Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The Ethics of the US Business Executive: A Study of Perceptions

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Gallup Polls have reported on the perceived ethics of various professions in the US since 1976. Clergymen and pharmacists were consistently identified as two of the most ethical professionals in the 1980's and 1990's. Business executives have not fared well in these polls and have not been rated among the top ten most ethical professions in any of the years the poll was taken. Ethical codes have not done much to belay the perception that the US business executive is not very ethical. Whether the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will impact the ethical behavior of business executives remains to be seen.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams, J., A. Tasachian and T. Stone: 2001, 'Codes of Ethics as Signals for Ethical Behavior', Journal of Business Ethics 29(3), 199–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumhart, R.: 1968, Ethics in Business (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Berenbeim, R.: 1987, Corporate Ethics (Random House, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Berenbeim, R.: 2000, 'Global Ethics', Executive Excellence 17(5), 7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berton, L.: 1988, March 11. 'Arthur Anderson Launches Program to Teach Ethics.' The Wall Street Journal 31 (E), col. 4.

  • Brody, R. G., D. J. Lowe and K. Pany: 2003, “Could $51 Million be Immaterial When Enron Reports Income of 105 million?” Accounting Horizons 17(2), 153–161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, L. J.: 1989, 'Corporate Codes of Ethics', Journal of Business Ethics 8(2&3), 117–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, M. A. and S. J. Leonard: 1998, 'Can Corporate Codes of Ethics Influence Behavior?' Journal of Business Ethics 17(6), 619–630.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coustan, H., L. Lienicke, M. Rexroad and J. Ostrosky: 2004. Sarbanes-Oxley: What it means to the market-place. Journal of Accountancy 197(2), 43–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cressey, D. and C. A. Moore: 1983, 'Managerial Values and Corporate Codes of Ethics', California Management Review 25(53), 53–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crossen, C.: 2003, (June 8). 'Years Ago, Some People Begged for an Income Tax.' Greensboro News and Record E, 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coxe, D.: 2003, 'Wall Street's Shame', Maclean's 116(20), 36–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisinger, J.: 2003, 'Ahead of the Tape', Wall Street Journal 5/27/03. 241(102), C1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G.: 1977, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1972– 1977 (Scholarly Resources, Inc., Wilmington, DE), pp. 1196–1198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G.: 1982, The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1981. (Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, DE)), pp. 209–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G.: 1984,” Honesty and Ethical Standards', in The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1983 (Scholarly Resources, Inc., Wilmington, DE), pp. 143–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G.: 1986, 'Honesty and Ethical Standards', in The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1985 (Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, DE), pp. 191–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G.: 1989, 'Honesty and Ethical Standards', in The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1988 (Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, DE), pp. 225–226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G.: 2000, 'Honesty and Ethical Standards', in The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1999 (Scholarly Resources Inc., Wilmington, DE), pp. 148–149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallup, G. Jr.: 2001. 'Honesty and Ethical Standards', in The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 2000 (Scholarly Re-sources Inc., Wilmington, DE), pp. 265–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grace, S., J. Haupert and R. Colson: 2003, 'Financial Officers' Code of Ethics: Help or Hinderance?' CPA Journal 73(3), 55–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, D.: 2003, May 19, Is this any way to punish fraud? – Unsettling, New Republic 28(19), 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Healy, M. and J. Iles: 2002, 'The Establishment and Enforcement of Codes', Journal of Business Ethics 39(1), 117–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hueber, G.: 1990, 'Pharmacists and Clergy Again Rate Highest for Honesty and Ethical Standards', The Gallup Poll Monthly (Feb) 22–24.

  • Hugick, L. and G. Hueber: 1991, 'Pharmacists and Clergy Rate Highest for Honesty and Ethics', The Gallup Poll Monthly (May) 29–30.

  • Jackson, S. and H. Collingwood: 1987, July 20, 'Business Week/Harris poll: Is an Antibusiness Backlash Build-ing?' Business Week.

  • Kelly, J.: 2002, 'The Year of the Whistleblower', Time 160(27/1), 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koehn, J. L. and S. C. Del Vecchio: 2004, 'Ripple Effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act', The CPA Journal 74(2), 36–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipset, S. M. and W. Schneider: 1987, The Confidence Gap (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore).

    Google Scholar 

  • Marnburg, E.: 2000, 'The Behavioural Effects of Corporate Ethical Codes: Empirical Findings and Discussion', Business Ethics: A European Review 9(3), 200–210.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, M. C.: 1987, 'Codes of Ethics: Organizational behavior and Misbehavior', in Research in corporate social performance Vol. 9, (JAI Press, Greenwich, CT), pp. 107–130.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAneny, L.: 1992, 'Pharmacists Again Top “Honesty and Ethics” Poll; Ratings for Congress Hit New Low', The Gallup Poll Monthly 322 (July) 2–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAneny, L.: 1993, 'Pharmacists Retain Wide Lead as Most Honorable Profession', The Gallup Poll Monthly 334 (July), 37–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAneny, L. and D. Moore: 1994, 'Annual Honesty & Ethics Poll: Congress and Media Sink in Public Es-teem', The Gallup Poll Monthly 34, 2–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAneny, L.: 1995, 'Annual honesty & ethics poll: “Racial Divisions Evident in Ratings of Police, Lawyers”', The Gallup Poll Monthly 362, 28–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAneny, L.: 1997, 'Honesty & Ethics Poll: “Pharma-cists again most trusted; police, federal lawmakers' images improve”', The Gallup Poll Monthly 376, 25–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Megan, B.: 2002, 'Why Ethics & Compliance Programs can Fail', Journal of Business Strategy 23(6), 37–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newport, F.: 1998, 'No Single Problem Dominates Americans' Concern Today', The Gallup Poll Monthly 392 (May), 4–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlow, L. and S. Williams: 2003, 'Is Silence Killing Your Company?', Harvard Business Review 81(5), 52–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Regnier, P.: 2003, 'The Trouble with Shareholders', Money 32(7), 3–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Somers, M. J.: 2001, 'Ethical Codes and Organizational Context: A Study of the Relationship Between Codes of Conduct, Employee Behavior and Organizational values', Journal of Business Ethics 30(2), 185–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, B.: 1994, 'An Analysis of Corporate Ethical Codes Studies: Where do we go from here?' Journal of Business Ethics 13(1), 63–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, B.: 1996, 'Using the Competing Values Framework to Assess Corporate Ethical Codes', Journal of Business Communication 33(1), 71–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, C. W. and W. Morris: 2002, 'Enron and Be-yond: What's the 'WorldCom'ing to?' CPA Journal 73(1), 8–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K., G. R. Weaver, D. Gibson and B. L. Toffler: 1999, 'Managing Ethics and Legal Compliance: What Works and What Hurts', California Management Review 41(2), 131–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K. and D. Weaver: 2003. Managing Ethics in Organizations (Stanford University Press, Stanford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, S. and T. Barnett: 2002, 'Ethical Codes and Sales Professionals' Perceptions of Their Organizations' Ethical Values', Journal of Business Ethics 40(3), 191–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wahlgren, B.: 2002, 'If only CEO meant Chief Ethical Officer', Business Week Online. 6/14/2002. Accession #6822772.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Love School of Business, Elon University, USA

    B. Stevens

Authors
  1. B. Stevens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Stevens, B. The Ethics of the US Business Executive: A Study of Perceptions. Journal of Business Ethics 54, 163–171 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-004-9464-9

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-004-9464-9

Search

Navigation