Laura Serviere Munoz

How Do Unethical Salespeople Sleep at Night? The Role of Neutralizations in the Justification of Unethical Sales Intentions

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model illustrating the direct effects of five techniques of neutralizations (denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of victim, appeal to higher loyalties, and condemning the condemner) on the ethical intentions of salespeople. A sample consisting of 157 salespeople responded to an ethical case scenario survey to reveal that two neutralizations were predominant in influencing ethical intentions: denial of injury and appeal to higher loyalties. These relationships were tested in three sales behavioral settings: sales promoting, customer relationship building and maintenance, and sales organization. A post hoc test of moderation effects were included to shed additional light onhow some of the neutralizations interact with ethical judgment to impact salesperson ethical intentions. Implicationsfor research and practice are discussed as well as directions for further research.

Professional student organizations and experiential learning activities: What drives student intentions to participate?

ABSTRACT Experiential learning theory has been referenced as a possible method for attracting and retaining members in student organizations. In a survey, undergraduate students evaluated a variety of organizational features pertaining to their intention to participate in professional student organizations. The study found that students value activities that involve professional development and contact with professionals. Age was negatively related to student intent to participate. In addition, ethnicity and being a first-generation college student were not significant predictors in participating in a professional student organization. To enhance membership recruitment and retention efforts, educators should focus their efforts on experiential activities that enable student-faculty contact, career exploration, and skill development.

Who Are You Going After? A Practical Typology to Generate Engagement in Professional Student Organizations.

On the basis of experiential learning theory and Cialdini’s principles of influence, two psychological streams focused on providing hands-on experiences and on effectively influencing individuals, this article identifies a typology of students to engage them in professional student organizations. Exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis tests were used to uncover the typology in which 3 distinct segments were identified and named: motivated advocates, uncovered talent, and indifferent agents. Identifying and understanding each segment can lead faculty advisors to more effective marketing and engagement of students by better understanding the value that students place in being active members of professional student organizations.

Let Me In! The Predictive Validity of Graduate Management Admissions Test and Other Variables in the Admission System of Masters of Business Administration Programmes

Data were collected from a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program in a public university in the southern part of Texas. Analysis of variance results indicate that there are gender as well as ethnicity effects. Similarly, regression results indicate that only ethnicity and gender of the subjects contributed significantly in predicting the students’ graduate grade point average. However, different predictors account for the variance depending on the ethnicity/gender. Women scored lower graduate management admissions tests, but they surpassed their counterparts in academic performance during the MBA programme, raising questions as to the predictive validity of such exam. Finally, a change in the graduate admission system calls for consideration of soft issues when engaging in processes reengineering.