Managerial Perceptions on Employee Misconduct and Ethics Management Strategies in Thai Organizations

Abstract

Of the recent trends in Corporate Social Responsibility within the business sector, the ethical conduct of employees is one of the most challenging tasks facing organizations. Based on the theoretical framework of agency theory and psychological contract theory, exploratory research was conducted among 229 managers to identify the reasons behind employee misconduct in Thailand. The findings reveal that agency theory was the dominating theory explaining the reasons behind serious unethical behavior by employees. The results indicate that employees committed acts of misconduct because of greed, financial benefits, or other individual motivations. As regards the ethics management approach adopted by organizations, it was found that companies are employing compliance strategy with other various tactics to improve corporate governance. In order to improve compliance, it is recommended for companies to improve management control system to minimize wrongdoing and to be responsive to misconduct incidents. Organization development can be improved by fostering desired corporate culture, religious and philosophical beliefs.