Ethics of Potential New Retail Employees: Relationships Between Ethical Perceptions and Grades of Future Retail Personnel

Abstract

Retailers use a number of screening mechanisms to determine the suitability of potential new employees. Rarely, however, does the selection process address the ethics of potential employees. This study explores this issue by determining whether retailers can obtain an assessment of potential employees’ ethical perceptions by using information that they are already gathering, namely students’ grades. Although the findings do not suggest that grades can be used to differentiate students in all areas of ethical activity, they do suggest that grades may be used to differentiate between ethical evaluations in some areas, particularly situations that are particularly disturbing to practitioners.