Abstract
A measure of ethics termed ethical behavior (EB) is postulated and tested across the moral philosophy types of managers. The findings suggest that certain managers, classified as rule deontologists, appear to rank higher on the EB scale than any other philosophy type tested.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alexander, C. S. and H. S. Becker: 1978, ‘The Use of Vignettes in Survey Research’,Public Opinion Quarterly 42, pp. 93–104.
Barry, V.: 1983,Moral Issues in Business 2nd ed. (Wadsworth Pub. Co. Belmont, CA.).
Beauchamp, T. L. and N. E. Bowie, eds.: 1979,Ethical Theory and Business (Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Belizzi and Hite: 1989, ‘Supervising Unethical Salesforce Behavior’,Journal of Marketing 53, pp. 36–47.
Beltramini, R. F., R. A. Peterson, and G. Kozmetsky: 1984, ‘Concerns of College Students Regarding Business Ethics’,Journal of Business Ethics 3, pp. 195–200.
Bentham, J.: 1789,Introduction to The Principles of Morals and Legislation.
Boyce, W. D. and L. C. Jensen: 1978,Moral Reasoning: A Psychological-Philosophical Integration (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln).
Brandt, R.: 1959,Ethical Theory (Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Browning, J. and N. B. Zabriskie: 1983, ‘How Ethical are Industrial Buyers?’,Industrial Marketing Management 12, pp. 219–224.
Carmer, S. G. and M. R. Swanson: 1973, ‘Evaluation of Ten Pairwise Multiple Comparison Procedures by Monte Carlo Methods’,Journal of the American Statistical Association 68(314), pp. 66–74.
Carritt, E. F.: 1928,The Theory of Morals (Oxford Press, London).
Caterpillar: 1985,A Code of Worldwide Business Conduct and Operating Principles (Public Affairs Dept., Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, IL), 61629-1465.
Cavanagh, G. F., D. J. Moberg, and M. Velasquez: 1981 (Sept.), ‘The Ethics of Organizational Politics’,Academy of Management Review 6, pp. 363–374.
Chonko, L. B. and S. D. Hunt: 1985, ‘Ethics and Marketing Management: An Empirical Examination’,Journal of Business Research 13, pp. 339–359.
Cressey, D. R. and C. A. Moore: 1983 (Summer), ‘Managerial Values and Corporate Codes of Ethics’,California Management Review 25, pp. 53–77.
Crittenden, V. L., W. F. Crittenden and J. M. Hawes: 1986, ‘Ethical Standards of Marketing Students’, in N. K. Malhotra (ed)Developments in Marketing Science, Academy of Marketing Science, Atlanta, pp. 164–168.
Cronbach, L. J.: 1951, ‘Coefficient Alpha and the Internal Structure of Tests’,Psychometrika 16, pp. 297–334.
De George, R.: 1982,Business Ethics (Macmillan, New York).
Derry, R.: 1987, ‘Moral Reasoning in Work-related Conflicts’,Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy 9, pp. 25–49.
Derry, R.: 1989 (Nov.), ‘An Empirical Study of Moral Reasoning Among Managers’,Journal of Business Ethics 9(11), pp. 855–862.
Dillman, D. A.: 1978,Mail and Telephone Surveys (Wiley, New York).
Dubinsky, A. J., E. N. Berkowitz and W. Rudelius: 1980 (Summer), ‘Ethical Problems of Field Sales Personnel’,MSU Business Topics 28, pp. 11–16.
Dubinsky, A. J. and Michael Levy: 1985 (Winter), ‘Ethics in Retailing: Perceptions of Retail Salespeople’,Academy of Marketing Science 13, pp. 1–16.
Equitable: 1990,Policy Statement on Ethics: The Equitable Financial Companies (Internal Document published by Equitable), p. 9.
Fasching, D. J.: 1981 (Sept), ‘A Case for Corporate and Management Ethics’,California Management Review 23, p. 62–76.
Ferrell, O. C. and L. Gresham: 1985 (Summer), ‘A Contingency Framework for Understanding Ethical Decision Making in Marketing’,Journal of Marketing 49, pp. 87–96.
Ferrell, O. C., L. Gresham and J. Fraedrich: 1989 (Fall), ‘A Synthesis of Ethical Decision Models for Marketing’,Journal of Macromarketing 9, pp. 55–64.
Ferrell, O. C. and S. J. Skinner: 1988 (Feb.), ‘Ethical Behavior and Bureaucratic Structure in Marketing Research Organizations’,Journal of Marketing Research 25, pp. 103–109.
Fitzmaurice, T. J. and H. Randolf: 1961 (Summer), ‘Preventing Theft in Retail Stores’,Journal of Retailing 37, pp. 1–8.
Fraedrich, J. P.: 1988, ‘Moral Philosophy-Type and Risk Interaction in the Ethical Decision Making Process of Marketers’, dissertation, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
Fraedrich, J. and O. C. Ferrell: 1991 (forthcoming), ‘The Impact of Perceived Risk and Moral Philosophy Type on Ethical Decision Making in Business Organizations’,Journal of Business Research.
Fraedrich, J., O. C. Ferrell and K. Jones: 1991 (Feb.), ‘An Empirical Investigation into the Ethical Philosophies of Managers’,Academy of Marketing Association Winter Educator's Conference Proceedings, Orlando, FL.
Frankena, W.: 1973,Ethics (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Fritzsche, D. J. and H. Becker: 1984a, ‘Ethical Behavior of Marketing Managers’,Journal of Business Ethics 2, pp. 291–299.
Fritzsche, D. J. and H. Becker: 1984b, ‘Linking Management Behavior to Ethical Philosophy — An Empirical Investigation’,Academy of Management Journal 27 (1984, no. 1), pp. 166–175.
Gable, M. and M. T. Topol: 1988 (Spring), ‘Machiavellianism and the Department Store Executive’,Journal of Retialing 64, pp. 68–84.
Garner, R. T. and B. Rosen: 1967,Moral Philosophy: A Systematic Introduction to Normative Ethics and Meta-Ethics (Macmillan, New York).
Harris, J. R.: 1990 (Sept.), ‘Ethical Values of Individuals at Different Levels in the Organization Hierarchy of a Single Firm’,Journal of Business Ethics 9(9), pp. 741–750.
Hoaglund, J.: 1984 (Aug.), ‘Ethical Theory and Practice: Is There a Gap?’,Journal of Business Ethics 3, pp. 201–205.
Hunt, S. D.: 1990 (July), ‘Truth in Marketing Theory and Research’,Journal of Marketing 54(3), pp. 1–15.
Hunt, S. and S. Vitell: 1986 (Spring), ‘A General Theory of Marketing Ethics’, pp. 5–16.
Jensen, L., A. Taylor, and J. Burton: 1981, ‘A Factorial Study of the Moral Content Components Test’,Educational and Psychological Measurement 41, pp. 613–624.
Kelly, S. W., O. C. Ferrell, and S. J. Skinner: 1990 (Aug.), ‘Ethical Behavior Among Marketing Researchers: An Assessment of Selected Demographic Characteristics’,Journal of Business Ethics 9(8), pp. 681–688.
Kidwell, J. M., R. E. Stevens, and A. L. Bethke: 1987 (Aug.), ‘Differences in Ethical Perceptions Between Male and Female Managers: Myth or Reality’,Journal of Business Ethics 6(6), pp. 489–493.
Kohlberg, L.: 1976, ‘Moralization: The Cognitive Developmental Approach’, inMorality: Theory Research and Social Issues, (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York).
Laczniak, G. R.: 1983 (Jan.–March), ‘Business Ethics: A Manager's Primer’,Business, pp. 23–29.
Lyons, D.: 1965,The Forms and Limits of Utilitarianism, Oxford.
Mayo, M. A. and L. J. Marks: 1990 (Spring), ‘An Empirical Investigation of a General Theory of Marketing Ethics’,Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 18(2), pp. 163–171.
Montgomery, D. C.: 1984,Design and Analysis of Experiments (John Wiley & Sons, New York).
Murphy, P. E. and G. R. Laczniak: 1981, ‘Marketing Ethics: A Review with Implications for Managers, Educators and Researchers’, in B. Enis and Roering (eds.),Review of Marketing, pp. 251–266.
Nunnally, J. C.: 1978,Psychometric Theory (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Peter, J. P. and J. C. Olson: 1983 (Fall), ‘Is Science Marketing?’,Journal of Marketing 47, pp. 111–125.
Rest, J. R.: 1975, ‘Recent Research on an Objective Test Moral Judgment: How the Important Issues of a Moral Dilemma are Defined’, in D. J. DePalma and J. M. Foley (eds.),Moral Development: Current Theory and Research (Wiley, New York), pp. 75–94.
Robin, D. P.: 1980, ‘Value Issues in Marketing’, in C. W. Lamb and P. M. Dunne (eds.),Theoretical Developments in Marketing (American Marketing Association, Chicago), pp. 142–145.
Rosen, B.: 1978,Strategies of Ethics (Houghton Mifflin, Boston).
Ross, W. D.: 1930,The Right and the Good (Clarendon Press, Oxford).
Sartorius, R. E.: 1975,Individual Conduct and Social Norms: A Utilitarian Account of Social Union and Rule of Law (Dickerson Pub., Belmont, CA).
Sartre, J. P.: 1947,Existentialism, Trans. Bernard Frechtman (Philosophical Library, New York).
Singer, M.: 1961,Generalization in Ethics, New York.
Singer, P.: 1976, “Freedoms and Utility in the Distribution of Health Care’, in R. Veatch and R. Branson (eds.),Ethics and Health Policy, (Bellinger Pub., Cambridge).
Singhapakdi, A. and S. J. Vitell: 1990 (Spring), ‘Marketing Ethics: Factors Influencing Perceptions of Ethical Problems and Alternatives’,Journal of Macromarketing, pp 4–18.
Smart, J. J. C. and B. Williams: 1973,Utilitarianism For and Against, Cambridge.
SPSSX User's Guide: 1986, Marketing Dept. SPSS Inc., 444 N. Michigan Ave.: Chicago, IL 60611.
Starr, W. C.: 1983, ‘Codes of Ethics — Towards a Rule-Utilitarian Justification’,Journal of Business Ethics 2, pp. 99–106.
Tatham, R. L.: 1974 (Fall), ‘Employee Views of Theft in Retailing’,Journal of Retailing 50, pp. 49–55.
Taylor, P. W.: 1975,Principles of Ethics: An Introduction, (Dickenson, Encino, California).
Trevino, L. K.: 1986, ‘Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: A Person-Situation Interactionist Model’,Academy of Management Review 11(3), pp. 601–617.
Tsalikis, J. and M. Ortiz-Buonafina: 1990 (June), ‘Ethical Beliefs' Differences of Males and Females’,Journal of Business Ethics 9(6), pp. 509–518.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
John Fraedrich is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Southern Illinois University of Carbondale. His areas of interest include ethical decision making and international marketing. He has published inJournal of Business Ethics, Journal of Macro-marketing, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, International Journal of Value Based Management, andJournal of International Consumer Marketing. Dr. Fraedrich has also recently completed a book(Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, 1991, Houghton Mifflin) on the topic of ethics.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fraedrich, J.P. The ethical behavior of retail managers. J Bus Ethics 12, 207–218 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01686448
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01686448