Journal of
Marketing Development and Competitiveness
Scholar Gateway
Abstracts prior to volume 5(1) have been archived!Issue 5(1), October 2010 -- Paper AbstractsGirard (p. 9-22)Cooper (p. 23-32)Kunz-Osborne (p. 33-41)Coulmas-Law (p.42-46)Stasio (p. 47-56)Albert-Valette-Florence (p.57-63)Zhang-Rauch (p. 64-70)Alam-Yasin (p. 71-78)Mattare-Monahan-Shah (p. 79-94)Nonis-Hudson-Hunt (p. 95-106) 
JOURNAL OF LEADERSHIP, ACCOUNTABILITY AND ETHICS
Ethical Perception from Students’ Perspective: Understanding Instructors’
Effect on Students’ Ethical Sensitivity in Personal Selling
Author(s): Emrah Cengiz, Selim Yazici, Murat Erdal
Citation: Emrah Cengiz, Selim Yazici, Murat Erdal, (2010) "Ethical Perception from Students’ Perspective: Understanding Instructors’ Effect on Students’ Ethical Sensitivity in Personal Selling," Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, Vol. 8, Iss. 2, pp. 41 - 50
Article Type: Research paper
Publisher: North American Business Press
Abstract:
Today business ethics is one of the most popular area subject for research and discussion. Press reflects
a widespread interest in business ethics and academicians are reporting more concern for ethical
standards in every business function today than in the past. Among those functions, sales and marketing
are the most frequent targets for criticism. Ferrell and Gresham (1985) explained this situation due to
their “boundary spanning role” for the organization. The interest in improving ethics can be seen across
all business functions, because all are vulnerable to charges of unethical practice. However, the
promotional component of marketing, particularly the sales function, is especially vulnerable to
accusations of unethical practice.
This is a descriptive study which examined the attitudes and ethical perceptions and sensitivity of 270
university students regarding the ethics and acceptability of various sales practices. This study is
conducted on students who took Marketing Management course at two major business schools in Turkey
by using Kellaris and Dabholkar’s Personal Selling Ethics Scale (PSE), an instrument designed to
measure the sensitivity of students in personal selling to sales-related ethical issues. This scenario-based
study explores whether sales practices were thought to be ethical or not, and whether or not such
behaviors would be acceptable. The purpose of this study is to measure the instructor’s effect on students’
ethical sensitivity. Students’ academic background was also examined to understand whether it has an
effect on attitudes and ethical perception.
