Proceedings

in Germany where over 89 per cent of responses were between 1 and 3 where 1
= totally agree and 5 = not at all agreement.
Cambra-Fierro, Polo-Redondo and Wilson (2008) also consider that the extent
of corporate values influence on personal value system go beyond the mere
working environment, but having an impact on employees’ global values system
outside of the work environment. In particular, this is evident in the buying
behaviour practices in relation to supplier loyalty and environmental concern.
We find this statement to be poorly argued because it analyse only two
corporate values, i.e. buying behaviour practices in relation to supplier loyalty
and environmental concern. The analysis takes into account too few values for
drawing such a conclusion on employees’ conduct outside the work
environment. Also, the two values contain from the beginning an intrinsic
essence of ‘desirable behaviour’ in the community, regardless the fact they were
stated by the company. Who does not want to be perceived as an
environmentalist?
(b) The person influences the corporate value system
In day-by-day activities, at the confrontation of the personal value system with
the corporate value system, the former can bear a decisive weight in making
decisions. It has been suggested that a lot of managers act in their own interest,
by so-called ‘psychological selfishness’ that is to say, that they are trying to
align their company’s behaviour towards a value system similar to their own.
This will enable them to feel good as they will not have to face a contradiction
between their personal values and their work behaviour (Hemingway and
Maclagan, 2004).
The fact that the personal and corporate values do not always match can relate
to the level of power an individual has in the workplace. As those with power
may be able to bring the organisation’s behaviour nearer to their own individual
value system and those with less power have to put up with the imposed values
(Vitell and Ramos-Hidalgo, 2006). In addition other authors (Hemingway and
MacIagan, 2004) have established that a society’s group of values and its
culture also affect an organisation’s corporate values which clearly suggest that
there is interaction between individual values, social values and corporate
values.
5. SAMPLE SELECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS
The empirical contribution of this paper to the existing literature aims to offer a
representative image of the values system of the European companies, determined in
accordance to a specific methodology which consists of a hierarchical aggregation of
every individual corporate value found mostly in the corporate codes of ethics or
conduct published on the companies’ website. Thus, our research question is: “What
is the corporate ethical framework that guides the European companies in day-by-day
activities?”
In order to achieve this, we need to select a sample of companies that is representative
for Europe, thus we took into account two selection criteria: the activity sector and the
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