Personal business ethics perception: a study of Vietnamese adults

Abstract

As the world of business is becoming more globalized and diverse, business ethics also becomes a complicated and frequently controversial topic. Organizations as well as individuals are fully aware that business ethical issues can have a great influence on the public attitudes toward them, and unethical behaviors and conducts can destroy trust. In turn, ethical leaders and employees can influence positively decisions and behaviors of others, which can lead to organization’s sustainability. Today’s workplace has a high demand for ethical behaviors of all employees. This study examines the personal business ethics perceptions of 964 Vietnamese adults based on age, gender, management experience, and code of conduct by using Clark & Clark's (1966) Personal Business Ethics Scores (PBES) measure. The results demonstrate that there is a significant difference in personal business ethics perceptions on each variable. It appears that younger Vietnamese adults have higher personal business ethics scores than older adults. Vietnamese females scored higher than males. People with management experience have lower scores while those who have not experienced codes of conduct have higher scores than those who have experienced codes of conduct. In this study, literature review on ethics, corruption perception index of Vietnam, limitations, and implications are also provided.