The dark triad and corporate sustainability: An empirical analysis of personality traits of sustainability managers

Middle managers responsible for sustainability operationalize top management decisions on the organization's social and environmental activities. With their focus on sustainability, they could be expected to consider ethical issues particularly well in their decisions and to possess ethical personality traits. While earlier research has focused on top management this paper examines the influence of personality traits of middle managers on their corporate sustainability preferences. Based on a primary survey sample of 204 professionals responsible for sustainability in their company, we study the relationship between dark triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) of sustainability managers and their environmental and social responsibility preferences. The analysis shows that managers who score higher on the dark triad personality scale are less concerned about environmental and social responsibility issues. The business environment, analyzed in a cross-cultural comparison between the United States and Europe, and the organizational context function as a moderator of the influence of personality traits on sustainability preferences. The results suggest that dark triad personality traits should be considered in recruitment and assessment processes of middle managers responsible for corporate sustainability.     

Situational Ethics Across Borders: A Multicultural Examination

Managers throughout the world regularly face ethical dilemmas that have important, and perhaps complex, professional and personal implications. Further, societal consequences of decisions made can be far-reaching. In this study, 210 financial services managers from Australia, Chile, Ecuador and the United States were queried about their ethical beliefs when faced with four diverse dilemmas. In addition, the situational context was altered so the respondent viewed each dilemma from a top management position and from a position of economic hardship. Results suggest a complex interaction of situation, culture and issue when individuals make ethical judgments. Specifically, Chileans were found to have different beliefs about sex discrimination and child labor dilemmas when compared to their colleagues from the other three nations. Chileans and Australians also disagreed on the bribery dilemma. Anglo managers were more likely than Latin American managers to change their ethical responses when the situation was altered. For multinational firms interested in maintaining healthy ethical climates, the findings suggest that culturally contingent ethical guidelines, or policies adapted to the local customs, must be considered. Further, managers must remain aware of issues related to specific situations, both internal and external, that would cause subordinates to alter their moral judgment.     

Marketing

In carrying out their jobs marketers face many ethical dilemmas. Several examples of such dilemmas and how managers may reduce unethical marketing behavior are discussed. Managers must expose unethical marketing practices and encourage ethical behavior. This can be done by establishing organizational goals, providing supportive corporate environments, and drafting codes of conduct or codes of ethics. Each of these factors is discussed in separate sections of h e article. Top managers can uphold marketing ethics by creating programs to mobilize the organization toward realizing its ethical goals. Top managers can support ethical marketing behavior by setting realistic marketing goals and rewarding ethical marketers. Finally, corporate marketing     

The Effects of Environmental Factors on the Behavior of Chinese Managers in the Information Age in China

This paper examines the effects of environmental factors on the ethical behavior of managers using computers at work in Mainland China. In this study, environmental factors refer to senior management, peer groups, company policies, professional practices, and legal considerations. Ethical behaviors include attitudes to disclosure, protection of privacy, conflict of interest, personal conduct, social responsibility, and integrity. A questionnaire survey was used for data collection, and 125 mainland Chinese managers participated in the study. The results show that peer groups, professional practices, and legal considerations do influence the ethical behavior of mainland Chinese managers in the areas of social responsibility, integrity, and accountability. A discussion of the implications of the results is also provided in this paper.     

Staff Attitudes to Talking Openly About Ethical Dilemmas: The Role of Business Ethics Conceptions and Trust

To ensure ethical employee behavior, companies often utilize several forms of mostly one-way communication such as codes of conduct. The extent to which these efforts, in addition to informing about the company stance on ethics, are able to positively influence behavior is disputed. In contrast, research on business ethics communication and behavior indicates a relatively clear, positive link between open workplace dialogue about ethical issues and ethical conduct. In this article, I therefore address the question: What influences employee attitudes to talking openly about ethical issues? Answers are proposed on the basis of focus group interviews with staff at the Denmark and Brazil affiliates of the global healthcare company Novo Nordisk. It was found that interest in discussing ethical issues was influenced by two main factors: employee conceptualizations of business ethics and the level of inter-collegial trust, credibility, and confidence. In this article, by examining these phenomena, I aim at providing insight that can both inform scholars in these fields as well as help managers in their attempts to promote open workplace dialogue about ethical issues.     

Ethics in the transnational corporation; the “moral buck” stops where?

This paper addresses two issues. The first issue relates directly to transnational corporations, while the second issue is broader and relates to all diversely held companies. To address the first issue I cite three representative instances where wanton environmental damage has signalled a lack of moral judgment on the part of a transnational corporation. I conclude from these instances that ethical considerations are not given adequate weight in corporate investment decisions. This leads to the second issue. Who should be making ethical decisions within the corporate milieu? I conclude that neither management nor the typical shareholder should be expected to exercise moral judgment because they are not free agents. They have fiduciary responsibilities that must override personal moral suasion.     

Western Australian Managers Tell Their Stories: Ethical Challenges in International Business Operations

This paper investigates the ethical challenges facing managers in Western Australia. It identifies the ethical issues that managers confront in international business. Managers in this research have identified a number of significant ethical issues when discussing the ethical incidents that occurred in their international dealings. The research shows a degree of congruence between managers' experiences and establishes the main ethical dilemmas encountered, how they felt and actions taken when confronted with an ethical dilemma.     

The Ethical Management Practices of Australian Firms

This paper addresses a number of important issues regarding the ethical practices and recent behaviour of large Australian firms in nine industries. These issues include whether firms have a written code of ethics, whether firms have a forum for the discussion of ethics, whether managers consider that their firm's activities have an environmental impact and whether there are any statistical relationships between the size, industry class, ownership, international involvement and location of the firm and its ethical management practices. These questions are examined by using data collected from a sample of 136 large firms operating in Australia.     

Business ethics: is it useful? – An empirical study of Chinese enterprise

There are many ethical issues that arise during the period of transition from a planning economy to a market economy. Academics and researchers on ethics appear to think that business and ethics overlap. However, this paper addresses the relation between business and ethics from the perspective of business people. From a historical and cultural perspective, the connection between business and ethics is relevant. But in practice business people only sometimes regard this connection as useful, most of the time considering the two as being quite separate. In interviews of 21 people who are owners, chief executive officers or senior managers in state–owned or private enterprises, this study found that business ethics is indeed a dilemma for them for reasons of competitive survival. Therefore, in order to improve the ethical climate, the definition of enterprise, the guidance of government policy and the audit system all have an important role to play.     

Communicating Ethical Values: A Study of Employee Perceptions

Communicating ethical values is a serious issue for a number of organizations. While ethical codes are useful, they cannot exist alone. Organizations must make certain codes reflect the ideals of individuals in the organization and the ethical expectations must be clearly communicated. This study examined the sources (people) and channels (ways messages were received) that affected how employees learned about ethics. Results showed that training and orientation programs were affirmed as sources of learning along with teaching others. Codes and handbooks were also identified as ways employees learned about ethics in their organization. Ethical issues were discussed more frequently with fellow employees than with supervisors suggesting that managers could be more proactive about discussing ethics with employees.     

The Greening of Business Schools

"New modes of thinking" are necessary to meet a new set of complex environmental challenges-greenery, globalization, diversity, complexity and acceleration of technological change of the 1990s. The green challenge to business schools is to articulate, develop, and deliver environmental education for managers as an effective tool for a sustainable world economy and society. Every business student must have at least broad understanding of the social, political, ethical, technological, economic, and ecological context of global business. The challenge of educating business leaders for a global future requires a new portfolio of capabilities, commitments. and visions on the part of business school faculty, the multinational corporations, and other stakeholders in management education. Business schools around the world have an obligation to present the ecological challenge as clearly to students as to faculty members. The more environmentally conscious business student community of the 1990s probably will demand to have structured learning opportunities about environmental issues and their impact on business management- with a superordinate goal of improving environmental sensitivity and environmental performance of individuals and their institutions.     

Complementary Resources and Capabilities for an Ethical and Environmental Management: A Qual/Quan Study

Managers’ commitment to contribute to sustainable development holds the key to their long-term business success and may be a source of competitive advantage. The managerial perception of business ethics is influenced by the level of moral development and personal characteristics of managers. These perceptions are also shaped by forces existing in the environment of the firm, including available resources, societal expectations, sector, and regulations. The resource-based perspective can thus contribute to the analysis of ethical issues offering important insights on how they can influence the environmental strategy of the firm. The findings of this study show that firm resources have a strong influence on business managers’ ethical attitudes. In addition, the application of resource-based rationales to ethical issues can be justified in the following several ways: it influences a managerial perception of natural environment as a competitive opportunity, it requires investments of financial and human resources, flexibility and speed in the adaptation to environmental changes, and it creates new resource-based opportunities through changes in prevention pollution technology, policy process, and market forces.     

The Influence of Environmental Knowledge and Values on Managerial Behaviours on Behalf of the Environment: An Empirical Examination of Managers in China

This study explores linkages between what Chinese managers generally know about environmental issues, how strongly they value environmental protection, and different types of behaviours/actions they may take within their organizations on behalf of the environment. From a sample of 305 managers in Guangzhou and Beijing, it was found that both environmental knowledge and values are more predictive of more personal managerial behaviours, such as keeping informed of relevant company issues and working within the system to minimize environmental impacts, than more overt behaviours. Moreover, for these more personal actions, environmental knowledge and values were found to have both main and interactive effects. By comparison, it was found that both environmental values and knowledge had additive effects on managerial tendencies to initiate new programs within their domain of responsibility. Only environmental values was found to have a modest influence environmental advocacy.     

Ethical positioning and political marketing: the ethical awareness and concerns of UK voters

There is clear evidence of increased voter awareness and concern for environmental and other ethical issues, leading many organisations to reappraise and communicate more effectively their ethical credentials. The manifestos of the three main political parties in the UK show clear differences in their positioning on ethical issues.

Following a qualitative investigation using in-depth discussions and ZMET, a questionnaire was developed and administered to a representative UK sample of 1,000 consumers. This included a measure of awareness, concern and action on 16 ethical issues, the scale developed from the Stages of Change concept within the transtheoretical model.

Using principal components analysis, ANOVA and chi-squared analysis, differences are identified in the ethical positions of voter groups affiliated with the three main parties. These differences are not consistent between different sets of issues, suggesting further scope for ethical targeting and positioning by political marketers.     

Ethical Business and Investment: A Model for Business and Society

Two key questions lie at the heart of the business challenge for business ethics: is it possible for business and investors to do well while doing good; and if so, how can this be achieved? This paper adopts an international investment perspective to address these questions. It demonstrates that it is possible for business and investors to achieve a triple bottom line of environmental, social and financial performance. A new integrated model of Ethical Business including an Ethical Scorecard performance measurement technology is presented based on international ethical investment criteria and case studies of businesses rated highly by ethical investors. Ethical Performance Scores are presented for these businesses and New Zealand business. Examples from New Zealand are presented to illustrate the Ethical Scorecard and ethical business practice. The model and scoring system provide a basis for international benchmarking of ethical business to assist investors, managers and researchers.     

Business Ethics in a Transition Economy: Will the Next Russian Generation be any Better?

This study investigated students’ perceptions of ethical organizational climates, attitudes towards ethical issues, and the perceived relationship between ethical behavior and success in business organizations. Comparisons were made between the attitudes of these future managers with previously published studies of Russian managers’ attitudes. A survey of 100 business students in three Moscow universities showed that their attitudes toward ethical behavior were more negative than those of Russian managers. No significant differences were found in the perceptions or attitudes of students who had attended an ethics course and those that did not. The implications for both managers and researchers were reported.     

The Ethical Issues Confronting Managers in the Sport Industry

The sport industry is an extremely diverse industry, including segments such as professional sport, intercollegiate athletics, health and fitness, recreational sport and facility management. The industry is currently experiencing rapid growth and development, and as it grows, sport managers in the different segments encounter ethical issues which are often unique to each segment. This article examines the professional sport, intercollegiate athletics, health and fitness, recreational sport and facility management segments of the sport industry and discusses the various ethical issues facing managers in each of these segments.     

Correction to: Developing Ethical Confidence: The Impact of Action-Oriented Ethics Instruction in an Accounting Curriculum

After the USSR collapsed, the Russian economy underwent serious changes from being plan-based to a market economy. These changes, together with political instability, created a business environment where no attention was paid to ethics. Russian managers have little experience operating in a market economy, which created many misunderstandings with foreign partners, especially regarding ethical issues of doing business. This study examined the factors influencing the ethical judgments of Russian employees to understand how they perceive ethical issues and make ethical or unethical decisions at work. The Ferrell and Gresham (J Mark 49:87–96, 1985) framework was employed in this study to understand the process of making ethical decision by an individual. Transparency was proposed as a moderator of the relationship between opportunity factors and employees’ ethical judgments. Findings of this study show that Russian employees tend to be more tolerant towards ethically questionable behaviors at a workplace. Moreover, the results also demonstrate that transparency moderates the influence of opportunity to behave unethically on ethical judgments.     

The role of information technology systems in the performance of mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are an important tool for improving a firm's competitive positioning and performance. Despite M&As’ promise, however, they often fail to meet performance goals. Challenges often arise when managers try to integrate two companies’ information technology (IT) systems, and the difficulties encountered often create both short- and long-term performance problems for companies. To help address these challenges, we highlight important issues that managers involved in M&As must consider. We also present some best practices that managers should follow to improve the odds of successful IT integration.     

Exploring the unintended negative impact of an ethical climate in competitive environments

To attain short-term performance, sales managers must motivate their salesforce to close deals (often through use of intra-firm competition). At the same time, to maintain long-term relationships, they must promote a highly ethical selling environment (which may be incongruent with use of intra-firm competition). The present study examines the interactive relationship between competitive psychological climate and ethical psychological climate in predicting salespeople’s ethical intentions and behaviors toward customers. A unique dyadic data set is used to predict salesperson ethical intentions and actual salesperson ethical behaviors reported by customers. For ethical intentions, an “executive control” perspective predicts improved ethical intentions toward customers. However, a “depletion” perspective predicts reduced ethical behavior during actual customer interactions. This result is provocative as fostering an ethical climate in conjunction with a competitive climate is found to reduce ethical behaviors in the eyes of customers, a finding clearly counter to what managers intend.