Drawing from research on person–organization fit, work engagement, and emotional intelligence, this study investigates the mediating role of work engagement in the link between goal congruence and organizational deviance, as well as how this mediating effect might be moderated by emotional intelligence. Data captured from 272 employees of four IT companies show that the goal congruence between employees and their supervisor negatively affects the former’s organizational deviance, though this effect disappears when controlling for the intermediate role of work engagement. Further, (...) emotional intelligence moderates both the positive relationship between goal congruence and work engagement and the negative relationship between work engagement and organizational deviance, such that these relationships become invigorated at higher levels of emotional intelligence. The findings also reveal that the indirect effect of goal congruence on organizational deviance through work engagement is more pronounced at higher levels of emotional intelligence, which offers evidence of moderated mediation. These findings have significant implications for research and practice. (shrink)

Research on the antecedents of consumers’ ethical beliefs has mainly examined cognitive variables and has neglected the relationships among affective variables and consumer ethics. However, research in moral psychology indicates that moral emotions have a significant role in ethical decision-making. Thus, the ability to experience, perceive and regulate emotions should influence consumers’ ethical decision-making. These abilities, which are components of emotional intelligence, are examined as antecedents to consumers’ ethical beliefs in this study. Five hundred Australian consumers participated in this study (...) by completing an online questionnaire that included measures of emotional intelligence, consumers’ ethical beliefs and personal moral philosophies. Results demonstrate that the ability to appraise and express emotions in oneself is directly negatively related to beliefs regarding actively benefiting from illegal actions as a consumer, passively benefiting at the expense of the seller and actively benefiting from questionable but legal actions as a consumer. The ability to appraise and express emotions in oneself is directly positively related to beliefs regarding ‘doing-good’ actions. The ability to appraise and recognise emotions in others is also directly positively related to beliefs regarding ‘doing-good’ actions as well as pro-environmental buying actions. The effects of the different components of emotional intelligence on consumers’ ethical beliefs are mediated by personal moral philosophies. This study demonstrates the relationship between emotional intelligence and consumer ethics and highlights the interplay of affect and cognition in consumers’ ethical decision-making. (shrink)

Past research (Lawson, 2004; Nonis & Swift, 2001) has revealed a correlation between academic and business ethics. Using a sample survey, this study extends this inquiry by examining the role of dispositional variables (neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness) and academic honesty on business ethics perceptions. Results indicate that (1) neuroticism and conscientiousness were positively related to more ethical perceptions in a work context, and (2) academic honesty partially mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and business ethics. Implications to business practitioners and educators (...) are discussed as well as directions for future research. (shrink)

Successful marketing efforts and professional sales encounters often depend on consumer involvement in the purchase decision process itself, which in turn may impact firm performance. Despite the importance of consumer involvement, research has yet to fully explain the relationship between consumer personality characteristics and the nature of consumer purchase involvement. This study explores the degree to which consumer perception of salesperson ethical treatment helps explain the relationship between consumer personality characteristics and nature of involvement. Data were collected from a large (...) sample of working adults placed in two scenario-based positive professional sales encounters featuring an important purchase decision. The results indicated that adult consumers’ personality characteristics functioned through judgment of salesperson ethical treatment to affect the nature of purchase involvement. Specifically, consumer judgment of salesperson ethical treatment fully mediated a positive relationship between internal locus of control and cognitive involvement. By comparison, consumer judgment of a salesperson ethical treatment partially mediated the positive relationship between emotional awareness and cognitive involvement. The above findings were similar for informational and relational salesperson customer-orientated scenarios. Key implications for selling professionals and sales organizations are discussed, such as augmenting consumers’ self-assessments to increase their perceptions of salesperson ethics and purchase involvement. The limitations and recommendations for future research are also presented. (shrink)

Leadership studies on corporate ethical behavior and practices have grown considerably, contributing significant knowledge on ethical leadership challenges that are organizational and industry focused. However, complex socio-ecological systems are placing pressure on organizational culture and old patterns of leadership behavior that play a role in organizational justice. In this study, we argue that scholars of business ethics must consider the role of organizational justice and use person-organization fit (P–O fit). To address this, our study investigates the mediating effect of organizational (...) justice on the relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ ethical behavior. We also examine the moderating role of P–O fit on the relationship between organizational justice and employee’s ethical behavior. The study survey focused on 295 employees belonging to organizations in Iraq. We show that ethical leadership positively influences employees’ ethical behavior, and this relationship is shaped by organizational justice. The findings reflect the positive impact of organizational justice on ethical behavior, and this relationship is more pronounced in employees with high rather than low P–O fit. This study clarifies the importance of employee’s P–O fit and its impact on organizational processes for creating a positive impact on ethical behavior in the workplace. We also share practical implications of the study and recommend systemic research that explores this area. (shrink)

The ethical judgment of Chinese business leaders has become increasingly important particularly due to the important role that China plays in the global economy. Previous studies tend to categorize Chinese managers as more relativist and thus more lenient in their ethical judgments. In this study we survey 256 senior managers from mainland China and find that they are in fact less relativist and more idealist than the global average. A significant portion of them are absolutists which imply that these managers (...) believe that positive consequences should result from ethical decisions based on universal moral rules. Our findings question the implications made by previous researchers that among Chinese managers there is a less than clear demarcation between right and wrong. We conclude that business leaders in China would be more supportive of codes of conduct and other ethical behaviour because of the ethical position they hold. (shrink)

Today, organizations are facing a high rate of attrition which is a serious issue for human resource managers. Gaining the commitment of employees towards their organization, though challenging, is rewarding as organizational commitment (OC) is a precursor to employee engagement. Another challenge is about maintaining an ethical climate. Ethical misconduct by organizations not only brings them a heavy monetary price but also incurs non-monetary price in terms of customer and employee attrition and diminished business reputation. In the new workplace with (...) greater emphasis on flexibility, teams and a strong customer orientation, we feel that development of emotional intelligence (EI) of the workforce can be the key to meet these challenges. This paper explores these three critical constructs viz., EI, workplace ethics and OC together, and tests whether workplace ethics mediates the EI–OC relationship using structural equation modelling. We conducted an empirical study in Guwahati, a fast-growing tier II city in India and a business hub for north-east India, on a sample of 400 managers working in the service sector. Our study found that emotional intelligence is a strong predictor of ethical perception and organization commitment. Also, ethical perception significantly affects organizational commitment. Although we reject the hypothesis that ethics mediates the EI–OC relationship, the importance of workplace ethics cannot be undermined as it can build intangible organizational assets such as goodwill and public image. Since individual ethical standards create ethical climate, organizations need to teach their people how to recognize morally questionable situations and the consequence of unethical conduct. (shrink)

The present study attempts to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence, corporate ethical values, and ethical climates on the ethical judgment of auditors in Malaysia. The study used a questionnaire survey comprising instruments on emotional intelligence, 483, 2004), corporate ethical values, 339–359, 1985), ethical climate, and ethical vignettes related to the auditors’ job, 287–306, 1971 and Cohen et al. 1994). A total 263 usable responses were obtained and analyzed using statistical tests of mean score, standard deviation, correlation, and multiple regression. (...) The results reveal that emotional intelligence and corporate ethical values significantly influenced the ethical judgment of auditors. Likewise, instrumental and independence ethical climates have significant effect on ethical judgment of auditors in Malaysia. (shrink)

This study examines the impact of various factors on ethical behavior of 507 employees working for three state-owned Chinese firms. Regulation of one’s emotions had a significant positive impact on ethical behavior of respondents. Organizational commitment also had a significant positive impact on ethical behavior of the respondents. Among various facets of job satisfaction, satisfaction with promotion, coworker, and supervision had a significant positive impact on ethical behavior of respondents. Among control variables, age of the employee had a significant negative (...) impact on ethical behavior, which indicated that the young employees showed a better ethical behavior than the old employees. (shrink)