International Journal of Manpower
ISSN 0143-7720 Volume 23 Number 8 2002
Work values and organizational behaviour: towards the new millennium Guest Editors Shmuel Stashevsky, Meni Koslowsky and Abraham Sagie Paper format International Journal of Manpower includes eight issues in traditional paper format. The contents of this issue are detailed below.
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Access to International Journal of Manpower online_ Editorial advisory board ___________________________ Abstracts and keywords ___________________________ Introduction _______________________________________ Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior: are managers role models?
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Jeffrey Kantor and Jacob Weisberg _________________________________
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Teleworking: potential employment opportunities for older workers? Margaret Patrickson _____________________________________________
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Effects of concepts of career plateaus on performance, work satisfaction and commitment Andreas G.M. Nachbagauer and Gabriela Riedl _______________________
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Organizational learning: teachers’ perceptions of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system Nava Maslovaty ________________________________________________
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A model for managing trust Nico Martins ___________________________________________________
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Book review_______________________________________ 770 About the authors _________________________________ 773 Index to volume 23, 2002 __________________________ 775
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CONTENTS
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Professor David J. Bartholomew The London School of Economics Professor Derek Bosworth Manchester School of Management, UMIST, UK Professor Martin Carnoy School of Education, Stanford University, USA Professor Peter Dawkins Melbourne Institute for Applied Economic and Social Research, Melbourne University, Australia
Professor Lord Richard Layard Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, UK Professor John Mangan University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Professor Stephen L. Mangum Ohio State University, Ohio, USA
Professor John Fyfe W.S. Atkins plc, Epsom, UK
Professor Barrie Pettman International Management Centres, UK, and Founding Editor of International Journal of Manpower
Professor Morley Gunderson University of Toronto, Canada
Professor Abraham (Rami) Sagie Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Professor Thomas J. Hyclak Lehigh University, Bethlehem, USA
Professor David Sapsford Management School, Lancaster University, UK
Professor Susan E. Jackson Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA
Professor P.J. Sloane University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland Professor Klaus F. Zimmerman Department of Economics, University of Bonn, Germany
Professor Harish C. Jain McMaster University, Canada Professor Geraint Johnes Management School, Lancaster University, UK
Editorial advisory board
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International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 23 No. 8, 2002, Abstracts and keywords. # MCB UP Limited, 0143-7720
Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior: are managers role models? Jeffrey Kantor and Jacob Weisberg Keywords Attitudes, Behaviour, Ethics, Managers, Influence, Roles Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior in organizations may have substantial ramifications on a firm’s operation. This study investigates whether or not managers are perceived by employees to exhibit ethical attitudes and ethical behavior and thereby being their role models. A sample of 111 employees within the finance department of a major municipality who are exposed to unethical behavior responded to a structured questionnaire concerning ethical and unethical episodes. There were three major findings: first, consistently perceived ethical behavior is lower than perceived ethical attitudes of the employee, his peers and of his managers; second, selfenhancing bias exists; and third, managers do not exhibit an ethical role model in the organization. Implications for human resource management and policies are discussed. Teleworking: potential employment opportunities for older workers? Margaret Patrickson Keywords Australia, Older employees, Telecommuting Advances in technology have significantly expanded the capacity of individuals to undertake their work role outside the confines of their employers’ premises, and changes in industrial relations policies and practices in Australia have facilitated organisational willingness to explore such possibilities. A significant portion of all offsite working is undertaken by employees at home, and this group increasingly consists of teleworkers who undertake data processing activities in a home office communicating the results to their employer via modem or phone. This paper considers whether such changes, especially the recent growth in teleworking, can generate potential work opportunities for those who have traditionally been marginalised in the workforce. In particular the paper explores whether teleworking might open employment opportunities to older workers. It concludes that though older workers might offer as potentially viable
candidates for this type of work activity, they are unlikely to be successful in gaining employment given present employer attitudes and practices. Effects of concepts of career plateaus on performance, work satisfaction and commitment Andreas G.M. Nachbagauer and Gabriela Riedl Keywords Career development, Performance, Job satisfaction, Commitment, Career planning The discussion on career plateaus is marked by a diversity of operationalizations. This paper focuses on the independence of three dimensions of career plateaus and the impact they have on outcome measures in three areas: performance, work satisfaction and commitment. Data from 165 university staff and 77 school teachers confirmed the independence of the concepts of career plateaus. Contrary to the general assumption that an extended period working at the same position has detrimental effects, outcome variables were not connected to position immobility. Results for most of the outcome measures showed the work-content dimension to account for significantly more variance than the subjective structural dimension. Advances in work content can even moderate negative effects emanating from low expectations of hierarchical promotion. Specifically, the negative effects were most pronounced where the two subjective dimensions of career plateau coincided. These have implications for individual and organizational career management processes. Organizational learning: teachers’ perceptions of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system Nava Maslovaty Keywords Students, Teachers, Organizational learning This study relates to a setting which approaches organizational learning. The professional ideal student trait system and the personal value system, as perceived by prospective and practicing teachers, are presented as constructs of the belief system. Conclusions are drawn from a comparative analysis of seven samples. Although the
constructs of the personal value system and the ideal high school student trait system were similar, their content priorities were different, focusing professionally on academic traits and personally on interpersonal values. The structure of the ideal high school student multivariate system confirmed Schwartz’s bipolar continue value model: conservation versus openness to change and selftranscendence versus self-enhancement. Two techniques for organizational learning are presented for promoting, theorizing, and evaluating teachers’ perceptions of the ideal student trait system. A model for managing trust Nico Martins Keywords Trust, Management styles, Management attitudes, Interpersonal communications The study, representing 6,528 employees, investigates the relationship of the ‘‘big five’’
personality dimensions and managerial practices to the dimension of trust relationships between managers and employees, and also the relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ and managerial practices. Results indicate that managerial practices have an influence on the trust relationships between managers and employees. A weaker relationship with the dimension of trust was obtained for the ‘‘big five’’ personality dimensions. Although there appears to be a weaker relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ and the dimension of trust, the relatively good fit of the model indicates that an overall implication of the model is that both managerial practices and the ‘‘big five’’ personality aspects of the manager might influence his/her subordinates indirectly. The results indicate that although managers perceived it to be a good instrument to use, future research is needed to expand other anecdotes of trust.
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Introduction About the Guest Editors Shmuel Stashevsky (PhD, Bar-Ilan University) is the Director of the International MBA Program in the Graduate School of Business Administration, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He is active in both academic and business worlds. He has professional experience in hi-tech entrepreneurship, management of business units, consulting and training, project management, systems analysis, and software development. His research interests are: quality management, participatory programs, organizational behavior, Internet usage and e-commerce, and business games. E-mail:
[email protected] Meni Koslowsky (PhD, Columbia University) is a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He has written more than 100 papers in the areas of industrial and organizational psychology. His interests today are organizational behavior, personnel selection, and research methodology. E-mail:
[email protected] Abraham Sagie, PhD, is the Director of the School of Business Administration in Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and the co-author of Participation and Empowerment in Organizations: Modeling, Effectiveness, and Applications (Sage). Currently he is the co-editor of the book Misbehavior and Dysfunctional Attitudes in Organizations (Palgrave/Macmillan). His research interests include participative decision making, work and organizational values, and cross-cultural aspects of leadership, motivation, and behavior in organizations. He served as a Scientific Chair and Secretary/Treasurer of the International Society for the Study of Work and Organizational Values (ISSWOV). He also works as an organizational consultant to various Israeli firms. E-mail:
[email protected] New personnel perspectives in the work environment The twenty-first century has been accompanied by an increasing pace of change in the work environment. The rapidly changing nature of work, together with technological advances demand changes in management, and call for new personnel perspectives. Schultz and Schultz (2001) identified changes relating to the kinds of jobs available and the ways in which they are performed: . Virtual workplace – today, many organizations have employees who work off-site, telecommuting from a home office, phoning from a car or airplane, or teleconferencing from a hotel room. . Virtual employees – these are employees who work as contingent workers, freelancers, independent contractors, or part time seasonal labor. . Worker involvement (or: worker empowerment, worker participation) – workers who upgrade their personal skills, get more organizational power, are involved in the policy of their organizations, and participate in work decision making. . Changing technology and skills – today radical advances in technology are being implemented; the work environment has become automated with sophisticated equipment taking over functions once performed by humans. Workers must be technologically proficient in new systems and procedures, especially with regards to computers, communications, Internet, and/or industrial robots. There are fewer job opportunities for computer-illiterate or poorly educated people.
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Diversity issues – today the work force comprises diverse demographic characteristics as well as many cultures and backgrounds. Managers are expected to know how to cope with problems stemming from such compositions of their staff.
The Schultz and Schultz (2001) list does not address all the transformations observed in the workplace. For example, delayering and horizontal management structures are being widely adopted (Powell, 2002). Flatter organizations offer a new set of management options; more teamwork, less bureaucracy, better communications, opportunities for professional development and greater job satisfaction. Yet, the effectiveness of such a change is critically dependent on the supporting attitudes and perceptions of the workers. All these changes and many others call for a dramatic makeover in the organization. In order to change the workplace the cooperation of employees is needed. Resistance to change is a major barrier in applying new methods in organizations. Some employees resist because they believe that the company is trying to make them work harder or that they might lose their job as a result of the performance improvements. Therefore, a change in the beliefs and attitudes of the staff is needed in order to overcome the resistance to change. For example, Wicks (2002) examined how telework can be used to provide benefits to organizations and their members. His findings highlight the importance of forming positive attitudes toward telework. These results apply as well to other sorts of advanced technologies of production and control in the workplace. These new trends emphasize the importance of management in creating changes in organizations. ‘‘Managers have often relied on new technology or structural changes to provide fast, comprehensive improvements in their organizations. In the emerging paradigm, improved technologies and structures may be required, but managers do not stop here. Instead, they introduce improvements throughout the organization. Furthermore, all of these changes are integrated, mutually supportive, and strategically directed toward providing value to customers. Such comprehensive improvement requires leaders to put in place the right set of role responsibilities and define what people should accomplish. In brief, people will not shift from old practices until their roles are redefined’’ (Bounds et al., 1994, p. 132). The five studies chosen for this special issue[1] deal with the new environment that confronts management in the beginning of the new millennium. Two major elements are emphasized in these works: the importance of management as a drive to change and the changes in employees’ beliefs, attitudes and perceptions. The authors highlight the importance of ethical standards and trust as means to advance changes in the organization. The study by Kantor and Weisberg assesses ethical attitudes and ethical behavior using the Newstrom and Ruch (1975) ethical scale. In the study, three organizational actors were addressed: the employee, co-workers, and the managers, and three important findings are presented. First, perceived ethical
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behavior is lower than the perceived ethical attitudes for each organizational actor. The rationale of this finding is that one would not behave more ethically than the specific level of standards to which one will set for himself. Second, self-enhancing bias exists: the employee believes that his or her behavior is more ethical than the behavior of her/his peers. The third finding is, probably, the most interesting one: managers do not exhibit for their subordinates an ethical role model in the organization. The difference between the ethical attitudes and behavior of the managers was considerably higher than the difference of either the employee or the employee’s peers. Therefore, one of the objectives of management should be to improve its own actual ethical behavior as well as the image of this behavior. This might increase employees’ ethical behavior and improve their motivation, involvement, and commitment. Ultimately, this may improve organizational outcomes including job performance and customer satisfaction. Margaret Patrickson explores in her study the new employment opportunities that are open for older workers. The massive technological advances in computers, communications, and Internet have significantly expanded the capacity of individuals to undertake their work role at home. Teleworkers can perform data processing activities in a home office and transmit the results to their employer via modem and Internet connection. This study considers whether such changes, especially the recent growth in teleworking, can generate new work opportunities for older workers. Patrickson concludes that while teleworking offers hope to those seeking part time work opportunities in the home environment, at the present time its likelihood for ensuring greater work prospects is largely illusionary for individuals without established connections with potential employers. The author concludes that as many of the older individuals are keen to take up part time opportunities, are able to learn, and suited to the work, all that is really required is a willingness on the part of an employer to offer them an opportunity. Nachbagauer and Riedl studied the effects of concepts of career plateaus on some organizational outcomes at the individual level: job performance, work satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Career plateau is traditionally defined as the point in a career where the likelihood of additional hierarchical promotion is very low. The authors extended this definition to include career movement within an organization both hierarchically and along a task oriented dimension or work-content dimension (changing tasks and responsibilities). Contrary to the general assumption that an extended period working at the same position has detrimental effects, outcome variables were not connected to position immobility. Results for most of the outcome measures showed the work-content dimension to account for significantly more variance than the subjective structural dimension. Advances in work content can even moderate negative effects emanating from low expectations of hierarchical promotion. Specifically, the negative effects were most pronounced where the two subjective dimensions of career plateau coincided. Nowadays advancement
possibilities decrease due to decentralization and lack of hierarchical promotions. These results indicate that career plateau does not need to have pernicious effects on organizations. We have to be aware of their causes, types and effects in order to take proactive actions. Organizational learning in the educational workplace is the topic of Maslovaty’s study. The author examines the changes in teachers’ perceptions of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system, and, consequently, changes in educational goals. In the last decade educational goals have changed from merely straightforward transmission approach to more constructive ways of formatting knowledge and developing understanding. Based on seven different samples, the study presents a multivariate definition of the ideal student’s trait system that is based on Schwartz’s (1992) two bipolar dimensions of the value system: conservation versus openness to change, and self-transcendence versus self-enhancement. The paper analyzes the similarities and differences between the structures of the two systems, of personal values and of ideal student traits and concludes in calling for narrowing the gap between them. A model for managing trust is suggested and empirically tested by Martins. Trust is defined as the process in which a trustor relies on a trustee (a person or group of people) to act according to specific expectations that are important to the trustor without taking advantage of the trustor’s vulnerability. The author cites Shaw (1997) who wrote: ‘‘With trust, life becomes much simpler. With trust, we can devote our attention to a much broader range of activities than would be possible in an environment of suspicion.’’ The study investigates the relationship of the manager-employee trust relationships to the manager’s ‘‘big five’’ personality dimensions and managerial practices. Results indicate that while managerial practices have a significant influence on the trust relationships between managers and employees, a weaker relationship was obtained for the ‘‘big five’’. Nevertheless, the relatively good fit of the overall model indicates that both variables indirectly contribute to the trust relationships. In summary, the special issue by dissecting some of the new issues in management helps us better understand the changing workplace. Written from theoretical and practical perspectives, we can appreciate that the changes have evolved both from the desk of the academic and the experience of managers who tried and succeeded in introducing new ways for deal with the job and the worker. The future success of manager and worker requires that the former be at the vanguard of the new environment and that the worker be aware of the demands and the possibilities that the workplace now offers. Shmuel Stashevsky, Meni Koslowsky and Abraham Sagie Note 1. The papers in this special issue are based on presentations made at the seventh bi-annual conference of the International Society for the Study of Work and Organizational Values (ISSWOV) that took place in Jerusalem, Israel, 2000. The main theme of this conference was ‘‘Work values and organizational behavior towards the new millennium’’.
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References Bounds, G., Yorks, L., Adams, L. and Ranney, G. (1994), Beyond Total Quality Management Toward the Emerging Paradigm, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Newstrom, J.W. and Ruch, W.A. (1975), ‘‘The ethics of management and the management of ethics’’, MSU Business Topics, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 29-37. Powell, L. (2002), ‘‘Shedding a tier: flattening organizational structures and employee empowerment’’, The International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 54-9. Schultz, D. and Schultz, S.E. (2001), Psychology and Work Today, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Schwartz, S.H. (1992), ‘‘Universals in the content and structure of values: theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries’’, in Zanna, M. (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 25, Academic Press, New York, NY, pp. 1-65. Shaw, R.B. (1997), Trust in the Balance, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Wicks, D. (2002), ‘‘Successfully increasing technological control through minimizing workplace resistance: understanding the willingness to telework’’, Management Decision, Vol. 40 No. 7, pp. 672-81.
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Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior: are managers role models? Jeffrey Kantor
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University of Windsor and Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, and
Jacob Weisberg Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel Keywords Attitudes, Behaviour, Ethics, Managers, Influence, Roles Abstract Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior in organizations may have substantial ramifications on a firm’s operation. This study investigates whether or not managers are perceived by employees to exhibit ethical attitudes and ethical behavior and thereby being their role models. A sample of 111 employees within the finance department of a major municipality who are exposed to unethical behavior responded to a structured questionnaire concerning ethical and unethical episodes. There were three major findings: first, consistently perceived ethical behavior is lower than perceived ethical attitudes of the employee, his peers and of his managers; second, self-enhancing bias exists; and third, managers do not exhibit an ethical role model in the organization. Implications for human resource management and policies are discussed.
Introduction Performance appraisals over the years have increasingly become a prime focus in the psychology and organizational behavior fields. However, few companies use appraisals of their managers as perceived by the subordinates (Bernardin, 1986). The latter are sometimes in a better position to assess certain managerial aspects than other sources of assessment. When a group of employees evaluate their managers’ performance, attitudes, behavior, etc. it will likely shed more light on the matter than had the appraisal been done by a single rater. One of the more recent areas which is gaining importance in the literature is business ethics. In this area, employees’ perceptions of their managers’ and peers’ ethical attitudes and ethical behavior is a valid tool of appraisal which deserves more attention in our research efforts. The development and expression of managers’ (Izraeli, 1988) and employees’ ethical attitudes and behavior are areas of profound concern to the business community as evidenced by the large number of studies published in both academic journals and popular business publications. Research in the business ethics arena is difficult because of the problem of determining, measuring, and/ or predicting actual behavior in real life. Moreover, research in the area of ethics is difficult in many situations as some of the results may affect attitudes and behavior which themselves affect ethical matters. Finally, it is often difficult to observe and measure day-to-day employees’ attitudes and behavior, The authors would like to thank Ms Lilach Cohen and Ms Neta Ravid-Golan for their research assistance, and Ms Cindy Sinvani for her editorial assistance.
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which could, if left unattended, snowball into major ethical crises in organizations. Hunter (1996) argues that there are real and substantial costs to unethical behavior including: deterioration of relationships; mistrust; negative impact on employee productivity; stifling of employee creativity; information flows throughout the company become ineffective; employee loyalty declines and absenteeism and labor turnover increases. Firms cope with employees’ diversities and inappropriate behavior by creating and introducing into the firm a code of ethics which includes attitudes and behavior towards the external environment e.g. customers and within the firm e.g. co-workers and managers. This is virtually a self-regulation process which is defined in the literature as a situation whereby the existence of formal rules (codes of conduct) affect attitudes and behavior. The influence of the existence of a code of ethics on the behavior and attitudes of individuals has been discussed in previous studies (Hemphill, 1992). People tend to think and behave differently because there are different codes in place. It can be expected that attitudes and behavior will closely resemble these codes of ethics. Sometimes, the firm signals a particular ethical attitude and behavior, whilst the peers and managers signal something different or act as role models transmitting different ethical norms. Codes of ethics may facilitate selfregulation by helping the organization come to terms with its social responsibilities and serve as a sign of good intentions (L’Etang, 1992). Formal codes of ethics exist to define professional values (Anderson et al., 1993; Trevino, 1986), to set standards (Murphy and Laczniak, 1981), to inform members of the profession what the standards are (Dean, 1992), to help ensure autonomy through self-regulation, and to help define the organization’s obligations to society. Ethical dilemmas are more prevalent in situations when power is unequally distributed and controlled by relatively few. The public sector and in particular organizations with a high degree of bureaucracy are characterized by a relative abundance of power in the hands of individuals. This provides opportunities particularly for civil servants working in local governments to use power in a relatively unethical way. Individuals in the private sector, however, would likely tend to think and behave more ethically. Udas et al. (1996) who studied public sector MIS professionals found that ethical obligations are stronger for management and employers than for coworkers. However, a key question remained unanswered: Are managers perceived as exhibiting positive ethical attitudes and ethical behavior? Are managers perceived by their subordinates as role models in regard to ethical attitudes and ethical behavior? The primary aim of this study is to answer this question. Literature review Many theories have been applied to different aspects of business ethics e.g. Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior; Jones’ (1991) theory of moral
intensity; the theory of moral development (Marnburg, 2001); and the theory of Ethical attitudes cognitive development (Abdolmohammadi and Sultan, 2002). vs ethical Social scientists generally recognize that a gap may exist between what a behavior participant recommends or thinks ought to be done or intends to do, and what the participant actually does in any given ethical decision situation. Although this gap is recognized, researchers continue to predict future behavior from 689 participants’ current intent or normative opinion. The research presented in Weber and Gillespie (1998) represents a new and valuable contribution to this arena. There has been descriptive work in the area such as the models by Ferrell and Gresham (1985), Ferrell et al. (1989), Hunt and Vitell (1986). There has also been empirical work to test these models (Mayo and Marks, 1990; Reidenbach and Robin, 1990; Singhapakdi and Vitell, 1990, 1991; Vitell and Hunt, 1990). Ferrell and Weaver (1978) in a descriptive study of 280 marketing managers attempted to understand the relationship between the actual behavior of individuals as opposed to the actual behavior of their peers. A 17-item questionnaire developed by Newstrom and Ruch (1975) was used. The study also dealt with the relationship between beliefs of individuals as opposed to perceived beliefs of their peers and superiors. It was found that, overall, both behavior and attitudes of respondents were perceived (by these respondents) to be of a higher standard than those of their peers. The results regarding the managers was however inconclusive. It was unclear as to whether or not the respondents believed that their attitudes were more ethical than those of their managers. In our study we are primarily interested in employees’ perceptions of their managers and peers as compared to themselves, in particular as regards to attitudes and behavior. This is an elaboration of the Ferrell and Weaver (1978) study which has been used in other studies to investigate cross-cultural differences. In Jackson and Calafell-Artola (1997) data were collected for managers from France and Germany, using the results to analyze cultural differences. Also, in Izraeli (1988) the survey was used to investigate attitudes/ beliefs and behavior from the perspective of managers. Jones and Kavanagh (1996), using an experimental design, examined both peer and managerial influences. They argued that the ethical behavior of employees is ‘‘pulled down’’ as a result of unethical behavior by managers and co-workers. To the extent that managers’ and peers’ behavior is improved, so is the behavior of the employees. Organizations, especially in the public sector, where rules may be (and frequently are) set by authorities, should focus on ensuring that stringent regulations/codes of conduct are put into place. These would likely make the behavior of managers (who are more likely to suffer from infractions) more ethical and therefore positively influence the ethical behavior of employees. With strict codes of conduct, managers (and possibly even co-workers) could be role models for the behavior and attitudes of employees.
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Study objectives This study complements a previous one (Izraeli, 1988) conducted on Israeli managers which focused on their perceptions of their subordinates and peers. However, an important advantage of our study over Izraeli’s, is that the latter used a sample of managers from different organizations, whereas in our study the sample is drawn from a single organization. Thus, the organizational culture is imposed on all workers with no possible bias of organizational differences. Our study focuses on the question as to whether managers are perceived to be role models. In order to do this we examined the employees’ perceptions of their bosses’ attitudes and behavior relating to ethical issues. Thereafter, their perceived attitudes and behavior and those of their co-workers were measured. Hypotheses A set of relationships between attitudes and behavior are hypothesized and tested. The variations shown in Table I permit the reader to observe the hypothesis being tested. A set of three hypotheses are proposed based upon the argument that people would not normally behave in a way which is more ethical than how they believe they should act. One of the key questions on attitudes and behavior concerns the ‘‘degree’’ or ‘‘level’’ of standards an employee determines for himself/herself, for his peers and for his managers. A certain level of standards to which the particular person would like to reach is set and it would seem to be obvious that one would not behave more ethically than this set ‘‘level’’. In the following hypotheses we will show that an employee will have attitudes/standards that are ‘‘stricter’’ than his behavior. A similar rationale will apply to his perception concerning his peers and managers. H1. Employees perceive that their ethical attitudes/beliefs are higher than their ethical behavior (Z1 > Z4Þ: H2. Employees perceive their peers’ ethical attitudes/beliefs are higher than their peers’ ethical behavior (Z2 > Z5). H3. Employees perceive their managers’ ethical attitudes/beliefs are higher than their managers’ ethical behavior (Z3 > Z6). One of the well-known biases in the social psychology literature is ‘‘selfenhancement bias’’ which is considered by Pfeffer and Veiga (1999). They suggest that most of the people see themselves in a self-enhancing fashion, thus regarding themselves as more intelligent, skilled, ethical, honest, etc. than
Table I. Variations reflected in hypotheses
Beliefs/attitudes Behavior
Employees
Peers
Managers
Z1 Z4
Z2 Z5
Z3 Z6
others. Moreover, they suggest that about 90 percent of managers and workers Ethical attitudes evaluate their performance as superior to that of their peers. As such, it will vs ethical not be a surprise that workers will assess their behavior as superior to their behavior peers and managers. Furthermore, Suls et al. (2002) found in their study of comparisons of persons’ attributes that the participants rated themselves higher than their friends, peers and managers. 691 It is most appropriate that self-enhancement be based on the social comparison theory (Mumford, 1983), which suggests that when individuals are uncertain of their opinions and abilities they will compare them to those of others in similar positions. The same framework can be applied to the assessment of ethical attitudes and ethical behavior. Jones and Kavanagh (1996) investigated the effect of the behavior of peers and managers on the behavior of individuals. To strengthen the arguments put forward in Jones and Kavanagh (1996) we expand the testing to include a consideration of perceived attitudes. We look at the effect of the perceived attitudes of peers and managers on the attitudes of individuals. We test these matters in H4 and H5 in relation to behavior and in H6 and H7 in relation to attitudes. H4. Employees perceive that their behavior is more ethical than that of their peers (Z4 > Z5). H5. Employees perceive that their behavior is more ethical than that of their managers (Z4 > Z6). H6. Employees perceive that their attitudes are more ethical than those of their peers (Z1 > Z2). H7. Employees perceive that their attitudes are more ethical than those of their managers (Z1 > Z3). To sum up the above hypotheses, we suggest that behavior will always be ‘‘lower’’ than attitudes and that due to the self-enhancement bias workers overestimate their ethical attitudes and ethical behavior as ‘‘more’’ than those of their peers and managers. Methodology A sample of 111 employees from the finance department of one of the biggest municipalities in Israel were interviewed, using structured self-administered questionnaires. These employees provide services to the public and deal with financial matters. They are exposed to all kinds of possible ethical scenarios. Because the respondents were chosen from one particular unit in the municipality, all respondents experience comparable types of working conditions, similar levels of stress, equivalent exposures to public demands, etc. The research topic was very important to the organization’s management, and therefore the interviews were conducted during working hours with permission of the management. All employees who were requested to
International Journal of Manpower 23,8 692
participate in the study completed the questionnaire, which means that we effectively had a 100 percent response rate. While the respondent completed the questionnaire, a research assistant was available to answer questions. The questionnaire included six identical sets of questions. The first three sets of questions (group A) dealt with attitudes and the second three sets of questions (group B) dealt with behavior. The first set within each group dealt with the employee, the second set within each group dealt with co-workers, and the third set within each group dealt with the employees’ managers. Respondents answered questions from group A prior to answering questions from group B. In order to reduce the chance of ‘‘social desirability’’ bias (McKendell et al., 2002) respondents were assured confidentiality by the researchers, meaning no personal information was passed to the management and questionnaires were the exclusive property of the researchers. Questionnaire A 17-item (for detailed items see Table II) questionnaire for studying ethical attitudes was developed by Newstrom and Ruch (1975) and used by Ferrell and Weaver (1978). We used this validated scale, consisting of 102 questions, for our research to study employees’ ethical attitudes and ethical behavior of themselves, peers and managers. In addition demographic questions were included to obtain some background information on the respondents. We preferred this questionnaire over others e.g. the ethical climate scale (Menzel, 1995) since the latter is too general and less comprehensive (including only nine items). Respondents were asked to respond on a five-point Likert scale. The scale for each negatively phrased ‘‘attitude’’ question ranged from 1 ¼ very ethical, meaning that the respondent justified this negative/unethical phrase and that his/her belief is very unethical, to 5 ¼ very unethical, meaning that the respondent does not justify this negative/unethical item and thus he/she is very ethical. The scale for each positively phrased ‘‘behavior’’ question ranged from 1 ¼ very unethical, meaning that the respondent justified this positive/ethical phrase and his/her belief is very ethical, to 5 ¼ very ethical, meaning that the respondent justified this positive/ethical item and thus he/she is very unethical. For the data analysis process the direction of the scale was reversed, ensuring that both ‘‘attitudes’’ and ‘‘behavior’’ were in the same direction. For both attitudes and behavior, the higher the score the more ethical the attitudes or the behavior. Translation/re-translation technique Two research assistants translated the questionnaire used in this study to Hebrew. The translated version was then translated by two other research assistants from Hebrew back to English and compared to the original English version. Minor inadequacies were adjusted in the Hebrew language version.
a
Notes: Mean values are computed on a range from 1 (not ethical) to 5 (ethical) * Significant at p < 0:05
Average
Z1 ¼ 4.26
3.96 4.46 4.54 3.58 4.49 3.88 4.16 4.64 4.59 4.66 4.55 4.10 4.27 4.24 4.41 4.04 3.92
Using company services for personal use Padding an expense account up to 10% Giving gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking longer than necessary to do a job Divulging confidential information Doing personal business on company time Concealing one’s errors Passing blame for errors to an innocent co-worker Claiming credit for someone else’s work Falsifying time/quality/quantity reports Padding an expense account more than 10% Calling in sick to take a day off Authorizing a subordinate to violate company rules Pilfering company materials and supplies Accepting gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking extra personal time (lunch hour, breaks, early departure) Not reporting others’ violations of company policies
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
14 7 5 17 6 16 11 2 3 1 4 12 9 10 8 13 15
Attitude Mean Rank
Items
No.
Z4 ¼ 4.04
3.51 4.03 4.21 3.71 4.29 3.60 4.02 4.22 4.18 4.23 4.28 4.01 4.26 4.14 4.12 4.11 3.76
17 11 6 15 2 16 12 5 7 4 1 13 3 8 9 10 14
Behavior Mean Rank
0.22*
0.44* 0.42* 0.34* –0.13 0.21 0.28* 0.14 0.42* 0.41* 0.43* 0.27* 0.09 0.01 0.10 0.30* –0.07 0.17
0.24* 0.13 0.10 0.32* –0.01 0.23* 0.13 0.22* 0.19* 0.23* 0.15 0.15 –0.02 0.10 0.20* 0.25* 0.19* 0.13
Mean diff. t-test
Correlation
Ethical attitudes vs ethical behavior 693
Table II. Workers’ perception of their own attitudes and behavior: meansa, correlation and t-test
International Journal of Manpower 23,8 694
Sample characteristics Although confidentiality was assured to the respondents they were reluctant to respond to demographic variables. Even the answers on their length of service with current employer and their education level had many missing cases thus we could not include them in the analysis. Length of service with current employer showed that 16.2 percent had worked up to two years for the firm and that 39.6 percent had worked for more than ten years for the firm. The majority (44.2 percent) had worked between three to nine years for the firm. In terms of the level of education, 83.9 percent of the respondents completed secondary school and 16.1 percent of them had university degrees. This indicates that the employees on the whole had similar levels of education. Results In Tables II-IV the following observations and results are presented: mean scores of perceived attitudes and perceived behavior for each of the 17 items and overall scores; ranks of perceived attitudes and perceived behavior for each of the 17 items; Pearson correlation coefficients for each of the 17 items and an overall score between perceived attitudes and perceived behavior; and t-test analysis examining the mean differences for each of the 17 items and the overall score between perceived attitudes and perceived behavior. Although we used the average scores of the 17 items, we report, for the readers’ benefit, the mean values, rank order, correlations and significance of t-test results for each one of the items. Rank order of items Before going into further analysis we wanted to see what are the ethical items that are perceived by the respondents as representing ‘‘higher’’ ethical scores, showing ‘‘more’’ ethical attitudes and ethical behavior, versus those that represent ‘‘lower’’ scores, which we will refer to as showing unethical attitudes and unethical behavior. Tables II-IV show the rank order for ethical attitudes and ethical behavior for each one of the 17 items for employees, managers and co-workers. In order to summarize the large number of items we will show the ethical attitudes items as well as the ethical behavior items that were found to show an important item among employees, peers and managers. The items that gained high scores are positive ethical attitudes and/or ethical behaviors which means that they are the items considered as not behaving unethically. The items: ‘‘falsifying time/quality/quantity reports’’; ‘‘padding an expense account more than 10 percent’’; and ‘‘passing blame for errors to an innocent co-worker’’ were found as very important and positive ethical attitudes and ethical behavior among employees, peers and managers. Among the managers we found items related to bribery are prevalent too. A high (positive) ethical attitude and in accordance high behavior was found for ‘‘accepting gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment’’; ‘‘giving gifts/
Notes: a Mean values are computed on a range from 1 (not ethical) to 5 (ethical) * Significant at p < 0:05
Average
Z2 ¼ 3.88
3.62 3.92 4.07 3.40 4.17 3.50 3.79 4.14 3.90 4.26 4.13 3.63 3.98 3.92 4.13 3.72 3.61
Using company services for personal use Padding an expense account up to 10% Giving gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking longer than necessary to do a job Divulging confidential information Doing personal business on company time Concealing one’s errors Passing blame for errors to an innocent co-worker Claiming credit for someone else’s work Falsifying time/quality/quantity reports Padding an expense account more than 10% Calling in sick to take a day off Authorizing a subordinate to violate company rules Pilfering company materials and supplies Accepting gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking extra personal time (lunch hour, breaks, early departure) Not reporting others’ violations of company policies
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
14 9 6 17 2 16 11 3 10 1 4 13 7 8 5 12 15
Attitude Mean Rank
Items
No.
Z5 ¼ 3.77
3.30 3.66 3.79 3.40 3.89 3.46 3.77 3.83 3.83 4.00 3.98 3.68 3.97 3.96 4.05 3.85 3.59
17 13 10 16 6 15 11 8 9 2 3 12 4 5 1 7 14
Behavior Mean Rank
0.11
0.31* 0.27 0.29 0.10 0.28 0.04 0.03 0.31* 0.07 0.26 0.15 –0.05 0.01 –0.04 0.07 –0.13 0.02
0.30* 0.06 0.10 0.23* 0.18 0.15 0.20* 0.15 0.11 0.11 –0.01 0.12 0.06 0.00 0.17 –0.01 0.10 0.10
Mean diff. t-test
Correlation
Ethical attitudes vs ethical behavior 695
Table III. Workers’ perception of co-workers’ attitude and behavior: meansa, correlation and t-test
Notes: a Mean values are computed on a range from 1 (not ethical) to 5 (ethical) * Significant at p < 0:05
Average
Using company services for personal use Padding an expense account up to 10% Giving gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking longer than necessary to do a job Divulging confidential information Doing personal business on company time Concealing one’s errors Passing blame for errors to an innocent co-worker Claiming credit for someone else’s work Falsifying time/quality/quantity reports Padding an expense account more than 10% Calling in sick to take a day off Authorizing a subordinate to violate company rules Pilfering company materials and supplies Accepting gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking extra personal time (lunch hour, breaks and early departure) Not reporting others’ violations of company policies
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Table IV. Workers’ perception of managers’ attitude and behavior: meansa, correlation and t-test
Items
Z3 ¼ 4.16
4.04 4.19 4.33 3.73 4.42 3.96 4.04 4.21 3.96 4.27 4.25 4.13 4.30 4.32 4.40 4.05 4.17
14 9 3 17 1 15 13 8 16 6 7 11 5 4 2 12 10
Attitude Mean Rank
Z6 ¼ 3.80
3.31 3.80 3.89 3.60 3.89 3.47 3.78 3.85 3.71 4.09 3.89 3.77 3.93 3.97 4.13 3.93 3.84
17 11 7 15 8 16 12 9 14 2 6 13 4 3 1 5 10
Behavior Mean Rank
0.28*
0.26* 0.10 0.20* 0.25* 0.22* 0.23* 0.16 0.26* 0.35* 0.37* 0.32* 0.38* 0.18 0.06 0.16 0.18 –0.07
Correlation
696
No.
0.39*
0.72* 0.43* 0.47* 0.18 0.57* 0.51* 0.28 0.39* 0.26 0.24 0.41* 0.34* 0.36* 0.35* 0.27 0.11 0.37*
Mean diff. t-test
International Journal of Manpower 23,8
favors in exchange for preferential treatment’’. This suggests that managers Ethical attitudes are evaluated as not being susceptible to bribes. vs ethical The least ethical attitudes and behavior – those items that are the lowest on behavior the ethical scale, included: ‘‘taking longer than necessary to do a job’’ and ‘‘doing personal business on company time’’. They were typical to employees, peers and managers in both ethical attitudes and ethical behavior. Among 697 employees’ and their peers’ ethical attitudes we found that ‘‘not reporting others’ violations of company policy’’ was considered as the ‘‘lowest’’ ethical attitude, whereas among their behavior we found that ‘‘using company services for personal use’’ is the least ethical behavior. Among managers we found that ethical attitudes and ethical behavior relating to the ‘‘taking longer than necessary to do a job’’ and ‘‘doing personal business on company time’’ were considered by the employees to be their managers’ weakest ethical attitudes and behavior. Hypotheses testing At this stage of the analysis instead of dealing with each single item we calculated the mean scores of the 17 items. Reliability tests of the items using the Cronbach alpha measure showed high reliability scores for the 17 statements within each of the six areas: workers’ self-perception of his/her attitudes (0.92); workers’ perceptions concerning his/her co-workers’ attitudes (0.94); workers’ perceptions concerning his/her managers’ attitudes (0.93); worker’s perceptions concerning his/her own behavior (0.93); workers’ perceptions concerning his/her co-workers’ behavior (0.92); workers’ perceptions concerning his/her managers’ behavior (0.94). Descriptive statistics and correlation Table V lists the Pearson correlation coefficient for each combination of overall mean scores. The correlation between employees, their peers and their managers was found to be statistically significant for ethical attitudes. Similarly the correlation between employees, their peers and their managers perceived behavior was found to be statistically significant. Table VI shows the overall average mean score (for all 17 items) of the employees’ perceived ethical attitudes and behavior, that of his/her peers and that of his/her managers (Z1 to Z6). Regarding the comparison among mean scores, the respondents set for themselves the highest ethical standard/ attitudes (4.26) compared to their peers (3.88) and managers (4.16). Similarly, the respondents perceived their behavior to be more ethical (4.04) compared to their peers (3.77) and managers (3.80). It should be emphasized that ethical behavior is likely to be lower than ethical attitudes since respondents’ behavior cannot exceed their own ethical standards. Table VI also summarizes the t-test results of the seven hypotheses, measuring whether and the extent to which differences between employees, co-workers and managers are significant in regard to their ethical attitudes and ethical behavior. H1 to H3 test whether, in all cases, perceived attitudes towards ethics are higher than perceived behavior. In practice it evaluates whether ethical
Table V. Employee’s perceived own, peers’ and managers’ attitudes and behavior: means, SD, Cronbach alpha and correlations (Z1) (Z2) (Z3) (Z4) (Z5) (Z6)
4.26 3.88 4.16 4.04 3.77 3.80
Notes: a Mean values are computed on a range from 1 (not ethical) to 5 (ethical) ** significant at p 0:01
own attitudes perception of co-workers’ attitudes perception of managers’ attitudes own perceived behavior perception of co-workers’ behavior perception of managers’ behavior
0.76 0.82 0.88 0.99 0.88 0.98
SD 0.92 0.94 0.93 0.93 0.92 0.94
Cronbach alpha
0.52** 0.38** 0.13 –0.05 0.01
Z1
0.43** 0.15 0.10 0.17
Z2
0.17 0.13 0.27**
Z3
698
Employee’s Employees’ Employees’ Employees’ Employees’ Employees’
Meana
0.59** 0.69**
Z4
0.65**
Z5
International Journal of Manpower 23,8
Hypothesis number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Meana (Z1) (Z2) (Z3) (Z4) (Z4) (Z1) (Z1)
4.264 3.877 4.160 4.040 4.015 4.264 4.264
Meana (Z4) (Z5) (Z6) (Z5) (Z6) (Z2) (Z3)
4.040 3.767 3.802 3.767 3.802 3.877 4.161
Difference in means
t-value
p – significance level (2-tailed)
Hypothesis confirmed*
0.224 0.110 0.388 0.273 0.213 0.387 0.103
2.201 1.029 3.666 3.667 2.985 5.337 1.207
0.030* 0.306 0:05). Frequencies for the 2 2 2 subgroups are given in Table II.
Concepts of career plateaus
723
Outcome measures Correlation data for the outcome measures are shown in Table III. The analysis for the influence of different concepts of career plateaus on the outcome measures was conducted using ANOVA including MCA, with additional analyses where necessary. Results for the WU and the HAKs regarding performance, satisfaction and commitment are summarized in Table IV. Note, that for the ANOVA in the WU-sample, top full professors (with tenure) are excluded from this analysis, because – by definition – they cannot be promoted as they are already on the top of the pyramid (n ¼ 133). We found no significant correlations between current performance and change in performance level and any kind of plateau both in schools and the university. Data showed a significant difference for faculty regarding performance in terms of working hours. Faculty on a work-content plateau reported that they worked six hours less per week than their colleagues. Both the objective structural and, in particular, the work-content dimension of career plateaus have a marked effect on (dis)satisfaction with the task, while Subjective structural plateau SSP Non-SSP Objective structural plateau Objective structural plateau OSP Non-OSP Total OSP Non-OSP Total Total % Work-content plateau
Total
WCP
3.0 7.1
4.5 11.4
7.6 18.6
0.8 1.4
9.1 2.9
9.8 4.3
17.4 22.9
NonWCP
5.3 22.9
14.4 22.9
19.7 45.7
13.6 21.4
49.2 10.0
62.9 31.4
82.6 77.1
8.3 30.0
18.9 34.3
27.3 64.3
14.4 22.9
58.3 12.9
72.7 35.7
100.0 100.0
Note: First line: WU; second line: HAK
Table II. Frequencies in each plateau group
0.43*** 0.51*** –0.24*** –0.46*** 0.26*** 0.13 0.25*** 0.20* 0.12 –0.20*
Affective commitment
Continuance commitment
Performance current
Performance change
Working hours
Notes: First line: WU; Second line: HAK *¼ p < 0:10; **¼ p < 0:05; ***p < 0:01
0.50*** 0.47***
Satisfaction WU/HAK
Table III. Correlation coefficients of outcome measures 0.67*** 0.38**
0.01 –0.22*
0.16** 0.11
0.17** –0.21*
–0.10 0.02
0.38*** 0.19
0.61*** 0.02
Satisfaction development
–0.02 –0.08
0.08 0.27**
0.13* –0.17
–0.12 –0.23*
0.49*** 0.39***
WU/HAK
0.05 0.04
0.16** 0.13
0.31*** 0.11
–0.12 –0.31**
0.04 0.02
0.05 0.03
–0.18** –0.31**
Commitment Affective Continuance
0.28** 0.36**
0.32*** 0.20* 0.26** –0.03
Performance Current Change
724
Satisfaction development
Task
International Journal of Manpower 23,8
Outcome measures
Total
Objective structural P
Subjective structural P
Work-content plateau
Performance current
0.065 0.164
0.006 0.026
0.002 0.018
0.020 0.038
Performance change
0.043 0.117
0.000 0.000
0.007 0.000
0.002 0.010
Working hours
0.090 0.040
0.011 0.002
0.008 0.001
0.060* 0.001
Satisfaction task
0.302* 0.109
0.034* 0.031
0.001 0.007
0.232* 0.016
Satisfaction development
0.173* 0.044
0.002 0.006
0.036* 0.001
0.040* 0.000
Satisfaction WU/HAK
0.083 0.095
0.000 0.008
0.030* 0.017
0.012 0.004
Affective commitment
0.101 0.151
0.003 0.000
0.008 0.010
0.031* 0.064*
Continuance commitment
0.062 0.118
0.010 0.037
0.002 0.010
0.035* 0.065*
Notes: First line: WU; Second line: HAK Total: mult. R2 , plateau dimensions: eta2; *p < 0:05
the subjective structural dimension showed no effect. Contrary to the common understanding, both subjective plateau dimensions have an equally strong effect on satisfaction with the individual development. The analysis reveals a powerful interaction. Thus, considerable effects are only observable in the case of a dual subjective plateau. The same major effects on satisfaction with the individual development occur only on a dual subjective plateau. Dissatisfaction with the university rises only on a subjective structural plateau, with a minor intensification of the task-oriented dimension. In schools, objective structural plateaued performers report more dissatisfaction with their task than others, though not significant. No other correlation was significant. However, we found a strong correlation of subjective structural plateau with demographic variables. It is very likely that the observed effects of the structural plateau are mere mediators for effects of age and tenure. Thus, dissatisfaction with little likelihood of further promotion is shifted to the task itself. Non-plateaued performers achieved the highest score on the affective commitment scale. Again it is the dual subjective plateau which lets emotional devotion to the organization reach the bottom line. Figures for continuance commitment show a curve opposite to that observed with the variables above, with a stronger influence of task stagnation. In the university we have a major negative effect of the work-content component on affective commitment and a
Concepts of career plateaus
725
Table IV. Results of the ANOVAs with MCA
International Journal of Manpower 23,8 726
positive effect on an continuance commitment. Both objective structural dimensions seemed to show no effect. Because of strong interacting effects of all three dimensions in the university we compared the effects of both subjective plateau forms on commitment separately. Here we found a major negative effect of the subjective structural component on affective commitment (eta2 ¼ 0:058; p < 0:05) and no significant effect on continuance commitment, while task stagnation improves continuance commitment (eta2 ¼ 0:029; p < 0:05) and has no emotional consequence. In general, the data for the schools show the same picture. However, for teachers, the work-content dimension is more. The effect of task stagnation on affective commitment and continuance commitment found in schools had been expected. Again, no effect can be reported on both structural dimensions. The only improvement connected with the possibility to draw on an individual niche at the job can be reported with regard to affective commitment in universities. Here, effects are even more intense in the case of task stagnation (t ¼ 3:84; p < 0:05) than subjective structural stagnation (t ¼ 2:61; p < 0:05). More satisfaction with task (t ¼ 4:06; p < 0:05) and individual development (t ¼ 2:14; p < 0:05) and higher affective commitment (t ¼ 3:51; p < 0:05), as reported by faculty affected by task stagnation, is brought about by a recent enlargement in the scope of action and responsibility. For university staff on a structural plateau, similar effects can be stated regarding satisfaction with task (t = –3.57; p
