The ethical decisions of life insurance salespeople: the effects of interest conflicts, ethical leadership and ethical training

Purpose Life insurance salespeople are hired to pursue the best interests of life insurers on the one hand, the salespeople are also expected to pursue the best interests of customers on the other hand. However, the best interests of life insurers are not necessarily consistent with the best interests of customers. This study aims to investigate the influences of interest conflicts on the life insurance salespeople’s ethical attitude and ethical intention by focusing on the role of ethical leadership and ethical training. Design/methodology/approach Four types of interest conflicts are studied. Questionnaires are administered to a total of 757 full-time life insurance salespeople. Data analysis is performed by using analysis of variance tests and partial least squares regression. Findings The main results indicate that the types of interest conflicts change the life insurance salespeople’s ethical attitude and ethical intention. Moreover, ethical training could make the life insurance salespeople become more concerned about the interests of customers, but not the interests of life insurers. The results also challenge a belief that ethical leadership and ethical training will often have direct, consistent and significant impacts on the ethical attitude and ethical intention of life insurance salespeople. Originality/value Interest conflict is an important issue in the literature on financial regulation. The potential for life insurance salespeople to behave unethically has also received extensive attention by researchers. This study provides clarification of the relationships among interest conflicts, ethical leadership, ethical training and ethical decision-making of life insurance salespeople. This is the first study that analyzes the relationships. The results of this study may provide some contributions to the relevant literature.

Improving Public Service Culture With Reduction of Interest Conflicts in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Task Enforcement in Emerging Markets - Case In Vietnam

SummaryNowadays, many developing countries such as China, India and Vietnam, etc. have been trying to improve public service culture in public service organizations through eliminating corruption, more integrity, and training and improving good corporate governance. Based on theories background on public service culture, or public administration culture and conflicts of interest, this paper aims to evaluate real situation of interest conflicts in public enforcement in Vietnam nowadays; then, it will use a combination of logic and synthesis, qualitative and quantitative methods, and inter-social scientific industries analytical method to propose some recommendations to reduce conflicts of interest in public enforcement in the country on the basis of further clarifying the concept of “public service culture” and “conflict of interest” in public service. For instance, the paper suggests that we need to amend regulations on giving and receiving gifts, and increase the control over assets and income.Last but not least, we suggest future desired research direction: we can expand researches to other emerging markets in Asia, China, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, etc.

Research on Bankruptcy Trustee’s Right of Rescission of Contract

Article 18, paragraph 1, of Law of the People’s Republic of China on Enterprise Bankruptcy gives the bankruptcy trustee the right to rescind the performance of executory contract. It also stipulates the time limit and legal effect, but it does not further set standards and restrict the rescission of specific contracts. The purpose of This Paper is to explore and establish norms for the exercise of bankruptcy trustee’s rescission rights under different situations to meet the practical needs. Based on the research results of domestic and foreign scholars, this paper puts forward the standard of “Special Interest Protection for Specific Creditors” to balance the interest conflicts between individual creditors, debtors and other creditors. Finally, this paper argues that it is necessary to set certain standards and make appropriate restrictions on the exercise of the bankruptcy trustee’s right to rescission the contract and improve the system.

Constraints on Discretion: Part 1—Directors

This chapter discusses two general types of behavioural constraints on managerial decision-making that can be found in most legal systems: the duties of care and loyalty. The former deals with the care, skill, and diligence that a director is expected to employ in managing a company. The latter deals with situations where a director’s interest conflicts with the interests of the company, notably where the director is a shareholder or otherwise involved in a business partner of the company or takes advantage of a business opportunity that could also be of commercial interest to the company.