Issues related to unethical behaviour is also evident in institutions of higher learning. This paper will discuss some of the factors that have been shown to have an influence on unethical behaviour in the specific context in higher learning institutions in Malaysia. Ethical leadership and ethical climate are identified to be the variables that might influence the intention to perform such behaviour. It then discusses the importance of ethical leadership and ethical climate in shaping the ethical conduct in higher learning institutions.

Japan is a high income economy country and scored well in terms of CPI index. Since Malaysia’s intention is to move towards a high income economy there is much to learn from SMEs in Japan. A study was conducted on 17 SMEs in Japan and data collection includes survey and interviews. Amongst lessons learned are that SMEs in Japan place a great respect on seniority and they treat their business as one family. SMEs in Japan also place high importance on customer satisfaction, they do not believe in “quick wins” and will ensure that expansion of business is made progressively. They also view preserving traditional culture as one of their responsibility. One of the challenges they faced are the declining sales due to the lesser number of tourists in Japan and declining demand of traditional products. Success of SMEs in Japan is partly because of the ability of the government in Japan to “make the blue collars’ conditions equal to the white collars,” especially involving the expanded application of monthly-payment, life-time employment, seniority-based payment and promotion system in SMEs similar to large corporation.

Issues related to unethical behaviour is not common nowadays; and they are also the problem of higher learning institutions. This study is conducted to find out the factors that influence the intention to perform unethical behaviour in higher learning institutions in Malaysia. This paper provides some insights into the issues of unethical behaviour, specifically the behaviour of lecturers. Ethical leadership and ethical climate are identified to be the variables that might influence the intention to perform such behaviour. It then discusses the importance of ethical leadership and ethical climate in shaping the ethical conduct in higher learning institutions.

This paper contributes to existing research on ethical behavior by identifying the factors that leads to the intention to commit the unethical behavior. The study used a questionnaire method that was sent to 1,200 insurance agents across peninsular Malaysia, 300 copies were returned of which only 246 were useful. Results of the study exhibited that there is a significant relationship between attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm among insurance agents on the intention to commit unethical behavior. Attitude and moral obligation provide a positive relationship, while perceived behavioral control and norm provide a negative relationship. It also reflected that agents committing the unethical behavior are being influence by attitudes, moral obligation then perceived behavioral control and subjective norm. The study also reflected that ethics among insurance agents in Malaysia are low due to the fact that there is no documented evidence of any form of severe punishment meted out for unethical behavioral intention. While the results in this study are by no means conclusive, it is felt that this study has contributed to the research done in identifying unethical behavioral intention of insurance agents in Malaysia.