Business Ethics - The Perceptional Differences Between Genders, Sectors and Cultures

Business Ethics

Ugur Zel

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Business EthicsThe Perceptional Differences Between Genders, Sectors and Cultures

Ugur Zel

Abstract: Business ethics has not yet taken its place among the "defined" and "clear" concepts in the literature despite thenumerous researches made in the last two decades. Gender and cultural (social) differences can be the two main reasonsof this ambivalence. At the same time, making evaluations using normative concepts and qualitative methods also hardensthe way of understanding the business ethics which is based mostly on philosophy. In the theoretical part of the article, theimportance and some applications of business ethics in the private and public organizations are given by examples. In thesecond part, it is given the results of a research made in private and public sector organizations (7 private, 3 public) inTurkey. These organizations from both sectors are chosen from different functional areas. The number of the sample is 112(68 male, 44 female). The aim of the research is to reveal the perceptional differences of the genders and the sectors onbusiness ethics by using six different "ethical" scenarios which are taken from Leslie Dawson's research article(Dawson1995:61). Also, comparisons made between the two cultural results. Analysing the research findings, some percep-tional differences between the genders, sectors and cultures are found and some evaluations are made.

Keywords: Business Ethics, Perceptions, Gender Differences, Cultural Differences.

Different Approaches To “BusinessEthics”

IN SPITE OF the researches on its definitionand scope especially in the last 20 years, theconcept of “business ethics” is not among the“enlightened” concepts in the literature yet. Al-

most all evaluations made about business ethics arebased on normative concepts and qualitative meth-ods, and this carries an abstract concept to a “philo-sophical” base and makes it more complicated tounderstand. Although there are several reasons forthis, cultural (social) variables and gender differencesmay be counted as the most explicit ones. In otherwords, the perception of “business ethics” changesfrom gender to gender as well as from culture toculture (Schwickert 2005:165, Luthans 1997:17).According to Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

(1998), ethics is “the discipline dealing with what isgood and bad and with moral duty and obligation.Another definition describes ethics as “a set ofstandards used to judge the rightness or wrongnessof a person’s relations to others in terms of truth andjustice” (Mosley and others 1996:158). The literaturethat describes the theories of business ethics isabundant, including deontology, utilitarianism, ego-ism, relativism and justice (Lin 1999:642, Chryssidesand Kaler 1993).Randy Cohen, one of the columnists of the New

York Times, defines the concept of ethics as “findinga rational reason for our actions and struggling to bea good person”. Cohen states that ethics starts when

other people are involved, and by saying that “thisis not the idea but the behavior which is not ethical”,Cohen emphasizes that the concept of ethics has asocial character (Hurriyet Newspaper, 7 December2003).Most people have convictions about what is right

and wrong based on personal experiences, culturalroots, religious beliefs, family background, organiz-ational values, laws and professional norms. Theseare not the best values to make ethical decisions by,not because they are unimportant, but because theyare not universal. In contrast to the idea that there isno “right set of values”, Schwartz (1994) attemptsto establish “core universal moral values” by whichcorporate ‘codes of ethics’ can be ethically construc-ted and evaluated. Schwartz uses three sources forhis research: 1. Companies’ codes of ethics, 2.Global codes of ethics, 3. Business ethics literature.From these he extracts six universal moral values:trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness,caring and citizenship.Although the term “value” is used widely together

with the term “ethics”, these terms are not inter-changeable. Ethics is concerned with how a moralperson should behave, whereas values are the innerjudgments that determine how a person actually be-haves. Values concern ethics when they pertain tobeliefs about what is right and wrong. Most values,however, have nothing to do with ethics. For in-stance, the desire for health and wealth are values,but not ethical values (http://www. josephsoninsti-tute.org).

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE, CULTURE AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT, VOLUME 5, 2005/2006http://www.Management-Journal.com, ISSN 1447-9524 (print), 1447-9575 (online)

© Common Ground, Ugur Zel, All Rights Reserved, Permissions: [email protected]

The Importance of “Ethics”The concept of business ethics is extensively men-tioned as the sub-heading of the field of ethics in theUnited States of America in 1960’s. Then in 1980’s,Code of Ethics”, “Ethics Committees” and “In-Ser-vice Training and ConsultancyUnits on Ethics” wereestablished. Concurrently, “business ethics” wasgiven as an independent course in almost all MSprograms in the Schools of Business Administrationin the United States of America. Many “Ethics Re-search Center”s were established during this period.In Turkey, a course named “Business Ethics” wasfirst included to the curriculum of the BusinessManagement MS program of Bilkent University in1992 and in 2001 Turkish Ethical Values Center(TEDMER) was founded.Ethics is a concept, which has a significant place

on the agenda not only in the private sector but alsoin the public sector too. However, due to the increasein the number of incidents reflected in the public viapress and due to reasons arising from the “structure”of the public sector, it strikes more attention whencompared to private sector. The significance of theconcept of ethics is stressed as follows in the OECDreport translated into Turkish by Turkish Industrial-ists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD):

“The trust in the state distinctly diminishes inmany countries. The citizens lose their confid-ence in the decision makers and this depressionof reliance affects adversely the legitimacy ofthe state and its institutions. Wide range ofscandals such as the incidents considered to bethe “improper action” of the state officials aswell as major corruption incidents and such asthose reflected in the media encourage confid-ence crisis (OECD Report, 2003).

In the OECD Report it is emphasized that in spite ofdifferences between countries there is an adversedevelopment regarding ethics understanding both incultural and political and administrative systems.Several examples verifying this opinion and also thefindings of some developed countries concerning“ethics in the public” can be given (OECD Report,2003):

“In debates in Europe regarding the values,great majority of people think that we aremoving into a “morals crisis”. The said crisisis more of a confidence crisis regarding therepresentation power and legality of the demo-cratic systems than of political authority andthis crisis has serious implications on the publicinstitutions and causes a lack of confidence inthe government and a decrease in the role

models both in ethical and legal fields. (Nor-way)“The prevalent opinion in the public is that

there occurs retrogression”. (United Kingdom)“Concerns about the ethics in the public have

increased acutely in the last few years…” (TheNetherlands)“…There is a broad consensus of opinion on

the fact that the confidence of the people in thefederal government and its institutions has de-creased”. (USA)

Another research project, which has parallel sideswith the findings of the OECD Report, was done byTurkish Ethical Values Center in 12 cities on totally1033 employees. Some of the findings of the researchare as follows (www.tedmer.org):

• The values regarding “business ethics” that arefound important by the employees and that arebelieved by the employers that they recognizesufficiently are: stealing, theft, forgery, swindle,not fulfilling his / her payment liability, not re-specting his/her customer, bribery, unofficialcommission, not refraining from giving / receiv-ing unofficial presents, discriminating againstrace, color, age and similar features.

• The values that the employees request their em-ployers to pay attention are: appreciating his/heremployees, keeping his/her promises, alwaystelling the truth, abiding by the laws, consideringnew ideas, not hiding critical information fromhis/her employee.

It is beyond doubt that the ethical problems facedwith in businesses are various. In a research projectcarried out in 1987 on this issue (Uzkesici 2002:23),more than 80 % of the participants of the question-naire placed the “conflict of interest” and “bribery”in the first order. Another study includes researchabout the circumstances where the non-ethical beha-viors were observed the most. According to thefindings of this study the rating is as follows (Weiss1998:7): State Administration (66%), Sales (51%),Law (40%),Media (38%), Finance (33%),Medicine(21%), Banking (18%), Production (14%). Thesedata display the need for improving the ethics qualityin every field. When the employers were askedwhether importance was attached to business ethicsin their office, only 24.8 % of them answered “yes,definitely” to this question. In order to indicate howthe employers foresee the future in this respect, whenthey are asked if the business ethics is going to gainimportance in Turkey in future, 50.8 % of the em-ployers have given positive response. Nearly the halfof the percentage not included in this particular groupthink that it is a very low probability that businessethics is going to gain importance in Turkey in fu-

INTERNATIONALJOURNALOFKNOWLEDGE,CULTUREANDCHANGEMANAGEMENT,VOLUME5

ture. One of the reasons for such a pessimistic visionis that sanctions against behaviors that violate busi-ness ethics, the steps taken in this respect and confid-ence building initiatives are still strikingly weak inthe current system. Aside from these views, thepresence of several formations such as the SupremeRadio and Television Board, Consumer ProtectionLaw, Competition Council are positive steps takenfor the sake of ethics in our country.

“Business Ethics” Practices In TheOrganizationsBusiness ethics has two basic application areas. Thefirst of these areas is the prevention of the “wrongdo-ings” of the employees. At this point generally, “codeof ethics” is determined and the employers are reques-ted to obey the rules/laws stated in these codes. Asan example to the rules of ethics in public services,ten ethical principles defined by the US FederalGovernment for public officials can be mentioned(Grane and Jones 1991:139):

• First of all, comply with the ultimate rules ofethics.

• Respect and protect the Constitution, laws andregulations

• Work full time for full time payment; strive todo your best when you fulfill and execute yourduties

• Find the most effective solutions for the execu-tion of the duties and employ persons who canperform the duty in the best way.

• Never display unfair attitude for the sake of youror other people’s private interest; never acceptinterests or benefits offered to you or your familywhile carrying out your duty.

• Never make a promise that binds a state institu-tion while performing his / her duty as a publicofficial.

• Never involved in a direct or indirect commercialinteraction with the government.

• Never use secret information that you obtainedduring the execution of your duty for your per-sonal interests.

• Reveal the corruption and irregularities that youwitnessed.

• Recognizing that public service is essential forpublic reliance, always protect and guard theseprinciples.

Turkey’s private sector banking company, Ak-bank, provides another example of a statement ofethical principles. These are the basic ethical prin-ciples governing the relations between the bank ad-ministration, partners, employees and third persons(clients, providers and any kind of persons and

agencies with which the bank is in relation) (www.akbank.com.tr/ yatirimci_iliskileri ):

• Honesty: We are devoted to the principle ofhonesty in our relations with the clients, employ-ees, shareholders and with other banks, institu-tions and agencies in our enterprise and activities.Credibility; being conscious that confidence liesat the root of banking; we provide the clients,shareholders and employees with lucid and expli-cit information and offer thorough service ontime and in parallel with the promises given.

• Objectivity: We do not show prejudice againstthe clients, providers, employees and sharehold-ers due to their gender, opinion and ethnic originsand discriminate against them on no conditionor terms.

• Compliance: We comply with the laws, regula-tions and standards.

• Confidentiality: We do not share any details re-garding any kind of information and action re-garding the shareholders, employees, providersand business partners, primarily the personal in-formation of the clients with any other personsand institutions but for the competent establish-ments authorized by law.

• Transparency: Except for the information in theform of commercial secrets that are not an-nounced to the public yet, we declare to thepublic financial and non-financial informationabout the bank in a timely, correct, complete,understandable, interpretable, and easily access-ible manner.

• Social Liability:We guard social utility, develop-ment of the banking sector and sustaining theconfidence in the banking sector as well as theprestige, interests and profitability of the bankin all activities, practices and investments of thebank, and comply with all arrangements concern-ing environmental, consumer and public health.

Another application area of the business ethicshelps in situations where especially the administrat-ive authorities are indecisive to conclude what isright and what is wrong (Madsen and Shafritz, 1990).Forming ethical rules into a written form is a signi-ficant but an inadequate step. These rules must beadopted by all employees and reflected in their beha-vior and one of the most efficient methods to achievethis is education. According to the results of researchinvolving 747 human resources specialist and carriedout by the Society of HumanResourcesManagementand Ethics Resource Centre in 1997 (www.in-sankaynaklari.com):

• 73 % of the specialists stated that their organiza-tion had issued written standards for ethic values,

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• 61 % of them said that their employees weregiven training about ethical standards and,

• 31 % stated that they had ethics specialists.

As seen in the findings of this research the numberof organizations where business ethics is not evenon the agenda is much more than expected. It wouldnot be a pessimistic approach to estimate that thisfigure might be even lower in the public sector.It is primarily the director’s mission to ensure the

embracing of “business ethics” as the integral partof “organizational culture” in all organizations bothin public and also in the private sector. In general,there is a common mistake that the employees dis-play behaviors against the concept of ethics. How-ever, the responsibilities of the directors regardingethics are greater than the employees. Since the dir-ectors represent the organizations they direct, theyhave to set their employees a good example. Theleaders, first of all, must have certain values basedon knowledge, education and experience. They haveto explain these values to their employees and, ifnecessary, try to convince them. The managers cannot be expected to think in the same way with theiremployees on every issue but the managers shouldsay and do what they believe in. It may not alwaysbe easy and even the employees may not like it. Forthat reason ethical behavior requires a considerablemoral stamina and courage.As stated by Tom Morris in his book titled “If

Aristotle Ran General Motors”, contrary to thecommon belief, business ethics is not a concept re-lated with constraints and limitations (Morris 1997).According to Morris, human experience consists of4 dimensions: 1. Intellectual dimension 2. Estheticaldimension. 3. Moral dimension 4. Spiritual dimen-sion. There are many definitions of “business ethics”which is the sub title of moral dimension. This is themost common definition used for business ethics:All rules, standards and principles that define thebehavior perceived as “right” in different cultures,if applied in certain cultures (Gatewood 1991:667,Ciulla 1991:67). It is possible to say that the percent-age of possibility of the common adoption of theserules, standard and principles for the cultures is verylow as equally as for the male and female managers.Several researches put forward that there are differ-ences in the perception of the “business ethics” bythe male and female managers (Rest 1993, Dawson

1995:61, White 1999:459, Ford and Richardson1994:205).In the scope of the comprehensive research by

Evans, three differences between genders wereidentified by the questionnaire circulated among 654male and female managers in the best 500 firms es-tablished by Fortune Magazine (Evans 1991:125):

• While nearly the half of male managers (44%)defines business ethics as “self-centered”, thepercentage of female managers is only 1 %.Whereas 45 % of female managers definedbusiness ethics as “society-centered” and thepercentage of the male managers on this subjectwas 7 %.

• While 10% of the male managers in the mediumand low level positions believe that “rules andvalues” define business ethics, this percentagefell 1 % for the high level male managers.

• While the 4 % of high-level male managers be-lieve that business ethics can be defined on a“case-by-case basis”, this percentage was 1 %for the medium and low-level male managers.

An Application to Reveal the ReactionalDifferences Between Sectors andGendersIn this section the findings of the research on theperceptional differences in ethics on the basis ofsectors and genders are discussed. In this project sixscenarios were sent either in written or via e-mail tothe persons in the sample and they were requestedto answer the questions asked. The data collectedwere analyzed and their frequency breakdown wasestablished based on the genders and sectors. Thebreakdown of the sample chosen for the research inthe scope of this article according to sectors andgenders is given at Table 1. The scenarios identifyingthe subject of this research are taken from the articleof Leslie Dawson (Dawson 1995:61) which is circu-lated among 88 company employees (48 male, 40female) in 1995. Dawson’s sample represented anage range of 26 to 62 and experience levels from 2to 36 years. Taking into consideration the answersof the questions asked to female and male managersbased on 6 different scenarios in Dawson’s research,difference of opinions on “business ethics” are ex-amined.

Table-1: The Breakdown of the Sample According to Genders and Sectors

TOTALPUBLICPRIVATESECTORSECTORSECTORGENDER

684226MALE442717FEMALE1126943TOTAL


Totally three different institutions in the public sectorand seven different enterprises in the private sectorwere chosen as the application area. In the selectionof the organizations and enterprises, the activity areaswere taken into account and therefore they were se-lected from different fields. The sample representedan age range of 28 to 47 and experience levels from3 years to 23 years. The respondents’ managerialpositions were not taken into consideration.In this research, the subject is additionally ana-

lyzed with regard to sectoral differences and thesimilarities/differences are compared with the find-ings of Dawson’s research findings.

Scenarios and FindingsSix different scenarios in the research, the answersgiven to each scenario by the respondents in thesample and assessments made with regard to gender,sector and culture are as follows:Scenario 1:You work as a sales person in Omega computer

firm. ABC computer firm is your biggest competitor.You met in a business meeting. You notice that thereare next year’s marketing plans in the file in front ofthe marketingmanager of the competitor firm.Whenthe marketing manager leaves the meeting room fora while you become aware that he has left the file onthe table. Learning next year’s plans of the opponentfirmwould provide youwith very important benefits.Do you copy the file until the marketing managerreturns?

Table-2: The Rate of Responses of the Sample According to Scenario-1

AVERAGESECTORGENDER (%)PUBLIC

PRIVATE (%)FEMALEMALE

(%)(%)(%)46 (% 41)17 (% 25)29 (% 67)11 (% 25)35 (% 51)I COPY6 (% 5)5 (% 7)1 (% 2)2 (% 5)4 (% 6)I DO NOT COPY60 (% 54)47 (% 68)13 (% 31)31 (% 70)29 (% 43)UNSURE112 (% 100)69 (% 100)43 (% 100)44 (% 100)68 (% 100)TOTAL

In scenario-1, perceptional differences can be easilyseen between sectors and genders. Private sectoremployees show a “prominent” reaction with the rateof 67%while public sector employees stay “unsure”with the rate of 68 %. These findings can be recon-ciled with the “merciless competency” environmentin private sector. Looking at the rates of the whole

sample, we see that almost half of the employeesresponded to the question as “yes, I copy”. The ratioof this response is very close to the Dawson’s re-search findings (Table-3). But, opposite response(no, I do not copy) to this question is significantlydifferent when comparedwith the Dawson’s researchfindings (33 % - 6 %).

Table-3: Dawson’s Research Findings According to Scenario-1

AVARAGE (%)GENDERFEMALE (%)MALE (%)

% 60% 57% 63I COPY% 33% 34% 32I DO NOT COPY% 7% 9% 5UNSURE% 100% 100% 100TOTAL

Scenario 2:You are the salesperson of a firm manufacturing

medical supply and you sell prosthesis limbs.Sometimes doctors request your help about theprosthesis materials during the surgical operations.You are requested to attend an operation for the in-firmity on the kneecap of a professional athlete. The

prosthesis you currently sell will be fitted to theathlete instead of his kneecap. However you knowthat the competitor firm manufactures a more ad-vanced prosthesis than the one you sell. Do you in-form the surgeon of the presence of this prosthesiswhich you consider to be more suitable for the ath-lete?

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AVERAGESECTORGENDER (%)PUBLIC

PRIVATE (%)FEMALEMALE

(%)(%)(%)79 (% 71)56 (% 81)23 (% 54)37 (% 84)42 (% 62)I INFORM

6 (% 5)5 (% 7)1 (% 2)1 (% 2)5 (% 8)I DO NOT IN-FORM

27 (% 24)8 (% 12)19 (% 44)6 (% 14)21 (% 30)UNSURE112 (% 100)69 (% 100)43 (% 100)44 (% 100)68 (% 100)TOTAL

In scenario-2, similar reactions can be easily seenbetween sectors and genders (79 %). The emotionalcharacteristic of this scenario may be the cause ofthis high ratio. Also, the sample’s responses revealthe gender differences. The ratio of “unsure” employ-ees is higher in both private sector employees and

male respondents when compared with the publicsector employees and female respondents. This issimilar with the Dawson’s research findings (Table-5). To the contrary, the important difference betweenthe two researches’ findings is the ratio of male re-spondents who say “I do not inform” (8 % - 42 %).



% 67% 80% 54I INFORM% 27% 12% 42I DO NOT INFORM% 6% 8% 4UNSURE% 100% 100% 100TOTAL

Scenario 3:You are the owner of a toy store. A toy named

“Peter Panda” manufactured for Christmas is themost popular toy that you sell it in scarce supply.You have managed to obtain only 12 of them. Youreserved these toys for a customer who ordered in

advance by paying the deposit and you do not haveany to sell.A lady enters the store and tells that her 6 year-

old-girl is ill and wants “Peter Panda” toy. Wouldyou break your promise to a previous customer andsell the toy to this lady?


AVERAGESECTORGENDER (%)

PUBLICPRIVATEFEMALEMALE(%)(%)(%)(%)

45 (% 40)23 (% 33)22 (% 51)18 (% 41)27 (% 40)I SELL5 (% 5)1 (% 1)4 (% 9)3 (% 7)2 (% 3)I DO NOT SELL62 (% 56)45 (% 66)17 (% 40)23 (% 52)39 (% 57)UNSURE112 (% 100)69 (% 100)43 (% 100)44 (% 100)68 (% 100)TOTAL

In scenario-3, while no difference between the find-ings of male and female employees is found, thereis a significant difference between the public andprivate sectors. Almost half of private sector employ-ees responded as “yes, I sell” while 40 % stays “un-sure”. Although the scenario carries an emotionaldilemma inside, female employees’ responses arevery close to the males’. This can be seen as a con-

tradiction to the comment made about females’emotional reactions for the other scenarios. But,Dawson’s research findings support this commentsthat twice as many female employees as male em-ployees responded as “yes, I sell”. On the contrary,the opposite reaction (no, I don’t sell) when com-pared with the Turkish female employees is fourtimes less than Dawson’s research finding of female


respondents. When we look at the males’ side, thedifference is more significant between the two re-search findings (Table-7). These differences betweenthe findings of the two cultures may be resulted from

the high ratio of “unsure” respondents (62 %) in theTurkish culture. As the correct ethical choice in thisscenario very arguable, most of the respondentschoose the “easy way” to solve the problem.



% 42.5% 57% 28I SELL% 47% 28% 66I DO NOT SELL% 10.5% 15% 6UNSURE% 100% 100% 100TOTAL

Scenario 4:You are a salesperson in a finance firm dealing

with retirement and group health insurance. You areabout to conclude an agreement with the financemanager of a major firm on a million-dollar-project.But you have two other competitors who pursue thisproject and who are also in close contact with thesame finance manager. You are on intimate termswith the finance manager and sometimes lunch out

together. One day he/she told you that he was under-going treatment due to manic-depressive diagnosis.He/she poured out his/her grief to you. Then you re-membered your firm’s psychologist who was an ex-pert in these matters. You consider consulting yourfirm’s psychologist on how to behave towards amanic-depressive patient and exploit his/her illnessfor your own advantage and to influence him/her.Dou you consult your firm’s psychologist?


AVERAGESECTORGENDER (%)PUBLICPRIVATEFEMALEMALE(%)(%)(%)(%)

39 (% 35)13 (% 19)26 (% 61)10 (% 23)29 (% 54)I CONSULT

44 (% 39)31 (% 44)13 (% 30)27 (% 61)17 (% 6)I DO NOT CON-SULT

29 (% 26)25 (% 37)4 (% 9)7 (% 16)22 (% 40)UNSURE112 (% 100)69 (% 100)43 (% 100)44 (% 100)68 (% 100)TOTAL

In scenario-4, perceptional differences can be easilyseen between sectors and genders. Private sectoremployees show a “prominent” (61 %) and “oppos-ite” reaction when compared with the public sectoremployees. The same situation is true for the genderstoo. Female employees show a “prominent” (61 %)and “opposite” reaction when compared with themale employees. These findings are very similar with

Dawson’s research findings (Table-9). In both cul-tures, female and male respondents stay in oppositedirections. The most prominent difference betweenmale and female respondents is found in this scen-ario. The cause of this significant difference may bethe “emotional” characteristic of this scenario, whichis positively related with the female employees’perceptions.



% 58% 32% 84I CONSULT% 37% 62% 12I DO NOT CONSULT% 5% 6% 4UNSURE% 100% 100% 100TOTAL

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Scenario 5:You are the salesperson of a firm manufacturing

sports goods. You are about to get in touch with achain store selling sports goods. The purchasingagent of the firm tells you that he/she may sign theagreement with you in return for a new golf set which

costs $ 800. You know the instruction of your firmabout the $ 50 maximum limit for the gifts to begiven to the clients. You guess that your superiorwill not accept such a proposal but you know thatthis connection is highly important for your career.Would you give this gift anyway?



55 (% 49)24 (% 34)31 (% 72)21 (% 48)34 (% 50)I GIVE13 (% 5)8 (% 12)5 (% 12)8 (% 18)5 (% 7)I DO NOT GIVE44 (% 46)37 (% 54)7 (% 16)15 (% 34)29 (% 43)UNSURE112 (% 100)69 (% 100)43 (% 100)44 (% 100)68 (% 100)TOTAL

In scenario-5, perceptional differences can be easilyseen between sectors while male and female employ-ees show similar reactions. Half of both male andfemale employees’ responses are found as “yes, Igive”. Private sector employees show a “prominent”reaction with the rate of 72 % while public sectoremployees stay “unsure” with a high rate of 54 %.There is a similar situation in Dawson’s researchfindings of male responses while female responsesare different (Table-11). This difference is the mostprominent difference between the two cultures. The

rate of female respondents whose response is “yes,I give” in Turkish culture is four times more whencompared with the Dawson’s research findings (48% - 12%). This big difference can also be seen whenwe look at the total results. 55 % of the total ofTurkish sample responded as “yes, I give”, while 58% of the Dawson’s research sample responded as“no, I do not give”. In regard of the total sample’sfindings, the most significant difference between thetwo cultures is established in this scenario.



% 33% 12% 54I GIVE% 57.5% 78% 37I DO NOT GIVE% 9.5% 10% 9UNSURE% 100% 100% 100TOTAL

Scenario 6:You are the sales manager of an office supplies

firm. Three candidates applied for only one vacantsales position. The hands and face of the best candid-ate among the others as of his / her experience andtraining was exposed to fire when saving a person

in a traffic accident. Therefore you think that thecustomers may be disturbed by his/her appearanceand also he/shemay have difficulty in carrying heavydemonstration material. Do you hire this person asa sales person?




23 (% 21)15 (% 22)8 (% 19)7 (% 16)16 (% 24)I HIRE12 (% 11)8 (% 12)4 (% 9)7 (% 16)5 (% 7)I DO NOT HIRE77 (% 68)46 (% 66)31 (% 72)30 (% 68)47 (% 69)UNSURE112 (% 100)69 (% 100)43 (% 100)44 (% 100)68 (% 100)TOTAL

Scenario-6 differs from the other scenarios with thehighest ratios of “unsure” respondents. The reasonthat pushes respondents to be “unsure” may be thedifficulty of choosing a humanistic solution to theincident. That’s whymost of the respondents choosethe easiest way to answer. There is not a significantdifference between genders and sectors. On thecontrary, this is not true for the Dawson’s researchfindings (Tablo-13). In the Dawson’s research, the

ratio of the “unsure” respondents is low and the ratioof the employees who responded as “no, I do nothire” is 4 times higher in comparison with the Turk-ish research findings. This can be related with theTurkish employees’ personality characteristics,“caring” and “affiliative”, which are found as “emin-ent” in a research made to reveal the personalitycharacteristics of Turkish employees (Zel 2002).



% 37% 41% 33I HIRE% 53.5% 48% 59I DO NOT HIRE% 9.5% 11% 8UNSURE% 100% 100% 100TOTAL

Discussion and ConclusionThis research indicates that there are various percep-tions of ethics among private and public sectors,genders and cultures and thus there are unlike reac-tions as a result of these perceptions. The moststriking one of these perceptions is the differenceamong genders. Gender differences in the businessarena have been examined from different point ofviews especially during the last two decades. Thereare a number of research findings (Stedham 2004,Loo 2003, Zel 2002) determine that women, due totheir structural features (women are more caring,focused on doing well, and place greater emphasison harmonious interpersonal relations etc.) showdifferent behavioral reactions compared to men inthe organizational processes.From the gender point of view there is an interest-

ing approach (Schwickert 2005) to ethics which ar-gues about “feminist ethics” and “masculine ethics”.She points out that, the judgments of women are

predominantly oriented toward the value of care andthe judgments of men predominantly toward thevalue of justice. She also refers to Kohlberg’s ideasthat he denies neither the actual existence of a con-ventional “men’s morality (stereotypes: sportingfairness, business success, sense of honor) or wo-men’s morality (stereotypes: helpfulness, self-sacri-fice, sexual abstinence)” nor the truth of theories thatexplain the genesis of gendered morality.In our research, statistically, there are significant

differences at four of the six scenarios (1st, 4th, 5th,6th) in the decisions rendered by the two sexes inidentical situations. This result strongly supports thecontention of gender socialization theory that menand women bring different ethical standards andvalues to the work environment. Similar conclusionswere also drawn in Dawson’s research on this aspect.The perceptional differences between male and fe-male managers are established as in the following(Dawson 1995:61):

UGUR ZEL

These differences are confirmed by numerous re-searches (Stedham and others: 2004, Glover andothers: 2002, Lane: 1995,Whipple and Swords:1992,Betz and others: 1989). In general we can say thatfemale managers behavemore concordantly with therules of the organization. However while doing allthese evaluations, it should not be forgotten thatcultural influencesmay change all these assessments.The perceptions about business ethics vary signi-

ficantly also from culture to culture. The findings ofresearch done in western and eastern cultures arguethat this difference arises out of being “self-centered”and “society-centered”. It is observed that the em-ployees of the western cultures are generally “self-centered” and used their sentiments in the secondplace in their ethical reactions. When the findings ofthis research and those of Dawson’s are compared,especially in the 3rd, 5th and 6th scenarios, Dawson’sfindings signify that reactions “far from sentiments”are given.In a cross-cultural study covering four different

counties; Australia, USA, Israel and Taiwan, it isfound that ethical perceptions may change signific-antly from culture to culture. Also, ethical values ofthe samples chosen from USA and Australia arefound more similar while they differ from those ofIsrael’s and Taiwan’s (Linn 1999:653).The differences between public and private sectors

decrease rapidly in recent years due to drasticallyincreasing cooperation activities and reforms in thepublic sector. Apart from this decrease, the differencein the understating of business ethics by the employ-ees of both sectors is at a significant level. Especiallythe findings of the 2nd, 4th and 5th scenarios revealthis diversity. It is assessed that because the employ-ees of the public sector work in a different atmo-sphere than that of the employees in the private sectorand due to “sanction limitations” imposed on non-ethical behaviors in the public sector, public sectoremployees have a higher tendency tomark the optionwhich is more appropriate to the social norms or re-main “unsure” when answering the scenarios.Another difference between the private and public

sectors that can be the cause of different reactions

on ethics can be “profit making”. As the public sectordoesn’t work for profit, the employees from thissector may react on behalf of “public norms or in-terests” without the risk of “being dismissed”. Thisis not the “easy way” for the private sector employeesas they have to react in the way the company shows.As a conclusion; Business ethics is an issue which

concerns all individuals, including the managers andemployees, without making any discrimination, andwhich must be on the agenda of the organizations.Management is a process which has to be realizedto ensure that the “right things” must be done andthe “things must be done right”. However, the diffi-culty of keeping the business ethics at a perfect levelmust be admitted. Achieving a balance between theactors of the organization having different expecta-tions and forming, assessing and developing an ef-fective ethics program require enterprise’s nonstopeffort. Additionally, the changes in the expectationsof these actors necessitate permanent pursuit of theseexpectations. Therefore, defining the code of ethicsin organizations calls for a systematic, conscious andconstant effort.

Limitations of this ResearchIn interpreting the results of this research study,certain limitations need to be considered. First, theresearch findings of Dawson’s article belong to 1995.So, during this time period the way attitudes to eth-ical choices as manifested in the six scenarios mayhave changed. Second, total sample for both re-searches are enough to draw some conclusions butsectoral and gender samples is rather small. Third,the results are not easily generalized. The sample ofthe research may not be representative of the popula-tion overall. Fourth, the questionnaire was in Englishwhich was not the respondents’ first language.These limitations not withstanding, the results of

this study contribute to the ethics literature by enhan-cing our understanding of sectoral, cultural andgender differences in ethical analysis. Future researchmade in other Eastern and European cultures andthat coversmore sectors will allowmore comparisons


to be made and this will extend the conclusions of this paper.

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University/Italy, May, 2002.http://www.akbank.com.tr/yatirimci_iliskilerihttp://www.insankaynaklari.com/CN/ContentBody.asp?BodyID=23http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/MED/MED-1makingsense.htmhttp://www.tedmer.org.tr/genel/documents/arastirma1_tr.ppt

About the AuthorDr. Ugur ZelEducation: 1988-Turkish Military Academy (Management) 1994- Gazi University (MBA) 1999-HacettepeUniversity (PhD-Management) 1998-1999-Cranfield University/UK (PhD Research Scholarship)Work Exper-ience: 1988- 1992 Commandership in different ArmyUnits 1992-2003 Lecturer in the TurkishMilitary Academy

UGUR ZEL

(Given different lectures onmanagement) 2003- 2006 Project Officer at The Turkish General Staff HQs PersonnelDepartment (Project leader of Personnel Evaluation System Project) The Author or Co-author of 5 books andmore than 20 articles are published at National and International Journals.


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Business Ethics - The Perceptional Differences Between Genders, Sectors and Cultures

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