Too much of a good thing?: The impact of ethical controls and perceived controllability on salesforce job performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to attempt to better understand the relationship between organizational ethical climate, the internalization of ethical codes (INT), perceived control and business-to-business (B2B) and retail salesperson job performance. This research develops and tests a model that examines these relationships to better understand the relationship of these variables to salesperson job performance. Design/methodology/approach Using the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 2002) as the theoretical lens and survey data from 307 salespeople in the USA, this study examines the relationship between organizational ethical climate, salesperson perceived control and salesperson job performance. This study examines whether this relationship may change with the presence of intervening variables related to a strengthened organizational ethical climate, and examines the relationship between these variables in two different analyses. First, this study examines the differences among retail salespeople as compared to B2B salespeople. Then this study examines the total dataset of salespeople as one sample. Findings The findings show that the positive effect of organizational ethical climate on the job performance of salespeople was reduced significantly when salespersons’ INT and salesperson perceived controllability, were examined in this relationship. Practical implications Organizational controls, such as an ethical climate within a firm, can impact salesperson job performance, especially if the firm’s ethical climate causes the salesteam to feel that it lessens their perceived control. This study found that if the ethical climate reduces the salespeople’s feelings of self-efficacy, that the ethical climate changes can intervene and can significantly reduce the otherwise positive effect of the organizational ethical climate on salesperson job performance. Originality/value From a theoretical perspective, the research is distinctive in its endeavor to better understand the relationship between the role of salespersons’ ethical code internalization and their feelings of self-efficacy and perceived control. This paper then examines how these variables can be influential to the direct effect of organizational ethical control and can impact the job performance of salespeople. The findings contribute to research by advancing our knowledge of how we can enhance the responses of salespeople to an organization’s ethical control, leading to higher customer satisfaction and improved sales performance.

The Relationship between Organizational Ethical Climate and Organizational Trust in Palestinian Ministries: An Empirical Approach

The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between organizational ethical climate and organizational trust in Palestinian public ministries by applying the Victor and Cullen’s (1988) framework. For this purpose, the study utilizes a sample of 178 respondents of executive-level employees in which primary data collection is conducted using survey instrument and PLS-SEM for data analysis. The study proposes that a positive relationship between ethical climate types (Caring, Independence, Rules, Law and Codes) and organizational trust, and negative relationship between (Instrumental climate) and organizational trust are all highly important for Palestinian ministries to provide trust and create positive outcome in the workplace.

ЗНАЧАЈ ЕТИЧКЕ КЛИМЕ И КОРУПТИВНИХ РАЦИОНАЛИЗАЦИЈА ЗА НАЧИН РЕШАВАЊА ЕТИЧКИХ ДИЛЕМА НА РАДУ

The aim of the research was to determine the importance of organizational ethical climate and the levels of corruption for determining the methods of solving the four ethical dilemmas typical of the working environment – “truth versus loyalty”, “individual vs. community”, “short-term versus long-term” and “justice vs. mercy” (Kidder, 1995). On an ad hoc sample of 313 employees from different organizations in the Republic of Serbia, an online questionnaire was applied for data collecting on the perception of the organizational ethical climate, the tendency towards corruptive rationalizations as factors in choosing alternatives in solving ethical dilemmas at work. The findings indicate the importance of the perception of the egoistic ethical climate and the climate of social responsibility for the willingness of employees to be merciful when solving the dilemma “justice vs. mercy.” It was found that the egoistic ethical climate probably generates the acceptance of corruptive rationalizations that predict the acceptance of “mercy” towards those who steal the company’s assets. On the other hand, the climate of social responsibility influences the preference of employees for mercy for those who break the rules, most likely because employees develop the belief that well-being is important for both the company’s clients and colleagues, even when they violate organizational rules. It was concluded that the perception of the organizational ethical climate indirectly influences the manner of solving ethical dilemmas at work. This is probably done by generating personal beliefs in employees, which then influences the preference for solving the ethical dilemma with which these beliefs are in accordance.

Ethics, code of conduct and ethical climate: implications for human resource development

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to point out the importance of having an ethics-related course for human resource development (HRD) graduate programs; and second, to highlight HRD potential to minimize ethical misconducts through an ethical filter in organizations. Design/methodology/approach This paper is conceptual in nature. The authors used their own experiences in HRD programs, looked at HRD graduate programs’ curricula in different universities and reviewed literature on ethics and HRD to develop a conceptual model. The model is to guide future studies and identify the role of HRD practices to create an ethical climate in organizations. Findings In this paper, the authors illustrate the connection between HRD practices and ethical climate in organizations by providing a conceptual framework. In the concluding paragraphs, the authors provide a discussion, implications and recommendations for future studies. Originality/value The authors highlight the limited research conducted on how ethics and ethical dilemmas need to be represented in HRD practitioners’ activities and practices. Many graduate-level HRD students do not receive enough training on ethics, whereas it is their responsibility to help improve organizational ethical climate and educate and prepare human resources to minimize ethical misconducts and wrongdoings. The paper provides a framework for HRD practitioners to create a strong ethical climate in their organizations.

Trainee auditors' perception of ethical climate and workplace bullying in Chinese audit firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper aims to investigate the relationship between the audit firm's ethical climate and workplace bullying perceived by trainee auditors in Chinese audit firms.Design/methodology/approachAn Ethical Climate Questionnaire and a Negative Acts Questionnaire are adapted from the existing organization studies and business ethics literature to fit in the audit firm context and are administered in a survey on 205 trainee auditors with a four-month long work placement in audit firms. SPSS is used in statistical analyses and tests.FindingsThis study confirms that some but not all types of organizational ethical climate significantly affect the perceived workplace bullying in audit firms. The results of testing for the relations between workplace bullying and ethical climate after breaking down workplace bullying into the work-related and person-related bullying sub-categories provide some different conclusions. Besides the impacts of the ethical climate on workplace bullying, this paper also finds out that trainee auditor's gender, the leader–subordinate gender difference, firm size and audit engagement team size are more likely to affect the perception of one or more of the bullying categories in audit firms.Practical implicationsThis study implies some guidance for the audit firms to establish healthy ethical climates that can help them to recruit, train and retain young skilled auditing professionals.Social implicationsThe findings of this study imply that a healthy ethical climate can help develop the audit profession and markets by deterring workplace bullying in audit firms.Originality/valueThis paper extends the organizational studies on the impact of the audit firm's organizational ethical climate on workplace bullying in the auditing profession. It also extends the gender roles in organization studies by stratifying the levels of workplace harassment.