Predicting Unethical Behavior Among Marketing Practitioners

Abstract

A differential association model of unethical behavior was utilized to predict unethical behavior among marketing practitioners. The data were collected through a systematic random sample of 280 marketing managers selected from the 1975 American Marketing Association roster. Newstrom and Ruch 's 17-item ethics scale was used to develop six types of predictors of unethical behavior, "What I do, " among marketers. These six types of variables included (1) the marketer's beliefs, "What I believe"; (2) what the marketer thought his peers believed, "Peer beliefs"; (3) what the marketer thought top management believed, "What top management believes"; (4) what the marketer thought his peers did, "What my peers do"; (5) the opportunity the marketer thought his peers had to become involved in un-ethical behavior, "Opportunity for peers"; and finally (6) the opportunity the marketer himself had to become involved in unethical behavior, "Individual opportunity." In the case of these marketing practitioners, their perceptions of what their peers do and their own opportunity to become involved in unethical behavior that involved others were better predictor variables than were any of the other variables analyzed.

A Multimethod Approach to Identifying Norms and Normative Expectations Within a Corporate Hierarchy: Evidence from the Financial Services Industry

“…Further, a perceived misalignment between the personal normative opinion held by a financial adviser and those of his peers ( , ) is associated with a decline in the likelihood of telling the truth (Table 8 Column 3, estimated coefficient -0.17, p<0.01). It is worth noting that the change in the magnitude of the coefficients tells a story consistent with the literature that finds that people use peers as reference groups when deciding whether or not to engage in unethical behavior (Zey-Ferrell et al 1979and Zey-Ferrell and Ferrell 1982 respectively).…”

“…This is relevant because, as an example, considerable evidence points to a positive correlation between ethical leadership and ethical behavior among subordinates (Brown, Trevino and Harrison, 2005, Gatewood and Carroll, 1991, Smith et al, 2007, Treviño, Weaver and Brown, 2008. In addition, other literature suggests that the ethical behavior of one's peers may also be correlated with one's own ethical behavior (Zey-Ferrell et al 1979, Zey-Ferrell & Ferrell, 1982, Jones & Kavanagh, 1996, Brass et al, 1998. Thus, the ability to measure, in an incentive compatible manner, when and to what degree norms at the employee level overlap with norms at the management level in an organizational hierarchy would be a distinctive advance in the empirical tools available for studying organizational structure more generally and the effect of peer and leadership norms on behavior.…”

“…Previous work has looked at the correlation between ethical leadership and the ethical behavior among subordinates (Brown, Trevino and Harrison, 2005, Gatewood and Carroll, 1991, Smith et al, 2007, Treviño, Weaver and Brown, 2008 or between the ethical behavior of one's peers and one's own ethical behavior (Zey-Ferrell et al 1979, Zey-Ferrell & Ferrell, 1982). Our findings suggest an additional and perhaps more subtle point: that the degree to which personal ethical norms align with the norms of one's peers and, to a lesser extent, with the norms espoused by leadership, are also potentially important influences on attitudes and behavior.…”

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“…Variation in the calibre of the corporate codes being sampled can have a similar effect (Morris, Marks, Allen and Peery, 1996). Finally, informal codes and norms can also function alongside formal codes to influence ethical decision making (Hunt and Vitell, 1993;Zey-Ferrell, Weaver and Ferrell, 1979).…”

“…Models of ethical behavior have incorporated group variables through the proposition that, if interaction with peers is more significant that interaction with management, then such a peer group will have more influence on both an individual's ethical decision making (Ferrell and Gresham, 1985;Ferrell, Gresham and Fraedrich, 1989), and the use of informal norms for use of codes among peers (see Hunt and Vitell, 1986;Zey-Ferrell et al, 1979). Thus, we hypothesize that: H8: The extent to which an individual's work group uses the code of conduct will predict the use of formal codes by that individual.…”