Managerial Ethics: Managerial ethical behaviors that Colombian employees value the most

Abstract

Managers are key people in the study of business ethics. Research has shown that the ethical behaviour of employees is influenced more by the behaviour of managers than by their gender or position in company. However, in the field of business ethics, little attention appears to have been paid to the study of managerial ethical behaviour in the business world. In an attempt to fill this gap, an empirically based research project in managerial ethics has been undertaken from 1997 to date at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales campus. The objective of the study is to find the ethical behaviours that employees value most in their managers, in order to provide evidence gathered from people with work experience regarding what ethical managers do in business. This paper proposes a taxonomy for managerial ethical behavior which classifies into categories and dimensions, those behaviours that employees value most in their managers and, besides, orders them, according to this valuation.