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Moral Intensity, Issue Characteristics, and Ethical Issue Recognition in Sales Situations

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Abstract

Researchers have considered individual and organizational factors of ethical decision making. However, they have little interest in situational factors (McClaren, Journal of Business Ethics 112(1):101–125, 2013) which is surprising given the many situations sales persons face. We address this issue using two pilot qualitative studies successively and a 2 by 2 within-subject experiment with sales scenarios. Qualitative and quantitative data are obtained from front-line employees of the main French retail banks that serve low-income customers. We show that the recognition of an ethical issue differs depending on the role behavior salespersons are engaged in and the nature of the conflict of interest they face. Moreover, the combined effect of these two situational characteristics is mediated by moral intensity. This study not only adds evidence on situational factors affecting ethical decision but also extends empirical research on sales ethics by revealing sales situations that are not considered in the empirical literature. The research implications of the findings are discussed along with the study’s limitations and suggestions for future research.

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Notes

  1. Source the website of the Ministry of Economic and Financial Affaires: https://www.economie.gouv.fr/installation-de-l-observatoire-de-linclusion-bancaire.

  2. Following Poujol et al. (2016), we use the term “bank salesperson” rather than “bank front-line employee,” although both are equivalent in the French context.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Paris Est, IRG, Institut de Recherche en Gestion, 5 bd Descartes, Cité Descartes, Champs-sur-Marne, 77454, Marne-la-Vallée cedex 2, France

    Evelyne Rousselet, Bérangère Brial & Amina Béji-Bécheur

  2. IÉSEG School of Management (LEM-CNRS UMR 9221), 1 Parvis de La Défense, 92044, Paris La Défense, France

    Romain Cadario

Authors
  1. Evelyne Rousselet
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  2. Bérangère Brial
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  4. Amina Béji-Bécheur
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Correspondence to Evelyne Rousselet.

Appendices

Appendix A: Qualitative Research Methodology

Research Design

Our qualitative study combines both individual and group interviews with grounded-theory building. The individual interviews mainly focus on bank salespersons’ interactions with low-income customers and related situations. This type of interview is appropriate for exploring a theme for which there have been few empirical studies. We use focus group interviews to explore role behavior and conflict of interest because these are sensitive issues. The focus group method allows participants to feel more comfortable than they would in individual interviews because the questions are not specifically directed to a single person (Carey 1994). This general scheme does not accurately reflect the comprehensive goals and uses of individual and group interviews; these are detailed in the following Table 7.

Table 7 Goals of the study, data obtained, and use of the data from the individual and group interviews
Full size table

Data Collection

Individual Interviews

Twenty-one face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted by the authors. All the participants were front-line employees of retail banks who were in direct contact with low-income customers. The participants were chosen to maximize structural variation (Glaser and Strauss 1967). We aimed to collect data from employees who represent the diversity of salespersons who work in French retail banks and their various positions within branches, which include the following: receptionists, customer advisors, and branch managers. In their positions, the participants meet low-income customers when they have too many incidents of non-payment or have credit problems. Data collection continued until redundancy was reached, implying theoretical saturation (Glaser and Strauss 1967). The respondents were 24–50 years old, with an average age of 34 years. Nine participants were male and 12 were female. At the beginning of the study, the participants were asked general questions about their bank, their professional careers, and their present position. Then, the interview guide reviewed the following topics: (1) the major missions and goals the interviewee had regarding low-income customers; (2) the day-to-day relationships with low-income customers; (3) the perceptions of these customers and their banking needs and attitudes; and (4) the products and services the bank provides to these customers. The interviews were conducted by two of the four authors of this study.

Group Interviews

Data were collected by means of two group interviews; there were four retail banking apprentices in each group. Apprentices are part-time employees. All of the participants have been in direct contact with low-income customers from 12 to 24 months in the main French retail banks. They can be considered as junior employees and have an average age of 22 years.

One of the authors conducted the interviews for both groups following the same semi-structured framework. The session began by asking the apprentices to describe their relationships with low-income customers and the various circumstances in which they serve those customers. Then, the interviewer presented one of the situations mentioned in the individual interviews. The participants were asked which behavior their colleagues would adopt and the nature of these behaviors, referring to in-role behavior and extra-role behavior. They were also asked to reflect on the possible interpretation of the situation as a conflict of interest and to clarify which parties were in conflict. This pattern was used for each of the six situations identified in the individual interviews. The interviewer did not note domination by anyone who could have biased the discussion.

Both the individual and focus group interviews were audiotaped, with the consent of the participants, and fully transcribed.

Data Analysis

The data analysis was conducted separately by two of the four authors following a manual procedure.

Step 1: Coding Individual Interviews

The analysis focused on two subjects: the low-income customer-related situations bank salespersons face and the perceptions they have of their goals and tasks.

The situations were defined as circumstances involving both a bank salesperson and a low-income customer regardless of who was at the origin of the interaction. While reading the selected data, the coders created a separate list of situations and reread them to complete the list. In addition, they noted a careful description of the situations, the parties directly or indirectly involved and the behavior of the interviewees. Second, the authors had a discussion about the situations. Third, they read the selected data again, combined some of the situations to reduce their number, and assessed whether the situations recurred in all the interviews. Finally, they discussed the results and produced a list of the situations, their descriptive details, and the various behaviors the bank salespersons adopted.

Regarding the perceptions bank sales persons have of their role and tasks, the coders created a list of the tasks each bank salespersons mentioned when they described their job during the personal interviews. They compared this list from on interviewee to one another. They isolated any comment regarding the representation interviewees had of their role and tasks. This material was used to triangulate data from focus group interviews.

Focus Groups Interviews

Data were examined by two of the four authors and analysed using the following research questions as a template: Were the situations interpreted by interviewees as a conflict of interest? When this was the case, which parties had conflicting interests? Finally, were the behaviors exhibited during these situations viewed as either in-role or extra-role behaviors? What were the reasons for these perceptions? The authors paid attention to both manifest and latent content (Bergh 2004).

Appendix B

Scales, items, and reliability for moral intensity* by experimental condition

 

MAN

SAL

HEL

OVE

Magnitude of consequence** (MC)

 The negative consequences (if any) of the decision will be very serious (R)

 The overall harm (if any) as a result of the decision will be very small

0.58

0.72

0.58

0.67

Probability of effect** (PE)

 There is a very small likelihood that the decision will actually cause any harm

 The decision is likely to cause harm (R)

0.33

0.72

0.59

0.68

Temporal immediacy** (TI)

 The decision will not cause any harm in the immediate future

 The negative effects (if any) of the decision will be felt very quickly (R)

0.47

0.68

0.51

0.50

Moral intensity*** (MI* = MC + PE + TI)

0.74

0.86

0.74

0.78

  1. *Captured by the three dimensions of the probable magnitude of the consequences
  2. **Two items: Spearman–Brown statistic
  3. ***More than two items: Cronbach’s alpha

Appendix C

Scales, items, and reliability for control variables

 

Cronbach’s alpha

Ethical predispositions: Formalism (Brady and Wheeler 1996)

 Trustworthy

 Honest

 Good-intentioned

0.73

Ethical predispositions: Utilitarism (Brady and Wheeler 1996)

 Influential

 Result-oriented

 Ambitious

0.57

Ethical climate: procedures within the company (Lavorata 2007)

 The general management of your company has made it clear that non-ethical behavior will not be tolerated

 Salespersons acting unethically in the company’s interest are sanctioned

 Salespersons acting unethically in their own interest are sanctioned

0.86

Ethical climate: ethical peer behaviors (Lavorata 2007)

 In your company, customers are sometimes encouraged to buy products they do not really need

 In your company, sales personnel are primarily evaluated on their results rather than on the quality of their work

 In your company, sales competitions push salespeople to sell products that are not always suited to their customers’ needs

0.72

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Rousselet, E., Brial, B., Cadario, R. et al. Moral Intensity, Issue Characteristics, and Ethical Issue Recognition in Sales Situations. J Bus Ethics 163, 347–363 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4020-1

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