THE EFFECT OF ETHICAL SIGNALS ON RECRUITMENT ...

ehaviors. These ethical signals can affect important organizational variables such as
morale, commitment (especially affective), satisfaction, identification (employees might
not identify as much if the organization is unethical), job performance (drawing on
social equity theory, employees may decrease performance to account for organization’s
unethical actions), deviant workplace behavior, and state-like affect. In addition,
unethical signals can have wide-ranging effects including a loss of customers, vendors,
employees, and top management because they do not want to be identified with an
unethical organization.
Finally, personality is another area ripe for future research. Specifically, there
are facets of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience that may be
related to ethics. First, drawing on the deontological theory of ethics, which stresses
“duty” and “righteousness of behavior,” one aspect of conscientiousness is “dutifulness”
(Goldberg, 1999). This describes someone who follows the rules and tells the truth.
People high in dutifulness may be more influenced by ethical signals than those low in
dutifulness. Second, one facet of agreeableness is “morality” (Goldberg, 1999). People
high in morality also tend to stick to the rules and may follow a deontological view of
ethics. They are likely to be significantly influenced by ethical signals (compared to
individuals low in morality). Turning to the teleological view (i.e., examining
consequences), one facet of openness to experience is liberalism (Goldberg, 1999).
Individuals high in liberalism tend to believe that there is no absolute right and wrong.
These individuals may be more likely to consider relative goodness over badness of each
alternative as opposed to using strict guidelines.
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