An examination of pro-stakeholder unethical behavior in the sales ethics subculture

Abstract

ABSTRACT The salesperson often faces ethical dilemmas when balancing the competing demands from their organization, manager, coworkers, and customers. At times, salespersons may exhibit pro-stakeholder unethical behavior when they violate rules or policies that benefit these various constituencies. This results in unethical conduct that can become part of the sales ethics subculture. This study investigates ethical influences from the organization, the sales manager, and the sales ethics subculture on pro-stakeholder unethical behavior. Results indicate the sales ethics subculture operates according to the theoretical framework of role-set configurations and differential association. Furthermore, the sales ethics subculture moderates the relationship between sales manager ethical role model behavior and pro-stakeholder unethical behavior, acting as an organizational control on unethical sales manager role model behavior as perceived by salespeople.