The analyses presented below controlled for two variables
that might influence the dependent variables in the study.
First, research notes that social desirability should be
controlled for when studying ethical decision-making
(Randall and Gibson 1990; Weber 1992). To this end,
social desirability was assessed with the ten impression
management items (a = .72) from Paulhus’ (1989)
impression management subscale of the Balanced Inventory
of Desirable Responding. Second, research has found
that organizational ethical climates can have an effect on
the ethical decision-making of individuals (Flannery and
May 2000; Loe et al. 2000; Trevin˜o et al. 2006). Of particular
interest for the current research is the extent to
which employees make decisions for business purposes.
Therefore, we used the seven items (a = .75) from Victor
and Cullen’s (1988) Ethical Organizational Climate Survey
to assess the instrumental ethical climate of the respondent’s
organization.