IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ems/eureri/15405.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Ethics of Organizations: A Longitudinal Study of the U.S. Working Population

Author

Listed:
  • Kaptein, S.P.

Abstract

The ethics of organizations has received much attention in recent years. This raises the question whether the ethics of organizations has also improved. In 1999, 2004 and 2008, a survey was conducted of 12,196 U.S. managers and employees. The results show that the ethical culture of organizations only improved in the period between 1999 and 2004. Unethical behavior and its consequences, however, declined between 2004 and 2008, while the scope of ethics programs expanded in that period. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for further research and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Kaptein, S.P., 2009. "The Ethics of Organizations: A Longitudinal Study of the U.S. Working Population," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2009-018-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    • Handle: RePEc:ems:eureri:15405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repub.eur.nl/pub/15405/ERS-2009-018-ORG.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Skerlavaj, Miha & Stemberger, Mojca Indihar & Skrinjar, Rok & Dimovski, Vlado, 2007. "Organizational learning culture--the missing link between business process change and organizational performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 346-367, April.
    2. Greenberg, Jerald, 2002. "Who stole the money, and when? Individual and situational determinants of employee theft," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 985-1003, September.
    3. Treviño, Linda Klebe & Butterfield, Kenneth D. & McCabe, Donald L., 1998. "The Ethical Context in Organizations: Influences on Employee Attitudes and Behaviors," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 447-476, July.
    4. Muel Kaptein, 2009. "Ethics Programs and Ethical Culture: A Next Step in Unraveling Their Multi-Faceted Relationship," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(2), pages 261-281, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Muel Kaptein, 2010. "The Ethics of Organizations: A Longitudinal Study of the U.S. Working Population," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(4), pages 601-618, April.
    2. Silke Eisenbeiss & Daan Knippenberg & Clemens Fahrbach, 2015. "Doing Well by Doing Good? Analyzing the Relationship Between CEO Ethical Leadership and Firm Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 635-651, May.
    3. Juliana Toro-Arias & Pablo Ruiz-Palomino & María Pilar Rodríguez-Córdoba, 2022. "Measuring Ethical Organizational Culture: Validation of the Spanish Version of the Shortened Corporate Ethical Virtues Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 551-574, March.
    4. Joaquín Camps & Antonio Majocchi, 2010. "Learning Atmosphere and Ethical Behavior, Does It Make Sense?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 129-147, June.
    5. Brenda Nguyen & Mary Crossan, 2022. "Character-Infused Ethical Decision Making," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 171-191, June.
    6. Guillem C. Cabana & Muel Kaptein, 2021. "Team Ethical Cultures Within an Organization: A Differentiation Perspective on Their Existence and Relevance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 761-780, May.
    7. Muel Kaptein, 2009. "Ethics Programs and Ethical Culture: A Next Step in Unraveling Their Multi-Faceted Relationship," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(2), pages 261-281, October.
    8. Elina Riivari & Anna-Maija Lämsä, 2019. "Organizational Ethical Virtues of Innovativeness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 223-240, March.
    9. Abhijeet K. Vadera & Michael G. Pratt, 2013. "Love, Hate, Ambivalence, or Indifference? A Conceptual Examination of Workplace Crimes and Organizational Identification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 172-188, February.
    10. Gabriele Jacobs & Frank Belschak & Deanne Hartog, 2014. "(Un)Ethical Behavior and Performance Appraisal: The Role of Affect, Support, and Organizational Justice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 63-76, April.
    11. Mari Huhtala & Taru Feldt & Katriina Hyvönen & Saija Mauno, 2013. "Ethical Organisational Culture as a Context for Managers’ Personal Work Goals," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 265-282, May.
    12. Maiju Kangas & Muel Kaptein & Mari Huhtala & Anna-Maija Lämsä & Pia Pihlajasaari & Taru Feldt, 2018. "Why Do Managers Leave Their Organization? Investigating the Role of Ethical Organizational Culture in Managerial Turnover," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 707-723, December.
    13. Lumina Albert & Scott Reynolds & Bulent Turan, 2015. "Turning Inward or Focusing Out? Navigating Theories of Interpersonal and Ethical Cognitions to Understand Ethical Decision-Making," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 467-484, August.
    14. Kaptein, S.P., 2008. "Ethics Programs and Ethical Cultures: A Next Step in Unraveling their Multi-Faceted Relationship," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2008-020-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    15. Michael S. McLeod & G. Tyge Payne & Robert E. Evert, 2016. "Organizational Ethics Research: A Systematic Review of Methods and Analytical Techniques," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 429-443, March.
    16. Maiju Kangas & Joona Muotka & Mari Huhtala & Anne Mäkikangas & Taru Feldt, 2017. "Is the Ethical Culture of the Organization Associated with Sickness Absence? A Multilevel Analysis in a Public Sector Organization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 131-145, January.
    17. Maiju Kangas & Taru Feldt & Mari Huhtala & Johanna Rantanen, 2014. "The Corporate Ethical Virtues Scale: Factorial Invariance Across Organizational Samples," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 161-171, September.
    18. Valentine Sean & Godkin Lynn, 2016. "Ethics policies, perceived social responsibility, and positive work attitude," The Irish Journal of Management, Sciendo, vol. 35(2), pages 114-128.
    19. Ante Glavas & Lindsey Godwin, 2013. "Is the Perception of ‘Goodness’ Good Enough? Exploring the Relationship Between Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Organizational Identification," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 15-27, April.
    20. Mara Del Baldo & Maria-Gabriella Baldarelli, 2017. "Renewing and improving the business model toward sustainability in theory and practice," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-13, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ethical culture; ethical reputation; ethics management; ethics program; stakeholder theory; unethical behavior; virtue theory;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ems:eureri:15405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: RePub (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erimanl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.