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The purpose of this paper is to attempt to better understand the relationship between organizational ethical climate, the internalization of ethical codes (INT), perceived control and business-to-business (B2B) and retail salesperson job performance. This research develops and tests a model that examines these relationships to better understand the relationship of these variables to salesperson job performance.

Using the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 2002) as the theoretical lens and survey data from 307 salespeople in the USA, this study examines the relationship between organizational ethical climate, salesperson perceived control and salesperson job performance. This study examines whether this relationship may change with the presence of intervening variables related to a strengthened organizational ethical climate, and examines the relationship between these variables in two different analyses. First, this study examines the differences among retail salespeople as compared to B2B salespeople. Then this study examines the total dataset of salespeople as one sample.

The findings show that the positive effect of organizational ethical climate on the job performance of salespeople was reduced significantly when salespersons’ INT and salesperson perceived controllability, were examined in this relationship.

Organizational controls, such as an ethical climate within a firm, can impact salesperson job performance, especially if the firm’s ethical climate causes the salesteam to feel that it lessens their perceived control. This study found that if the ethical climate reduces the salespeople’s feelings of self-efficacy, that the ethical climate changes can intervene and can significantly reduce the otherwise positive effect of the organizational ethical climate on salesperson job performance.

From a theoretical perspective, the research is distinctive in its endeavor to better understand the relationship between the role of salespersons’ ethical code internalization and their feelings of self-efficacy and perceived control. This paper then examines how these variables can be influential to the direct effect of organizational ethical control and can impact the job performance of salespeople. The findings contribute to research by advancing our knowledge of how we can enhance the responses of salespeople to an organization’s ethical control, leading to higher customer satisfaction and improved sales performance.

Setting measurable criteria for implementing ethical codes is a pivotal issue in construction organizations. This paper aims to present an approach for evaluating ethical codes implementation within an organization based on 30 indicators for effective implementation of codes of ethics, with the objective of enhancing employees’ ethical behaviour within the organization.

This study builds on a theoretical model that was developed using existing classification in the literature, including six processes of ethical codes implementation (process of: identification and removal of barriers, coding, internalization, enacting values, monitoring and accountability). The model was validated by applying partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) estimation approach on questionnaire survey data which were collected from construction practitioners in Hong Kong. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) analysis was adopted to assess the level of ethical code implementation.

The results of the PLS-SEM indicate a good model fit, and the model has a substantial predictive power and satisfactory model representation. Thus, the model is suitable for measuring or evaluating codes of ethics implementation within organization. The process of “enacting value” has the greatest influence on “ethical code implementation”. The results of FSE indicate that the overall level of implementation of ethical codes is high, but there are rooms for further improvement.

The response to the self-assessment questionnaire used for measuring the extent of implementation is relatively low, but it was adequate for statistical analyses considering the fact that it represents the second stage of data collection in a longitudinal manner, and only the respondents who participated in the initial questionnaire survey were asked to participate. The essence of doing this is to test the model for the purpose of self-evaluation of construction organizations regarding codes implementation. Thus, the outcomes are not representative enough for the entire construction organizations in Hong Kong. However, the model was tested to demonstrate how to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of construction companies in Hong Kong with respects to ethical code implementation to identify areas requiring improvement.

Facilities managers can benefit from the findings of this study by applying the model to assess ethical codes implementation within the organization to enhance ethical behaviour.

The main contribution of this study is the generation of a framework for measuring the extent of implementation of ethical codes within construction organizations. The contribution from this study can add significant value to facilities management discipline as well, being a business-oriented sector. As ethical behaviour plays an important role in delivering various facilities. The approach used in this study is useful for facilities managers in the process of implementing codes of ethics.

The existence of codes of ethics in most organizations does not seem to have reduced unethical behaviour especially in the construction organizations due to lack of effective ethics management such as embeddedness of ethical codes. The purpose of this paper is to bridge the current knowledge gap by highlighting the principal factors determining the embeddedness of codes of ethics in construction organizations.

Questionnaires detailing 30 factors determining ethical code embeddedness were sent to professionals in construction organizations in Hong Kong. In total, 160 valid responses were analysed by mean score and exploratory factor analysis.

Based on the mean score, “protecting anyone who exposes alleged wrongdoing”, “managers acting as role models” and “giving code standards with explanation to new employees” are the three factors that ranked highest. From the results of factor analysis, six factors were extracted, including; process of code internalization, identification and remover of barriers, process of enacting value, process of accountability, process of coding and process of monitoring. These are processes that enable proper integration of codes of ethics within construction organization.

While this study has provided useful information regarding ethical codes, the limitation is inherent in the population of the study in that, percentage representation of construction organizations in Hong Kong could not be presented. This was due to the sensitivity of ethics as perceived by construction practitioners. The authors, at the initial stage, sent invitation letters to several organizations inviting them to participate in the research but they all declined. Therefore, the data collection approach discussed earlier was adopted and the questionnaire was made strictly anonymous which made it difficult to classify organizations that are represented. Nevertheless, it is hoped that this paper will engineer a change in research direction and open up new discussion channels.

The results presented in this study provide sufficient evidence and useful pointers to clarify some misconceptions about factors determining code embeddedness. These findings help to clarify what the high-prioritized factors are, and could also be used as an assessment tool to evaluate performance of an organization regarding codes of ethics and thus help to identify areas requiring improvement.

Determining the role of ethical leadership in the multinational companies’ (MNCs) control practices, the purpose of this paper is to extend Eisenbeiss’ (2012) four central ethical leadership orientations into multinational companies’ control contexts – the culturally diversified environment.

Adopting a multiple-case research design, the authors gather qualitative data from four MNC subsidiaries located in China, that connects three potentially diverse cultural contexts: German, Japanese and Chinese.

The findings of this paper confirm that ethical leadership compliance (or violation) positively (or negatively) contributes to the internalization of organizational practice transfer, moderated by cultural distance between foreign managers and subsidiaries’ employees. The results reveal that informal control and trust act as lubricants in the internalization process.

This paper evidences the connections between ethical leadership, organizational practice transfer and subsequent performance, along with inclusive cultural moderating factors.

This paper aims to contribute to the existing conceptualizations of counseling ethics competency and to develop a counseling ethics competency scale. This paper also argues that spirituality and self-efficacy influence counseling ethics competency.

A series of studies were performed to develop hypotheses and a conceptual framework to determine the relationships among spirituality, self-efficacy and counseling ethics competency. To measure registered counselors’ counseling ethics competency, a document analysis of the Counselors Code of Ethics was conducted and pretested on the basis of a pilot test prior to the empirical development of the scale.

A conceptual framework was developed to operationalize the theory and to present the influence of spirituality and self-efficacy on counseling ethics competency. The counseling ethics competency scale was found reliable and valid to measure the registered counselors’ competency in the eight components of the Counselors Code of Ethics.

The scale and framework can be used as tools to identify competencies where registered counselors are lacking and to pinpoint skills on which counselors need to improve. This research also will provide insights for counselor educators to be innovative in teaching and learning ethics within the scope of counselor education training programs.

There is no specific scale available to measure counseling ethics competency among registered counselors in Malaysia. Thus, this research unveils the importance of measuring counseling ethics competency in molding effective and ethical Malaysian counselors, and subsequently pinpointing factors that can improve counseling ethics competency.

We recommend to assess the scale using EFA, followed by CFA to determine and confirm the factor structure of the scale items. In terms of the field, future scope may not just focus on the traits, characters and skills building but also place more emphasis on ethics comprehension toward best practices of ethics application and internalization on becoming self-sufficient counselors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of ethical leadership on moral motivation of teachers in the schools of Pakistan.

Scenario-based experimental design was used to collect data (N = 174 teachers) from 25 schools in the city of Islamabad. Participants included 156 females and 18 males aged 23–37 years. Ethical leadership was measured at both construct and component levels (moral person and moral manager).

The results found that the moral person component of ethical leadership style heightens the moral identity (internalization)-based moral motivation, while the moral manager component and ethical leadership at construct level style increases moral identity (symbolization)-based moral motivation. Interestingly, in the absence of reward, only the moral person component of ethical leadership style maintained participants’ moral motivation.

The originality of this study lies in highlighting the divergence in ethical leadership style at component level that explains the differences in moral motivation of the teachers.

This paper aims to provide an objective and comprehensive evaluation of the understanding of the professional code of ethics of Indian Professional Management Accountants in Business (PMAIBs). It further delves into their individual, job and organizational characteristics as determinants of their understanding of the code.

This study relies on data from 247 responses to a survey-based questionnaire. Overall scores and sub-scores of the level of understanding of the code were calculated based on questions grounded in IESBA Code and ethical dilemmas. The drivers of these scores were then examined using one-way ANOVA, OLS, Probit and ordered probit regressions.

This study found considerable heterogeneity in Indian PMAIBs' understanding of their professional code of ethics and substantial scope for improvements. PMAIBs were stronger in Application, Resolution and Threats but weaker in Theory and Principles. Further, PMAIBs who had ranked themselves higher on code-familiarity, had higher moral maturity, hailed from western India and worked for foreign-listed, foreign-owned firms were found to have a higher level of understanding of the code. Highly educated elderly professionals and professionals with more responsibility areas exhibited a lower level of understanding of the code.

Insights from the study can help professional bodies, employers and academics identify and segment PMAIBs based on their ethics-training needs and customize interventions, which can benefit businesses and society through reduced corporate ethical failures. Considering the risk implications of Indian PMAIBs' inadequacies in understanding their code of ethics, the Indian professional accounting organization (ICAI-CMA) should mandate ethics in continuing professional development and expedite its long pending convergence with the IESBA code, a global benchmark for professional accountants.

This paper assesses the understanding of the professional code of ethics of PMAIBs, which is crucial yet amiss in the accounting ethics literature. While ethical decision-making is extensively researched, how well the professionals understand their code is yet unexplored. Research on PMAIBs, despite their unique ethical vulnerabilities and increasingly vital role in organizations, is still dormant. This study aims to fill these gaps by examining PMAIBs from India, an emerging economy under-represented in accounting ethics literature. India offers an important and rich setting for the study due to its large size, fast growth, deep integration with the global economy, high perceived corruption levels and poor ethical behavior of its firms.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

There is limited research that utilizes the consequential‐conflictual (CC) approaches, which utilized radical orientation of double loop, second order and reorientation of organizational learning strategies. Both the functional‐institutional (FI) and CC approaches are integrated with the sustainability and ecological resources management literature. The aim of this paper is to fill this research gap.

The paper applies FI and CC sociological approaches.

This paper's contribution to the managerial auditing education literature is based on the proposition that ethics education can improve the moral and ethical reasoning of auditors, when the educational processes incorporate both the FI and CC sociological organizational learning strategies. The paper suggests that ethics education in auditing could benefit from experiential teaching methods utilized in allied applied disciplines of medicine, engineering, and educational psychology.

Sociological approaches have been commonly applied in behavioral managerial accounting and control systems research. This paper extends the FI and CC framework to ethics education in managerial auditing research.

The subject of accounting ethics education is important to auditors. When accounting ethics education utilizes both the FI and CC teaching approaches, the managerial auditing education processes become interactive and cooperative by bringing experiential organizational experiences to the classroom.

Accounting ethics education is shaped by ecological and environmental sustainability concerns. Recently, business school interest and growth in sustainability management has contributed to the integration of ethics education in managerial auditing and accounting contexts, overcoming the shortcomings accounting programs experienced from stand‐alone ethics courses.

The purpose of this paper is to trace a history of American codes of business ethics as they evolved from religious bases to legalistic bases to an international emphasis.

The paper describes the evolution of business codes of ethics over the twentieth century in relation to the development of social issues.

It is found that ethical codes are influenced by the prevailing ideology of the time regarding the social responsibility of business. The earlier part of the twentieth century emphasized religious values governing the treatment of customers and competitors and the responsibility of businesses for the well‐being of their employees by directing their private as well as business conduct. The latter part of the twentieth century stressed legal compliance as government regulation sought to control business behaviors that were harmful to society and to the environment. Entering into the twenty‐first century, we are seeing an increase in international emphases in codes of ethics. We discuss these trends in terms of evolving approaches to corporate social responsibility.

Organizations writing (and rewriting) codes of ethics should move beyond reactive legal compliance and proactively examine values associated with their stakeholder relationships as well as relationships to corporate social responsibility issues.

While there have been histories of medical and legal codes of ethics, to the authors' knowledge, this is the first exploration of a history of American business codes of ethics. The paper examines the development of codes of ethics in the context of business needs and social values prominent during those times.