Compliance and Values Oriented Ethics Programs: Influenceson Employees’ Attitudes and Behavior

Abstract: Previous research has identified multiple approaches to the design and implementation of corporate ethics programs (Paine, 1994; Weaver, Treviño, and Cochran, in press b; Treviño, Weaver, Gibson, and Toffler, in press). This field survey in a large financial services company investigated the relationships of the values and compliance orientations in an ethics program to a diverse set of outcomes. Employees’ perceptions that the company ethics program is oriented toward affirming ethical values were associated with seven outcomes. Perceptions of a compliance orientation were associated with four of these outcomes. The interaction of values and compliance orientations was associated with employees’ willingness to report misconduct. In general, a values orientation makes a greater unique contribution to the measured outcomes when compared to a compliance orientation.

[1]  G. C. Homans,et al.  Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. , 1975 .

[2]  Kenneth D. Butterfield,et al.  The Ethical Context in Organizations: Influences on Employee Attitudes and Behaviors , 1998, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[3]  L. Paine.  Managing for Organizational Integrity. , 1994 .

[4]  J. McNamara,et al.  Role Playing to Assess Social Competence , 1982 .

[5]  G. Weaver,et al.  Corporate Codes of Ethics: Purpose, Process and Content Issues , 1993 .

[6]  Philip L. Cochran,et al.  Corporate Ethics Programs as Control Systems: Influences of Executive Commitment and Environmental Factors , 1999 .

[7]  John P. Meyer,et al.  The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization , 1990 .

[8]  I. P. Akaah.  Social inclusion as a marketing ethics correlate , 1992 .

[9]  M. Lerner.  The justice motive: Some hypotheses as to its origins and forms1 , 1977 .

[10]  C. Mills,et al.  The Theory of Social and Economic Organization , 1948 .

[11]  R. Eisenberger,et al.  Perceived Organizational Support and Employee Diligence, Commitment, and Innovation , 1990 .

[12]  P. Adler,et al.  Two Types of Bureaucracy: Enabling and Coercive , 1996 .

[13]  H. P. Sims,et al.  Just and Unjust Punishment: Influences on Subordinate Performance and Citizenship , 1994 .

[14]  A. Gouldner.  Patterns Of Industrial Bureaucracy , 1954 .

[15]  Amitai Etzioni,et al.  A Comparative Analysis of Complex Organizations. , 1962 .

[16]  P. Blau.  Exchange and Power in Social Life , 1964 .

[17]  Fred A. Mael,et al.  Social identity theory and the organization , 1989 .

[18]  Linda Klebe Trevino,et al.  The Social Effects of Punishment in Organizations: A Justice Perspective , 1992 .

[19]  Richard T. Serpe,et al.  Commitment, Identity Salience, and Role Behavior: Theory and Research Example , 1982 .

[20]  L. Treviño,et al.  Managing Ethics and Legal Compliance: What Works and What Hurts , 1999 .

[21]  Jennifer A. Chatman,et al.  Organizational commitment and psychological attachment: The effects of compliance, identification, and internalization on prosocial behavior. , 1986 .

[22]  R. Freeman.  Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[23]  G. Graen,et al.  Toward a psychology of dyadic organizing. , 1987 .

[24]  S. Stryker.  Identity Salience and Role Performance: The Relevance of Symbolic Interaction Theory for Family Research , 1968 .

[25]  John M. Ivancevich,et al.  Punishment in Organizations: A Review, Propositions, and Research Suggestions , 1980 .

[26]  D. Dalton,et al.  The “new” U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines: A wake-up call for corporate America , 1994 .

[27]  James Weber.  Influences Upon Organizational Ethical Subclimates: A Multi-Departmental Analysis of a Single Firm , 1995 .

[28]  S. Stryker.  Symbolic Interactionism: A Social Structural Version , 1980 .

[29]  Denise M. Rousseau,et al.  The contracts of individuals and organizations , 1993 .