Social Influence on Ethical Behaviors in Organizations

Social influence is inevitable in work situations. In situations dealing with ethical matters, it is of particular importance for organizations to understand and take action to manage potential occurrences of ethical problems. This paper examines the influence of those in the immediate job context of employees and how the manager's and coworkers' ethical behaviors influence an employee's decision to get involved in ethical or unethical conduct. Though research has shown the effect of the social influence of those around an employee, the strength of the social influence is far greater and stronger in a collectivist culture society. Theory of differential association is used to theoretically explain the relationships. In this study, using the data collected from employees in large companies in Busan and Kyungnam province, conducted regression analyses to test the hypotheses. The results showed that the supervisor had a positive effect on the employees but the coworkers did not have the same effect on the employees. From this we can conjecture that with regards to ethical matters, the supervisors have larger influence than one's coworkers, and, therefore, supervisor's ethical behaviors are more important. Empirical examination of the relationship of some of the factors influencing employee's decision to behave ethically or unethically provides understanding for companies in managing potential ethical risk areas. In conclusion, companies can use the results of this study to establish a clear ethics guideline for employees to follow and ethics training programs.