success and failure of IS projects. Results obtained from the US sample were consistent with a self-serving bias, while the results obtained from IS designers from Japan were consistent with a self-effacing bias. No significant differences between the success and failure factors were observed for the Korean sample. It was noted that a self-serving bias may prevent IS designers from learning based on past experiences with IS failure.

Computer ethics: the influence of guidelines and universal moral beliefs

Examines the influence of computer guidelines and the belief in universal moral rules on ethical intentions regarding the use of computers in the workplace. The results revealed that the interaction between computer guidelines and belief in universal moral rules was significant. Business professionals with a strong belief in universal moral rules exhibited high ethical intentions, regardless of whether or not their organization had clear guidelines concerning the use of company computers. However, for business professionals with a low belief in universal moral rules, the presence of clear computer guidelines had a positive effect on ethical intentions. This investigation provides evidence that computer guidelines are positively related to ethical intentions only for individuals who do not adhere to a belief in universal moral rules.

A Comparison of the Perceived Importance of Information Systems Development Strategies by Developers from the United States and Korea

This study examined the perceptions of Information Systems IS developers from the U.S. and Korea with regards to the strategies that are considered crucial for IS success. The results of a principal component analysis revealed that the IS development strategies could be classified into four categories: 1 Organizational Integration, 2 Team Member Characteristics, 3 Project Leader Traits, and 4 Project Development Management. ANOVA results indicated that developers from both countries viewed Organizational Integration as the most important component and Project Development Management as the least important component. However, while IS developers in the U.S. viewed Team Member Characteristics as the second most important component, Korean IS developers rated the Project Leader Traits as the second most important component. Moreover, the IS developers from the U.S. rated Organizational Integration and Team Member Characteristics as significantly more important than did the IS developers from Korea. The results were discussed in terms of Hofstedes model of national culture.