Ethical behaviour and honesty in post-Soviet business environment
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse generational differences with regard to honest behaviour and honesty as a personal value in post-Soviet business environment: in Estonia and Latvia.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 781 service employees from six retail organizations in Estonia and Latvia were surveyed to assess likelihood of dishonest behaviour and to rank their values according to the Rokeach instrumental value scale.
Findings
Older generations report higher likelihood of honest behaviour than younger generations. Post-war and early generation X, born between 1945 and 1970, also rate honesty and responsibility higher as their individual values.
Originality/value
The complexity of generational differences in ethical behaviour and honesty as a personal value has not been widely researched in post-Soviet business environment.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was possible due to the grant received within the project “Imagining development: a multidisciplinary and multilevel analysis of development policies and their effect in the post-socialist world” (Project No. PIRSES-GA-2012-318961). This research was partly funded by the Project IUT20-49 Structural Change as the Factor of Productivity Growth in the Case of Catching up Economies.
Citation
Baumane-Vītoliņa, I., Apsalone, M., Sumilo, E. and Jaakson, K. (2017), "Ethical behaviour and honesty in post-Soviet business environment", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 46-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-02-2016-0052
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited