salesperson perceptions

Salesperson Perceptions of Ethical

Behaviors: Their Influence on Job

Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions

Charles PettijohnLinda Pettijohn

A. J. Taylor

ABSTRACT. In the academic world, research has indi-

cated that good ethics is good business. Such research

seems to indicate that firms, which emphasize ethical

values and social responsibilities, tend to be more profit-

able than others. Generally, the profitability is credited to

the firms positive relationships with its customers,

reduced costs of attempting to rebuild a tarnished image,

ease of attracting capital, etc. The research conducted in

this study evaluated salespeoples perceptions of the ethics

of businesses in general, their employers ethics, their

attitudes as consumers, and the relationships existing

between these perceptions and the sale forces job satis-

faction and turnover intentions. The results show a

positive relationship existing between salesperson per-

ceptions of business ethics, his/her employers ethics,

consumer attitudes, and the salespersons job satisfaction

and reduced turnover intentions.

KEY WORDS: salesperson ethics, ethics and business

relationships, ethics and job satisfaction, ethics and turn-

over, ethics measures

Introduction

Over the past few years, it seems that the business

sections of many city newspapers and business

publications have been dominated by stories con-

cerning unethical business actions. These articles

obviously have had an adverse affect on both

investors and customers in their interactions with

business (Jaramillo et al. 2006). In fact, business

executives tend to be among the lowest ranked

professional categories in terms of their image

(Lantos 1999; Luther et al. 1997; Wulfson 1998).

For example, Sales and Marketing Management

(2005) reports the results of a survey that show only

17% of Americans trust business leaders of major

corporations. The negative consequences of uneth-

ical business activities, with regard to their impacts

on investors and customers, have been discussed by

many scholars and business practitioners (cf. Lantos

1999; Schwepker 1999; Trease et al. 1994). How-

ever, how does the perception of a business ethical

behavior affect another important group the

business employees? If ones employer is perceived

as unethical, does that affect the employees job

satisfaction and turnover intentions? The answer to

Charles E. Pettijohn (D.B.A., Louisiana Tech University) is a

professor of marketing in the College of Business Adminis-

tration at Missouri State University. He is also co-editor of

the Marketing Management Journal. His research has

appeared in the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales

Management, the Journal of Businesss Ethics, Mar-

keting Management Journal, Psychology and Market-

ing, and the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice.

At Missouri State University, his primary teaching focus is in

the areas of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

Linda S. Pettijohn (D.B.A., Louisiana Tech University) is a

Professor of marketing in the College of Business Adminis-

tration at Missouri State University. Her research has ap-

peared in the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales

Management, Human Resource Development Quar-

terly, Marketing Management Journal, Psychology and

Marketing, and the Journal of Financial Serivices

Marketing. At Missouri State University, her primary

teaching focus is in the area of Retailing.

Albert J. Taylor (D.B.A., Louisiana Tech University) is an

associate professor of marketing in the College of Business

Administration at Coastal Carolina University. His research

has appeared in the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales

Management, Human Resource Development

Quartely, the International Journal of Hospitality and

Tourism Administration, Psychology and Marketing,

and the Journal of Applied Business Research. At

Missouri State University, his primary teaching focus is in the

areas of Marketing Research and Personal Selling.

Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 78:547557 Springer 2007DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9367-7

this question, the central issue of the research, may be

affected by the findings as they relate to two addition

questions. First, does an individuals attitude toward

general business ethics or his/her attitude as a con-

sumer influence that persons attitudes toward his/her

employers ethics? Second, why should firms care

what their employees think about their ethics, business

ethics, or the employees perceptions as consumers?

One might contend that the final question may be

the simplest one to answer. Businesses should care

what their employees think because employee per-

ceptions can influence employee behaviors. If a firms

employees perceive that their employers are ethical,

then that firm may discover that job satisfaction rat-

ings are high and that turnover intentions are low.

Both factors are widely perceived as desirable for

businesses. Conversely, when employees perceive

that their employers are unethical, then job satisfac-

tion levels may decline and turnover intentions might

increase (Jaramillo et al. 2006). Both of these out-

comes are generally regarded as being negative. While

one could argue that a business or businesses in gen-

eral should behave ethically to establish goodwill with

their customers and with investors, the argument

could be advanced that ethical business behavior may

also create positive outcomes with regard to the firms

employees (Sales and Marketing Management 2006).

Of the issues addressed in the literature, it seems

that the one issue that is examined the least is the affect

that ones employers ethics has on the employees

levels of job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

Instead, the majority of the literature has focused its

efforts on the relationships that exist between a firms

perceived ethical levels and customer perceptions

and/or investor perceptions of the firm. Certainly

one cannot dispute the importance of previous

research agendas. The affect of a business ethical

behaviors on its customers and its investors is a critical

issue for evaluation. Most research has discovered that

firms, which are perceived as being unethical, are less

profitable, have negative customer attitudes to over-

come, etc. The same holds true with regard to

investors (cf. Lantos 1999; Trease et al. 1994). As

investors lose confidence in business, they become

less likely to invest their savings in those businesses,

which in turn increases the cost of capital to the

business, resulting in financial challenges. While

many firms have huge public relations departments

and advertising budgets charged with elevating the

business public image, many discover that their

investments are either wasted or too small to rectify

ethical lapses their firms have experienced. Thus,

unethical behaviors have been shown to have

numerous deleterious outcomes for businesses as they

relate to their customers and investors (Lantos 1999;

Mantel 2005; Schwepker 1999).

Many managerial theorists contend that a firms

most important asset is its employees (cf. Collins 2001).

Yet, the influence of a business ethical behaviors on

the employees has not been widely studied. The

purpose of this research is to address this issue and

evaluate the effect that the employees perceptions of

business ethics and behaviors have on that employees

job satisfaction levels and his/her intentions to leave

the organization. Specifically, this research is designed

to empirically assess the relationships that exist be-

tween the perceived levels of ones employers ethics,

business ethics in general, and attitudes toward business

from a consumers viewpoint, and that employees job

satisfaction and turnover intentions with regard to his/

her employer. This research could show that the

negative consequences of unethical behaviors on

investors, consumers, and government could be sup-

plemented by further negative consequences with re-

gard to the business employees. Such a finding would

provide additional motivation for businesses to engage

in more ethical behaviors as a means to enhance their

business financial viability.

Related literature

Business ethics are critical factors from a managers

perspective. The critical nature of ethics is not solely

based on the societal implications of ethical behavior,

but ethical concerns are also based on their economic

and business implications. This argument leads to the

conclusion that the ethical behaviors of a business are

critical managerial problems and management should

have a leading role in promoting ethical behaviors

(Chonko et al. 2002; Hunt and Chonko 1987).

Employees, by virtue of their life experiences, may

perceive outcomes in a very individualized fashion.

While these life experiences may include many vari-

ables far outside the purview of this study, two sets of

experiences that may influence how one perceives

these factors might be that persons experiences as a

consumer and as a citizen. These two sets of experiences

548 Charles Pettijohn et al.

may be exemplified by the individuals attitudes as a

consumer and that persons attitudes toward business in

general. The first set of experiences focus on the indi-

viduals beliefs that businesses have as their sole focus

earning profits. Thus, some individuals might perceive

that businesses only care about making profits, that they

make unrealistic claims, sell products that can be

harmful, etc. The second set of experiences relate to

attitudes that may be held regarding the importance of

ethics to firms as they relate to the ability of businesses to

earn profits, retain customers, and maintain a healthy

business environment. Thus, some individuals probably

feel that ethical behavior is important to business, that

good ethics creates good profits, etc. These people

might then perceive that businesses are ethical because it

is the right thing to do. These two perceptions could

subsequently affect how one perceives the ethical

behaviors of his/her employer. If an individual believes,

as a consumer, that businesses do not care about hon-

esty, they only care about making a profit, etc. then it

may be speculated that this individual will transfer these

negative perceptions as a consumer to his/her em-

ployer. Conversely, if individuals feel that businesses

attitudes are essentially positive and that ethical behav-

ior is in fact good business, then those individuals will

probably perceive business through a more positive

prism and thus regard their employers in a more positive

light. According to some researchers, an individuals

general attitudes may lead one to either reject certain

careers due to their perceptions of the roles they will

play (Sales and Marketing Management 2006; Sparkes

and Johlke 1996) or face cognitive dissonance in their

roles, leading to dissatisfaction (McFarland 2003).

These arguments led to the establishment of the first

two research hypotheses, which state:

Hypothesis 1 There will be a significant positive

relationship between a salespersons attitudes as a

consumer and his/her ethical perceptions of the

employer.


relationship between a salespersons attitudes to-

ward general business ethics and that persons

ethical perceptions of their employer.

Job satisfaction is a desirable outcome for most

employers. Job satisfaction has been shown to be

related to organizational commitment, motivation,

performance, effort, and lower levels of turnover

(cf. Babin and Boles 1996; Bashaw and Grant 1994;

Brown and Peterson 1993) in many previous studies.

Dubinsky and Levy (1985) contend that a salespersons

inability to cope with ethical challenges might result in

lower levels of job performance. Other research studies

have shown that the employers ethical climate, as

perceived by it sales force, affects the salespersons level

of job satisfaction (Jaramillo et al. 2006). In addition to

these factors, one could expect that employees who

feel that overall, businesses engage in ethical behaviors

would also have positive feelings of job satisfaction as a

result of working in an environment in which they

have feelings of pride. An argument could be stated

that ones satisfaction could be influenced by the de-

gree to which they feel positive about the business

environment in which they work.

Jones and Kavanaugh (1996) contend that ethical

intentions will be lower when the perceived quality of

the work experience is low. This suggests that a rela-

tionship might exist between the persons job satis-

faction and their perceptions of the ethical behaviors of

the business. Similarly, the individuals attitude toward

his/her employers ethics should have a significant

influence on his/her job satisfaction. Such an argu-

ment would logically contend that if one works for an

employer, which is perceived as unethical, then that

persons job satisfaction levels would likely be low, as

he/she might feel guilty or ashamed to be working for

a firm that has low ethical standards. In support of this

position, Hunt and Chonko (1987) conclude that an

employees ethical problems with his/her employer

negatively affected relationships with co-workers and

performance. These arguments led to the development

of hypotheses 3 and 4, which state:


relationship between a salespersons perceptions of

general business ethics and that persons level of

job satisfaction.



his/her employers ethics and that persons level of

job satisfaction.

In the sales environment, one of the outcomes of

many situations is turnover. Turnover can be costly in

numerous ways. Obviously, when a firm has too few

Salesperson Perceptions of Ethical Behaviors 549

salespeople, the result will be lost sales and customer

dissatisfaction. While opportunity costs and customer

dissatisfaction costs are difficult to measure, the

recruiting and training costs associated with sales force

turnover are quite high. Valentine and Barnett (2003),

suggest that a relationship exists between employee

perceptions of their employers ethical values and their

organizational commitment. They contend that

employees prefer ethical companies for which to work.

Other research has concluded that requiring sales

employees to engage in coercive sales tactics, which the

salesperson may feel are unethical, can lead to lower

performance, poorer health, higher absenteeism, de-

creased job satisfaction, and increased levels of turnover

(McFarland 2003). Correspondingly, it has been argued

that students might reject careers in personal selling,

because they perceive the job to be fraught with ethical

challenges (Sparks and Johlke 1996). Based on this re-

search, one might anticipate that employees will be

more likely to try to leave environments that they

perceive to be unethical. For example, if an employee

feels that businesses are unethical, then it may be argued

that this individual will be likely to voluntarily leave the

organization. Similarly, in situations in which one feels

that his/her employer is unethical, then it may be

anticipated that he/she will intend to leave the unethical

environment his/her employer has fostered. Such a

position is reflected by Levy and Dubinskys (1983)

conclusion that salespeople working in ethically chal-

lenging situations can experience frustration leading to

higher turnover. Research has shown that ethical

incongruities can lead to lower levels of organizational

commitment and higher levels of turnover. This

incongruity generally seems to exist when the em-

ployees levels of ethics exceed the employers. Thus, the

low level of employer ethics, vis a vis the salespersons,

will result in lower levels of organizational commitment

and higher levels of turnover intentions (Mulki et al.

2006; Schwepker 1999; Weeks et al. 2004, 2006).

These findings are supported by Jaramillo et al. (2006)

who conclude that the firms ethical climate has a sig-

nificant impact on salesperson turnover intentions.

Thus, these arguments led to the development of the

final two hypotheses, which state:

Hypothesis 5 There will be a significant inverse


general business ethics and that persons turnover

intentions.

Hypothesis 6 There will be a significant inverse


his/her employers ethics and that persons turn-

over intentions.

Methodology

The research methodology consisted of three steps.

The first step entailed the selection of an appropriate

sample. Salespeople were identified as the sample of

interest for this research because they seem to be the

ones accused of some of the most unethical behavior

(Mantel 2005; Sales and Marketing Management

2005). These accusations might be based on the fact

that by virtue of their positions, they face more

difficult ethical situations. These difficult ethical

situations tend to be magnified by many factors. For

example, salespeople are in boundary spanning roles

which means they are placed in situations in which

job requirements may cause considerable conflict

(Jaramillo et al. 2006) Further, salespeople are often

conflicted between the job pressures in the short-

term versus their long-term desires. Salespeople also

have opportunities to engage in unethical behaviors

by virtue of the environments in which they work.

The sales role itself provides considerable manage-

ment pressures to make sales and profits (Hawes

et al. 2004).

Given the research objectives of assessing the

relationships between a salespersons ethical attitudes

toward his/her employer, businesses in general,

attitudes as a consumer, job satisfaction, and turn-

over intentions, it was determined that too much

sample variability was not desired. For example,

situations facing retail, wholesale, service, and

industrial salespeople might be too disparate to

provide reliable results in an exploratory study such

as this. Thus, one type of salesperson was selected to

comprise the sample, retail salespeople.

Retail salespeople were selected for a variety of

reasons. First, research has found that retail sales-

people receive little formal training and socialization

with regard to ethics (Burns 1999; Dawson 1997;

Dubinsky and Levy 1985). This means that their

attitudes and perceptions regarding business ethics

might be more untainted by training and socializa-

tion, which may exist in other salesperson categories.


These untainted respondents might be more

capable of providing honest answers instead of

responses that are more socially acceptable. Sec-

ond, retail salespeople are significant in number and

are significant participants in the marketing channel.

Third, retail salespeople engage in most of the tra-

ditional selling roles and face many of the ethical

challenges facing all salespeople. Fourth, as Dubinsky

and Levy (1985) point out, retail sales managers

should be particularly concerned with a salespersons

ability to deal with ethical situations because an

inability to properly respond to ethical dilemmas is

likely to result in lower job performance, unhappy

customers and ridicule. Correspondingly, retail

sales expenses consume a significant portion of the

retailers operating expenses and promotional

expenses and are an important factor in the retailers

success (Chonko et al. 1990; Hawes et al. 1993).

Finally, as stated by McIntyre et al. (1999, p. 43)

The ethics of retail practices is an understudied

phenomenon in general.

To maintain as much homogeneity in the sample

as possible, 18 retailers engaged in the sale of

shopping goods were identified as potential study

participants. Each of these retailers was contacted

by one of the principal researchers in the study.

Fourteen of the retailers agreed to participate in the

research; these 14 retailers employed a total of 156

salespeople.

As stated, the objectives of the research were to

uncover the relationships existing between the

salespersons perceptions of general business ethics,

employer ethics, consumer attitudes, job satisfac-

tion, and turnover intentions. The second step of

the process required the development of a research

instrument. Since these dimensions of interest had

been assessed in previous studies, established scales

were sought. The measurement of salesperson

attitudes pertaining to general business ethics was

facilitated by using a scale developed by Sing-

hapakdi et al. (1995). The original version of this

scale consisted of seven questions using a nine-

point Likert-type scale. For the purposes of the

present research, the scale was reduced by two

questions, and was revised to a seven-point scale

that was more consistent with the other scales used

in the research and more common-place in cur-

rent research. The Singhapakdi et al. (1995) scale

was derived from a scale originally developed by

Kraft and Jauch (1992). The scale itself was named

the Good Ethics is Good Business scale and

measures the respondents perception of the rela-

tionship between a business social responsibility

and profitability. High scores on the scale are

indicative of one who believes that ethical

behavior has a positive impact on a business

profitability and long-term viability. In Sing-

hapakdi et al.s (1995) study, the scale had an alpha

coefficient (Cronbach 1960) of 0.72. In this study,

the scales mean value is 30.1 and the alpha

coefficient value is 0.91 (well above the 0.70 level

established by Nunnally 1978).

The second scale used in the study was developed

to evaluate the respondents perceptions of his/her

employers ethics. This scale was also developed by

Singhapakdi et al. (1995). The scale, which was

termed the Corporate Ethical Value scale, was

developed originally by Hunt et al. (1989) with the

intent of measuring the employees perceptions of

his/her managers ethical behavior, the degree to

which managers were concerned about ethical is-

sues, and how such behavior was evaluated in the

organization. Hunt et al.s (1989) version of the scale

used a seven-point Likert-type scale and Singhapakdi

et al. (1995) used a nine-point version. The earlier

version had an alpha coefficient (Cronbach 1960) of

0.78 and Singhapakdis version had an alpha coeffi-

cient of 0.85. The current application of the scale

uses a seven-point Likert-type scale and has a mean

value of 26.2 with an alpha coefficient of 0.79.

The salespersons consumer attitudes were

assessed using the Alienation: Consumer Alienation

from the Marketplace scale (Allison 1978). The

original version of this instrument included 35 items

scored on a seven-point Likert-type scale. The

validity of this scale was assessed by Bearden et al.

(1983) who used 22 of the 35 original scale items. The

alpha coefficient (Cronbach 1960) for the scale was

0.84. The instrument used in this analysis was reduced

to 15 items due to space and time constraints.

However, the scale reductions do not seem damaging

to the scales reliability coefficients, as the alpha

coefficient for this scale is 0.85 and the mean is 52.6.

Job satisfaction was measured by a modified ver-

sion of the Job Satisfaction scale developed by

Wood et al. (1986). This scale assesses satisfaction

from four dimensions and has 14 separate questions.

The past usage of the scale has resulted in an


established reliability, with an alpha coefficient of

0.89 (Cronbach 1960). The current survey uses six

of the questions to assess the four dimensions. In this

study, the scale has an alpha coefficient of 0.89 and a

mean value of 31.4.

The respondents intentions of leaving were used

as a surrogate measure of turnover. This scale was a

four-item scale developed by OReilly et al. (1991).

The results in this study show that the scale has an

alpha coefficient of 0.88 and a mean value of 17.9.

To summarize, the scale names, mean values, and

alpha coefficients are provided in Table I.

Following the development of the survey, the final

step of the research required the collection of the data.

As mentioned previously, 14 retailers employing 156

salespeople agreed to participate. Each of the retailers

agreed to distribute the survey to their salespeople

along with a statement encouraging participation in

the study. Following distribution of the surveys,

participating salespeople returned completed surveys

to the researchers by using response envelopes pro-

vided. This was designed to ensure the respondents

anonymity and to encourage accurate responses. A

total of 124 surveys were returned and of that number

119 were deemed usable. Thus, the effective response

rate is 76%.

Table II provides the demographic characteristics

of the sample. As indicated in the table, a slight

majority of the respondents were male. Approxi-

mately 41% had completed at least a Bachelors

degree and the majority had incomes exceeding

$30,000. In addition, the sample worked an average

of 42 h per week, had over 10 years experience in

sales and were over 36 years of age.

Results

Table III provides the results of the study. Univari-

ate regression was used to test the hypotheses

because it provided the most rigorous test of the

results without allowing collinearity of the variables

to confound the findings. With regard to hypotheses

1 and 2, the findings support both hypotheses. As

shown, attitudes as a consumer are significantly

(p < 0.0001) related to salespersons perceptions of

their employers ethics. Thus, if a salesperson per-

ceives that businesses are providing valuable prod-

ucts, not trying to deceive customers, and etc., then

that salesperson is significantly more likely to hold

positive attitudes toward his/her employer. Con-

versely, if the salesperson feels that businesses make

shoddy products, engage in deceptive practices,

etc. then that salesperson is likely to have signifi-

cantly more negative attitudes toward his/her

employers ethics.

The second hypothesis is also supported, as a

salespersons general attitude regarding business

ethics is significantly related (p < 0.0001) to his/her

attitude toward the employers ethics. This indicates

that if one feels that business ethics, in general, are

poor then this perception carries over to the

TABLE I

Demographic characteristics of respondents

Demographic characteristic Number Percent

Gender

Male 60 53.1%

Female 53 46.9%

Education

Some College 70 58.8%

Bachelors Degree 33 27.7%

Masters Degree 16 13.5%

Income

Less than $30,000 43 36.1%

$30,000$39,999 39 32.8%

$40,000$49,999 11 9.2%

$50,000 or greater 26 21.8%

Mean SD

Age 36.8 11.0

Hours worked per week 42.3 10.2

Sales experience (years) 10.5 8.8

TABLE II

Scale means and alpha coefficients

Scale Mean (SD) a

Ethical attitude toward

business in general

30.1 (6.2) 0.91

Ethical attitude toward

employer

26.2 (6.9) 0.79

Attitude as a consumer 52.6 (12.6) 0.85

Job satisfaction 31.4 (8.5) 0.89

Turnover intentions 17.9 (7.3) 0.88


perception that ones employers ethics must also

be poor.

The findings also indicate support of hypotheses 3

and 4. As shown in the table, the salespersons per-

ceptions of general business ethics are significantly

related (p < 0.0004) to the level of job satisfaction.

Thus, the third hypothesis is supported by the

findings. This indicates that as the salespersons

perceptions of business ethics in general increase,

his/her job satisfaction also increases.

The fourth hypothesis is also supported by the

findings. While each of the R2 values has been rel-

atively strong (i.e., greater than 0.10) for this type of

research, it should be noted that the coefficient of

determination for the univariate equation that eval-

uated the relationship between job satisfaction and

the salespersons perception of his/her employers

ethics is not only significant (p < 0.0001), but the R2

value is 0.35. This indicates that the equation

explains 35% of the variance in ones job satisfaction

level. The results show that if the salesperson per-

ceives his/her employer as being unethical, then that

salespersons job satisfaction will be negatively

affected by this perception.

With regard to hypothesis 5, the findings indicate

that the hypothesis is supported. A significant

(p < 0.01) relationship is found between the sales-

persons perceptions of general business ethics and

his/her turnover intentions. Thus, the results indi-

cate that a positive perception of business ethics in

general will reduce the salespersons intentions of

leaving his/her present position.

The findings with regard to the final hypothesis

are also supported. The results show a strong

significant (p < 0.0001) relationship between the

salespersons perceptions of the employers ethics

and his/her turnover intentions. Again, in this case

the relationship seems very strong, with an R2 of

0.30, thus indicating that 30% of the variance is

explained by the relationship between these two

variables. These findings indicate that in situations in

which the salesperson perceives that his/her

employer is unethical, this perception will strongly

influence the salespersons intentions of leaving his/

her present sales position.

Discussion and managerial implications

Most research tends to indicate that businesses

should behave ethically not just for altruistic reasons,

but because good ethics is good business. Such an

argument seems hard to refute. A business that

maintains a strong ethical climate will discover that it

has to devote fewer resources to advertising and

publicity designed to ameliorate negative press.

Additionally, it could be argued that fewer resources

would be devoted to legal fees, penalties, battling red

tape, etc. This research supplements the widely held

conclusion that good ethics is good business by

showing that business ethics affect the salespersons

job satisfaction levels and turnover intentions. As

businesses devote resources designed to build

employee job satisfaction and to reduce turnover, it

TABLE III

Ethics, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions

Variable

B t-value (p) F-value (p) R2

Employer ethics

Attitudes as a consumer 0.21 4.4 (0.0001) 18.9 (0.0001) 0.14

Attitudes toward business ethics 0.41 4.2 (0.0001) 17.8 (0.0001) 0.13

Job satisfaction


Employer ethics 0.73 8.0 (0.0001) 63.9 (0.0001) 0.35

Turnover intentions


Employer ethics 0.58 7.1 (0.0001) 50.1 (0.0001) 0.30


should be recognized that ethical behaviors affect

both of these factors in their sales forces.

The results imply that one means for a business to

reduce its turnover and build its job satisfaction is to

improve the salespersons ethical perceptions of their

business. This suggests that the employers ethical

behavior significantly affects their sales forces satis-

faction with their jobs and their likelihood of staying

in their positions. Practically, the repercussions of a

firms unethical image are significant. In one con-

siders only turnover, for example, the costs can be as

high as $40,000 for the loss of a productive sales-

person (Roberts et al. 1999). If a firm with a sales

force of 500 salespeople and an average annual

turnover rate of 25% can reduce that rate to 20% as a

result of enhanced ethical perceptions, the firm

could theoretically save $1,000,000 ($40,000 25salespeople). Similarly, Jaramillo et al. (2006) con-

clude that higher job satisfaction leads to greater

commitment, which in turn leads to greater levels in

performance. Thus, a firm that has an enhanced level

of ethical perceptions should logically find that these

perceptions lead to greater performance. Obviously,

higher performance levels translate into greater

profits for the firm.

One implication that may be drawn from this

research is the need for all businesses to recognize

the impact that their behaviors have on the job

satisfaction and turnover intentions of employees.

Based upon the findings, salesperson perceptions of

businesses from the perspective of the salespersons

role as a customer affect that persons attitudes

regarding his/her employers ethics. Correspond-

ingly, the salespersons perceptions of the ethics of all

businesses, in general, influence his/her perceptions

of the employers ethical levels. These findings

indicate that salespeople enter into their sales posi-

tions possessing a biased (positive or negative) pre-

disposition toward their employers ethical levels.

The prisms through which they view ethics as a

consumer and as a citizen influence their perceptions

of their own employers ethics. This implies that

sales employers need to recognize the influences

they might have on their employees ethical per-

ceptions of their own firms. For example, if a par-

ticular business enterprise continually discusses the

negative ethical behaviors of competitors or other

business enterprises, this firm could inadvertently be

causing a decline in its own ethical ratings. On the

other hand, if a sales manager treats the competition

with respect and continues to discuss positive

business behaviors, then the result might be

improved perceptions of their own firms ethics.

One might conclude that sales managers would be

well-advised to promote not only the ethical

behaviors of their own firms but also the ethical

behaviors of most businesses and perhaps capitalism

in general to ensure positive perceptions of their

own firms business ethics. It can be suggested that

training programs be designed to ensure that

employees appreciate and comprehend the ethical

behaviors and social contributions of their employers

and businesses in general. One could even argue that

the firm might use a sales applicants perceptions of

business ethics in general and his/her perceptions as a

consumer as a selection tool. In so doing, the busi-

ness might be able to predict the likelihood of an

applicants feelings that his/her employer is unethi-

cal. An applicant who feels that consumers are

mistreated and that business is unethical in general

might receive additional training or might be more

closely coached by the sales manager.

The finding that ones perceptions of his/her

employers ethics, specifically, and business ethics, in

general, lead to job satisfaction and/or turnover

intentions might have profound implications.

Obviously, the sales manager would want to try and

enhance the ethical image of his/her employer and

businesses in general to build job satisfaction and to

reduce turnover. However, it seems that perhaps the

ideal means of building this type of ethical image

might be to ensure that the firm maintains ethical

behaviors as one of its top priorities. This study

indicates that sales employees who feel that their

employers are unethical are quite likely to experi-

ence both increased job dissatisfaction and increased

intentions of leaving the firm. Neither of these

feelings are positive ones for the firm. As the sales

forces attitudes toward their employers will proba-

bly be translated into their selling efforts and perhaps

their customer relations, if the salesperson feels his/

her employer is unethical, it would seem that the

salesperson would be less willing to encourage pur-

chase of the firms products and might even demean

the firm to his/her customers. While turnover and

job dissatisfaction are negative outcomes, the

potential for additional adverse results should

encourage firms to not only behave ethically, but to


ensure that their sales forces recognize the ethical

behaviors of their businesses.

Limitations and future research

As is often the case with research of this type, this

study has several limitations that should be noted.

First, the sample consists of retail salespeople engaged

in the sale of shopping goods. Therefore, the gen-

eralizability of the results is limited to this type of

salesperson in this particular area. Additionally, the

salespeople were selected based on their managers

willingness to allow participation. Thus, some

responses may have been influenced by the man-

agers encouragement to participate.

In addition, the survey instrument measured

perceptions of potential behaviors, not actual

behaviors. Consequently, the results are limited to

the degree that perceptions match behaviors that

may have actually occurred. Such a linkage is gen-

erally a tenuous one. Further, other behaviors could

have been assessed in the research, including efforts

and actual performance results.

Future research should assess these factors as it

builds on these findings. One area of future research

would involve replicating this research with addi-

tional samples. The research could focus on business-

to-business sales situations. Perhaps future research

could also focus on salespeople who possessed

greater levels of education and/or income. Since

students are important as new sources of salespeople,

their attitudes could also be assessed with regard to

their perceptions of ethics and the effects those

perceptions have on their future behaviors and

attitudes.

Future research might also evaluate a variety of

different outcome variables. For example, future

research could examine the degree to which nega-

tive perceptions of the employers ethics affect the

salespersons efforts for the employer. Other research

might consider the customer-orientation levels of

salespeople who work for employers with different

ethical levels. Finally, one might investigate the

salesperson performance and ethical attitude com-

bination. While one might reasonably suspect a

relationship between the two, an empirical investi-

gation would provide valuable research insight.

Regardless of the direction of future research, this

research provides valuable insights as they relate to

the positive relationship between a business ethical

image and that business economic outputs. The

relationship between a firms profitability, ROI, etc.

has been shown by other research. However, this

research provides additional support for the concept

that good ethics is good business by showing the

relationship between the employees perceptions of

business ethics and the employees job satisfaction

and turnover intentions. In fact, this research extends

the relationship to not only the salespersons

employers ethics, but the ethics of other businesses

and the salespersons perceptions as a consumer. The

findings indicate that all businesses should behave

ethically and should promote their ethical behaviors

as a means of building job satisfaction and reducing

unwanted turnover.

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Charles Pettijohn and Linda Pettijohn

Marketing,

Missouri State University,

901 S. National, Springfield, MO 65897, U.S.A.

E-mail: [email protected]

E-mail: [email protected]

A. J. Taylor

Marketing,

Coastal Carolina University,

P.O. Box 261954, Conway, SC 29528, U.S.A.


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