Sean Valentine

Ethics Codes and Sales Professionals' Perceptions of Their Organizations' Ethical Values

Most large companies and many smaller ones have adopted ethics codes, but the evidence is mixed as to whether they have a positive impact on the behavior of employees. We suggest that one way that ethics codes could contribute to ethical behavior is by influencing the perceptions that employees have about the ethical values of organizations. We examine whether a group of sales professionals in organizations with ethics codes perceive that their organizational context is more supportive of ethical behavior than sales professionals in companies without codes. After accounting for the effect of several covariates, our results indicated that sales professionals employed in organizations with codes of ethics perceived their work environments to have more positive ethical values than did other sales professionals.

Issue contingencies and marketers' recognition of ethical issues, ethical judgments and behavioral intentions

The ethical decision-making process begins when an individual recognizes an ethical dilemma. Subsequently, the individual makes a judgment and forms behavioral intentions, which are thought to be predictive of actual behavior. This process is affected by individual, situational and issue-contingent factors. Our study examines the effect of four issue contingencies on marketers’ ethical decision-making process. More than 300 marketing professionals took part in our study, responding to questions regarding two sales scenarios. We controlled for relevant individual and situational factors and tested hypotheses using hierarchical regression. Perceptions of a greater magnitude of consequences were positively related to issue recognition and judgments that the action was unethical in both scenarios and behavioral intentions in one scenario. Perceptions of a societal consensus were associated with issue recognition and judgments that the action was unethical in one scenario. Magnitude of consequences demonstrated the strongest relationship with the ethical decision-making process.

Ethics Code Awareness, Perceived Ethical Values, and Organizational Commitment

This study examines the relationships among ethics code awareness, perceived corporate ethical values, and organizational commitment. Three key findings emerged. First, those aware of the existence of an ethics code in their organizations perceived their organizations as having more ethical values than those not aware of an ethics code in their organizations. Second, respondents exhibited higher levels of organizational commitment when they were aware of an ethics code in their companies. Finally, the relationship between ethics code awareness and organizational commitment was fully mediated by perceptions of an organization’s ethical values. The results suggest that ethics codes may lead to higher levels of organizational commitment by increasing the belief that their organizations have strong ethical values, as long as the existence of ethics codes are adequately communicated.

Professionals' Tax Liability Assessments and Ethical Evaluations in an Equitable Relief Innocent Spouse Case

This study used a national sample of professionals and a questionnaire containing equitable relief vignettes to explore whether the new equitable relief subset of the revised innocent spouse rules is helpful to the IRS when making relief decisions. The study also addressed the ethical and gender issues associated with equitable relief innocent spouse cases. The results suggested that several equitable relief factors are useful as discriminators in the relief decision. The results also demonstrated that the recognition of an ethical issue and perceptions of moral intensity affected the decision to grant relief in innocent spouse situations. Finally, women subjects were more ethical and more sympathetic toward the victim in an innocent spouse situation than were their male counterparts. These findings have numerous personal and societal implications for businesses, IRS agents, CPAs, and attorneys, as well as other nations wishing to reform their tax structures while assessing the tradeoff between equity and tax revenue generation.

Acculturation and Sex-Role Attitudes Among Mexican Americans: A Longitudinal Analysis

Following a brief introduction to the acculturation process and Mexican American culture, the authors propose that people of Mexican heritage in the United States tend to assimilate rather than integrate with regard to their sex-role attitudes. The authors also propose that the degree of assimilation will be affected by several factors, including generational status and age. Using longitudinal data, the results of the study indicated that the degree of sex-role assimilation among Mexican Americans was affected by the aforementioned variables.

Ethics Training, Ethical Context, and Sales and Marketing Professionals’ Satisfaction with Supervisors and Coworkers

Because organizational support for ethical conduct is valued highly in personal selling and sales management, ethics training, functioning through a company’s ethical values and culture, should prompt greater satisfaction with supervisors and coworkers because these individuals play a part in the ethical practices that impact job satisfaction in others. Using a national sample of 324 sales and marketing professionals representing a variety of organizations, this study examined the mediating role of perceived ethical context in the proposed relationships between hours of ethics training and satisfaction with supervisors and coworkers. The results indicated that the focal variables were indeed related, with either full or partial mediation identified, using two separate measures of perceived ethical context. Organizational leaders in the sales and marketing professions should consider using ethics training to institutionalize an ethical environment in sales organizations, as well as involving sales managers and other professionals in this institutionalization process. Such efforts could yield greater employee satisfaction for supervisors and coworkers.

Self-Esteem, Cultural Identity, and Generation Status as Determinants of Hispanic Acculturation

The impact of self-esteem, cultural identity, and generation status on acculturation was empirically examined using a sample of 110 Hispanic American college students. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis indicated that self-esteem and generation status positively influenced acculturation, whereas Hispanic cultural identity negatively affected acculturation. A discussion of these findings and the study’s limitations are presented and the implications for future research are outlined.

Cynicism as a fundamental dimension of moral decision-making: A scale development

Altruism and cynicism are two fundamental algorithms of moral decision-making. This derives from the evolution of cooperative behavior and reciprocal altruism and the need to avoid being taken advantage of. Rushton (1986) developed a self-report scale to measure altruism, however no scale to measure cynicism has been developed for use in ethics research. Following a discussion of reciprocal altruism and cynicism, this article presents an 11-item self-report scale to measure cynicism, developed and validated using a sample of 271 customer-service and sales personnel.

Supervisor gender, leadership style, and perceived job design

Using a national sample of 7,733 young working adults, the relationship between supervisor gender and perceived job design was explored. Results indicated that a supervisor’s gender did indeed influence subordinates’ perceptions of their job, and the differences were attributed to the different leadership styles men and women frequently use in the workplace. Overall, subordinates who had female supervisors perceived greater interpersonal aspects in their jobs, while subordinates who had male supervisors perceived greater structure in their jobs.

College Students' Perceptions of Moral Intensity in Sales Situations

Abstract The accreditation agency for collegiate business schools (AACSB) has recently placed increased emphasis on teaching ethics to undergraduate and graduate business students. This study highlights the varying perceptions of moral intensity among 105 demographically diverse college students. Results indicate that gender and age were determining factors, with women perceiving greater moral intensity in marketing scenarios than men, and older students perceiving greater moral intensity than younger students. Student classification and major were also factors, with graduate students perceiving greater moral intensity in questionable situations than upper and lower classmen, and business majors perceiving greater moral intensity than nonbusiness majors.