Sarbanes–Oxley Section 406 requires a code of ethics for top financial and accounting officers in public companies. The objective of this research is to discover the impact of a financial code of ethics on firm behavior. We performed a longitudinal tracking of firm adoption of a financial code of ethics starting in 2005. We checked these companies’ codes again in 2011 to confirm their continued implementation. Financial restatements were used as a dependent variable to measure improved financial reporting after the (...) adoption of the financial codes. The results confirm that the adoption of a financial code of ethics improves the integrity of financial reporting. (shrink)

Using core self-evaluation theory, the current study assesses the effect of internal work locus of control and bricolage on social entrepreneurship orientation. We adopted the cross-sectional survey design using a sampling frame to engage 400 top executives of social enterprises in mainland China. Three hundred and seventy-two of the executives replied, presenting a response rate of 93%. Results of structural equation modeling analysis show significant positive relationships between internal work locus of control, bricolage, and social entrepreneurship orientation. The positive mediating (...) effect of bricolage on the relationship between internal work locus of control and social entrepreneurship orientation was also found to be true. Consequently, to foster social entrepreneurship orientation, top executives of social enterprises need to gather available resources for bricolage tasks. These findings contribute new knowledge to how internal work locus of control affects social entrepreneurship orientation through the bricolage activity of Chinese social enterprises. Through core self-evaluation theory, we demonstrate the effect of internal work locus of control as a preceding factor in the relationship between bricolage and social entrepreneurship orientation. (shrink)

Values research generally confirms that personally held values influence an individual's decision processes and behavior. Yet this academic research often is limited to the individual or organizational level of analysis. This study utilizes social identity and personal values theories to search for the presence of superordinate identities emerging at the meso level from six different industries. The six selected industries—accounting, banking, construction, education, energy, and manufacturing—represent a mix of highly respected and disrespected industries, as well as industries that have an (...) ethical professional association and those that do not. Results provide evidence of meso‐level superordinate identities, distinguishing managers' personal value orientations from a generalized population, and across the six selected industries. Implications emanating from this research for the human resource practitioners and academic scholars are discussed. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

Ethical conflicts (ECs), dilemmas auditors face when personal values or professional obligations clash with their actions, pose significant challenges to the auditing profession, potentially influencing turnover intention (TI). This study addresses a knowledge gap in the related research by focusing on two critical EC triggers: workload (WL) and perceived auditor ethical failure (PAEF: ethical sensitivity), which refers to auditors’ perceptions of ethical violations within their profession. Grounded in role theory and ethical climate theory, our study investigates the impact of WL (...) and PAEF on ECs and explores how these conflicts mediate the relationship between PAEF/WL and TI. Additionally, we examine the moderating role of organisational ethical climate (EtC) in these relationships. Using a survey of auditors and employing partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), our results reveal that both WL and PAEF increase ECs, thus escalating TI. The findings suggest that a firm’s perceived EtC can negatively moderate the relationship between PAEF and ECs. The study underlines the importance of fostering a strong EtC to manage ECs effectively and provides valuable implications for professionals, regulators, and academics seeking to improve ethical practices within auditing firms and to reduce auditor turnover. (shrink)

The role and influence of workplace spirituality on individual and organisational outcomes continue to draw attention among management scholars. Despite this increased attention, extant literature has yielded limited insights particularly into the impact and influence processes of workplace spirituality on performance outcomes at both the individual and unit levels of analysis. Addressing this gap in research, we proposed and tested a multilevel model, underpinned by social cognitive theory, that examines the processes linking perceptions of workplace spirituality and performance outcomes at (...) the individual and organisational level of analysis. Data were obtained from 51 branches of a retail organisation in the United Kingdom. Results from structural equation modelling analysis revealed three salient findings. First, workplace spirituality was positively related to ethical climate, prosocial motivation, and moral judgment. Second, ethical climate partially mediated the relationship between workplace spirituality and prosocial motivation and moral judgment, respectively. Third, aggregated ethical climate significantly relates to branch-level helping behaviour and service performance. (shrink)

This study aims to examine the relationship between workplace and classroom incivility to learning engagement and the moderating role of internal locus of control in these relationships. An online questionnaire was administered to 432 students from three private universities in Jakarta, Indonesia. The regression analysis results showed that both workplace and classroom incivility has a negative and significant effect on learning engagement. In addition, the direct effect of workplace incivility on learning engagement is moderated by the locus of control. The (...) negative effect of workplace incivility on learning engagement is stronger for students with low levels of internal locus of control than for those students with high levels of internal locus of control. This study provides a better understanding of the internal mechanism condition to reduce the negative effects of incivility experiences that occur in the workplace and classroom among student employees. The implications and limitations are also discussed. (shrink)

This study aims to identify the ethical challenges in the process of product marketing. It conducted a bibliometric study to evaluate the major ethical concerns in the area of product marketing. The data for the current study was extracted using the Scopus database. The study uses VOSviewer and Biblioshiny-bibliometrix to analyze the data. The results revealed that in the twenty-first century, ethical concerns and research related to pharmaceutical marketing, consumption behavior, and sustainability have significantly grown and are emerging as important (...) issues. The study is novel in its approach and develops a theoretical model to know ethical issues related to product marketing with multidimensional process (i.e., identification, search strategy, and analysis) for a long-term sustainable business success. By this study, the academicians and researchers will focus greater attention on the rapidly developing human-techno-centric world to fulfill the organizations’ service promises. The study contributes to the marketing ethics literature, particularly to the literature related to ethical issues in product marketing. (shrink)

The purpose of this research is to examine the notion of salesperson moral identity as a prosocial individual trait and its associated effects on customer and coworker relationships. In addition, this study examines the underlying processes in which these effects occur as well as the moderating role of internal competitive climate. Our empirical investigation of business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals reveals that moral identity has both direct and indirect effects on a salesperson’s customer- and team-directed outcomes. Specifically, our results demonstrate that (...) salesperson moral identity positively affects both salesperson-customer identification and organizational identification, which, in turn, impact customer service provision and teamwork. Our findings also indicate that internal competitive climate exacerbates the positive effects of salesperson moral identity on customer service provision and teamwork. (shrink)

Extensive research has documented the harmful effects associated with working for a narcissistic supervisor. However, little effort has been made to investigate ways for victims to alleviate the burdens associated with exposure to such aversive persons. Building on the tenets of conservation of resources theory and the documented efficacy of functional assets to combat job-related stress, we hypothesized that subordinates’ resource management ability would buffer the detrimental impact of narcissistic supervisors on affective, cognitive, and behavioral work outcomes for subordinates. We (...) found support for our hypotheses across three independent samples of US workers. Specifically, higher levels of subordinate resource management ability attenuated the harmful effects of supervisor narcissism on employee-reported emotional exhaustion, job tension, depressed mood, task performance, and citizenship behavior. Conversely, these relationships further deteriorated for subordinates with lower levels of resource management ability. Overall, our research contributes to the literature that, although extensively documenting the harmful ramifications of narcissism in organizations, has neglected to investigate potentially mitigating factors. (shrink)

Corroborating upper echelons theory, this study picks up the notion that narcissistic chief executive officers take advantage of accounting choices to enhance their firms’—and inherently their own—personal track records. Using a set of 15 indicators, reflecting the narcissistic trait of 1126 CEOs for the period 1992 to 2012, we find evidence of highly narcissistic CEOs engaging in accrual-based earnings management. In contrast to prior research, the results show evidence not only for income-increasing but also for income-decreasing ABEM. This indicates that (...) highly narcissistic CEOs not only strive to influence stakeholders’ perception of current performance. We conclude that they also assess their potential to influence perception of current and future earnings. The results imply that highly narcissistic CEOs’ accounting choices are driven by self-serving behavior rather than by the intention to provide additional information to the market. When earnings management techniques are used to derive personal advantage from the presentation of a firm’s earnings, the literature refers to this as a case of low earnings quality reflecting unethical behavior. Accordingly, this study contributes to the field of business ethics by showing that CEO narcissism is related to low earnings quality in that it is associated to discretionarily decreasing accruals. (shrink)