Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Two-Component Compliance and Ethics Program Model: An Empirical Application to Chilean Corporations

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

Abstract

The rise of ethical scandals in the business world urged corporations to allocate time and resources to emphasize the ethical behavior of their managers and employees. The Model of Ethical Behavior in this article has three main assumptions: (1) the institutionalization of a Compliance and Ethics Program Model is done in terms of just two components: one Explicit and the other Implicit, (2) both components have a significant and direct influence over the ethical behavior of employees, which is represented in the model by two variables: Value Consistency and Presence of Ethical Conflicts, and (3) proper ethical behavior is perceived by employees to have a positive impact over the economic results of the firm. Reliable scales are developed to measure all these variables from the data collected by the “Barómetro de Valores y Ética Empresarial©,” a survey applied in 2009 to 12,321 employees from 54 Chilean corporations. The empirical analysis showed that there are three very distinctive components in the Presence of Ethical Conflicts variable: (1) what the company does that affects the employee, (2) what the company does that affects other people, and (3) what the employee does that affects the company. Finally, the Explicit and Implicit components of a Compliance and Ethics Program are shown to have a significant and positive impact over: (1) Value Consistency in employees’ behavior; (2) the Presence of Ethical Conflicts in organizations; and (3) the perceived importance of ethics as a key factor to improve economic performance.

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

References

  • Arjoon, S.: 2000, ‘Virtue Theory as a Dynamic Theory of Business’. Journal of Business Ethics 28, 159-178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, T. and E. Schubert: 2002, ‘Perceptions of the Ethical Work Climate and Covenantal Relationships’. Journal of Business Ethics, 36: 279-290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, T., and C. Vaicys: 2000, ‘The Moderating Effect of Individuals’ Perceptions of Ethical Work Climate on Ethical Judgements and Behavioral Intentions’. Journal of Business Ethics, 27: 351-362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beets, S.D., and L.N. Killough: 1990, ‘The Effectiveness of a Compliant-based Ethics Enforcement System: Evidence from the Accounting Profession’. Journal of Business Ethics 9, 115-126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brass, D.J., K.D. Butterfield, and B.C. Skaggs: 1998, ‘Relationships and Unethical Behavior: A Social Network Perspective’. Academy of Management Review 23(1), 14-31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brenner, S.: 1992, ‘Ethics Programs and their Dimensions’. Journal of Business Ethics, 11: 391-399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delaney, J.T. and D. Sokell: 1992, ‘Do Company Ethics Training Programs Make a difference? An Empirical analysis’. Journal of business Ethics 11(9), 719-727.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dickson, M., D. Smith, M. Grojean and M. Ehrhart: 2001, ‘An organizational climate regarding ethics: the outcome of leader values and the practices that reflect them’. The Leadership Quarterly 12: 197-217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrell O.C., J. Fraedrich and L. Ferrell: 2008, ‘Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases’. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrell, O. C. and L. G. Gresham: 1985, ‘A Contingency Framework for Understanding Ethical Decision Making in Marketing’. Journal of Marketing 49, 87-96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford, R. C. and W.D. Richardson: 1994, ‘Ethical Decision Making: A review of the Empirical Literature’. Journal of Business Ethics 13, 205-221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • James, H. S., Jr.: 2000, ‘Reinforcing Ethical Decision Making Thorough Organizational Structure’. Journal of Business Ethics 28, 43-58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jose, A. and M. Thibodeaux: 1999, ‘Institutionalization of Ethics: The Perspective of Managers’. Journal of Business Ethics 22, 133-143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kayes, D., D. Stirling and T. Nielsen: 2007, ‘Building Organizational Integrity’. Business Horizons 50, 61-70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koonmee, K., A. Singhapakdi, B. Virakul, and D. Lee: 2009, ‘Ethics institutionalization, quality of work life, and employee job-related outcomes: A survey of human resource managers in Thailand’. Journal of Business Research 63, 20-26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loe, T.W. and W.A. Weeks: 2000, ‘An Experimental Investigation of Efforts to Improve Sales Students’ Moral Reasoning’. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 20: 243-251.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClaren, N.: 2000, ‘Ethics in Personal Selling and Sales Management: A Review of de Literature Focusing on Empirical Findings and Conceptual Foundations’, Journal of Business Ethics 27, 285-303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minkes, A. L., M. W. Small and S. R. Chatterjee: 1999, ‘Leadership and Business Ethics: Does it Matter? Implications for Management’. Journal of Business Ethics 20, 327-335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, P. E., J. E. Smith and J. M. Daley: 1992, ‘Executive Attitudes, Organitational Size and Ethical issues: Perspectives on a Service Industry’. Journal of Business Ethics 11, 11-17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newton, L. H.: 1986, ‘The Internal Morality of the Corporation’. Journal of Business Ethics 5, 249-258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, D.E. and A. Zakhem: 2001, ‘Bridging the Gap Between Theory and practice: Using the 1991 Federal Sentencing Guidelines as a Paradigm for Ethics training, Journal of business Ethics 29, 77-84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, M.: 2001, ‘The Nature of the Relationship Between Corporate Codes of Ethics and Behavior’. Journal of Business Ethics 32, 247-262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sims, R.: 1992, ‘The Challenge of Ethical Behavior in Organizations’. Journal of Business Ethics 11, 505-513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singhapakdi, A. and S. Vitell: 1991, ‘Analizing the Ethical Decision Making on Sales Management’, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management 11, 601-617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singhapakdi, A. and S. Vitell: 2007, ‘Institutionalization of ethics and its consequences: a survey of marketing professionals’. Journal of Academy of Marketing Science 35, 284-294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Somers, M.: 2001, ‘Ethical Codes of Conduct and Organizational Context: A Study of the Relationship Between Codes of Conduct, Employee Behavior and Organizational Values’. Journal of Business Ethics 30, 185-195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K.: 1986, ‘Ethical Decision Making in Organitations: A Person-Situation Interactionist Model’. Academy of Management Review 11, 601-617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K.: 1990, ‘A Cultural Perspective on changing and developing Organitational Ethics’, in R. Woodman & W. Pasmore (Eds) Research in Organitational cange and development, volume 4. Greenwich, CT Press: 195-230.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K.: 1993, ‘The Social Effects of Punishment: A justice perspective. Academy of Management Review 17, 647-676.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K. and K.A. Nelson: 1999, Managing Business Ethics. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsalikis J. and D. Fritzsche: 1989, ‘Business Ethics: A Literature Review with a focus on marketing Ethics’. Journal of Business Ethics 8(9), 695-743.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, S. and G. Fleischman: 2004: ‘Ethics Training and Businesspersons’ perceptions of Organizational Ethics’. Journal of Business Ethics 52: 381-390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Victor, J. and B. Cullen: 1988, ‘The Organizational Bases of Ethical Work Climates’. Administrative Science Quarterly 33(1), 101-125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waters, J. A. and F. Bird: 1987, ‘The Moral Dimension of Organizational Climate’, Journal of Business Ethic, 6: 15-22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weaver, G.R. and L.K. Treviño: 2001, ‘The Role of Human Resources in Ethics/Compliance Management: A Fairness Perspective’. Human Resources Managemente Review 11: 113-134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, J.: 1981, ‘Institutionalizing Ethics into the Corporation’. MSV Business Topics 29(2): 47-52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, J.: 1993, ‘Institutionalizing Ethics into Business Organizations: A Model and Research Agenda’. Business Ethics Quarterly 3(4): 419-436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, G., L. Treviño and P. Cochran: 1999, ‘Corporate Ethics Practices in the Mid-1990’s: An Empirical Study of the Fortune 1000’. Journal of Business Ethics 18: 283-294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, W.A. and J. Nantel: 1992, Corporate Codes of Ethics and Sale Force Behavior A Case Study Journal of Business Ethics 11, 753-760.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial y de Sistemas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Edificio Raúl Devés, Macul, Santiago, Chile

    Nicolas S. Majluf & Carolina M. Navarrete

Authors
  1. Nicolas S. Majluf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carolina M. Navarrete
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carolina M. Navarrete.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Majluf, N.S., Navarrete, C.M. A Two-Component Compliance and Ethics Program Model: An Empirical Application to Chilean Corporations. J Bus Ethics 100, 567–579 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0696-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0696-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation