The Influences of Organizational and Personal Ethics on Role Conflict among Marketing Managers: An Empirical Investigation

This study examines the relationships between organizational ethical culture, personal ethical philosophies and role conflict. A survey of 121 marketing managers in Taiwan indicates that corporate ethical culture influences marketing managers' idealism but not relativism. Both dimensions of personal ethical philosophies, idealism and relativism, are significant predictors of marketing managers' role conflict. Analysis and results also reveal that the more ethical culture the firm has, the lower role conflict the marketing managers will experience. Implications and directions for future research are discussed Introduction Several ethics models have been proposed that organizational ethical culture influences ethical decision-making (Trevino, 1986; Hunt and Vitell, 1986). A firm's ethical culture dictates its ethical norms and the behaviors expected, and it has been shown to affect the ethical behaviors of its members (Trevino et al., 1998). It has been suggested that creating an ethical culture within the organization may provide ethical standards for its members (Trevino et al., 1998). However, ethics' relationship to role conflict has rarely been explored, particularly in marketing. Moreover, several empirical works have linked role conflict with various dysfunctional outcomes for the individuals and the organization, such as distrust, anxiety, tension, job dissatisfaction, high turnover and low job performance. To date, the ethical antecedents of role conflict have rarely been investigated. Little empirical research has been done to examine the relationships between various ethical factors and role conflict. Although research on role conflict and business ethics are abundant, most of the past studies on role conflict and business ethics have been conducted either in the U.S. or in Western culture, and little research has been done in other parts of the world, especially in the Asia Pacific Rim Regions. This study attempts to fill these gaps. Thus, the specific purpose of this study is to investigate the proposed relationships between organizational ethical culture, personal ethical philosophies and role conflict. A national sample of marketing managers in Taiwan was surveyed. The results of this study will contribute to our understanding of the impact of organizational ethical culture and personal ethical philosophies on role conflict in a marketing context. After understanding the associations between organizational ethical culture, personal ethical philosophies and role conflict, the top management is likely to aid firms to develop a low-stress environment, and help marketing managers cope with role conflict. Organizational ethical culture and personal ethical philosophies Organizational culture sets boundaries and provides suitable behavioral cues for organizational members. Trevino defined ethical culture as "a subset of organizational culture, representing a multidimensional interplay among various formal and informal systems of behavior control that are capable of promoting ethical or unethical behavior" (Trevino et al., 1995, p. 12). It describes how members of organizations respond to ethical dilemmas. Forsyth (1980) depicted that individual differences in personal ethical philosophies can be described using two basic factors: idealism and relativism. The first factor, idealism, describes the degree to which an individual's attitude toward the consequences of an action, and how the consequences affect the welfare of others. High idealistic individuals believe that it is always unnecessary or wrong to harm others, and that moral actions should and do lead to good or positive consequences. A low idealistic individual believes that harmful consequences may sometimes be necessary to produce a greater good (Forsyth, 1980; Forsyth, 1992). The second factor, relativism, describes the degree to which an individual rejects universal moral principles. High relativistic individuals believe that there are many ways to look at ethical issues from. …