How to teach ethics in sales. Comparison of practices between France and USA

1. How to teach ethics in sales.Comparison of practices between France and USA Laure LAVORATA, Professor University East of Paris Institute of Resarch in Management

2. Personal experience • PhD in 2004 about relationship between ethical climate and salespeople’s ethical behavior • My experience in the field of sales • Commercial manager for a B2B review • Ethical dilemmas faced to a customer • Professor in marketing and in sales • Level 1, 2 and 3 (in France licence) • In level 4 and 5 (master in France)

3. Context • Preventing unethical behavior is a major management challenge (Kaptein, 2011; Valentin, 2009) • Role of educators is very important to educate students • Question: how to raise awareness among our students of the importance of ethics? • The presentation will follow the structure of a course

4. 1. Definition of concepts MORALITY : SOCIETY’ S RULES/ IMPERATIVES MORALITY IS UNIVERSAL DEONTOLOGY : PROFESSIONAL MORALITY ETHICS : INDIVIDUAL RULES Aristote, Greek philosopher, founder of the ethics French dictionary :    Ethics is the science which determines the distinctive characters of the good and the bad in the human behavior

5. 2. Sales: a critical field for ethics • Salespeople have often been perceived as having lower ethical standards (Laczniak and Murphy 1985). • Thus the term “salesman” has long been associated with someone who puts pressure on his customer by means of questionable techniques and whose only philosophy is to “close the sale regardless of the means” (Jolson 1997).

6. Salespeople and ethics • Very often selling has been viewed as a confrontation between two parties, one of whom must yield to the tricks and tactics of the other (Peeler 1996). • Furthermore, Stewart (2003: 32) has stated that “for some sales teams, this is a time of war. Some salespeople are becoming so desperate that they’ll stop at nothing, from backstabbing reps on their own team to running bogus deals through accounting”.

7. Triple contradictions betweenethics and sales cultural Salespeople is perceived as Someone who loves money, Who doesn’t stay in firms … Marketing appears as more valued than the sales function contradiction salary strategic Long term relation and objectives

8. 3. Definition of salespeople’s ethical behavior • Behavior has been defined as the subjective and individual probability that an action is implemented in a given scenario (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980). • According to Kant, “Only intentions count, and when these are good, behavior is ethical”. • Treviño et al. (2006: 952): behavioral ethics is the study of “individual behavior that is subject to or judged according to generally accepted moral norms of behavior.”

9. French approach (philosophic) Based on values (Aristote) Justice Theory of virtues Altruism Caution Abstinence Courage Theoretical framework to study salespeople’s ethical behavior American approach: • Deontological (duty) • Teleological (consequences) Respect for the commitments To focus on customer To tell only what you can do No intention to deceive Tell the truth to the customer

10. 4. How to measure salespeople’s ethical behavior: use of vignettes • Researchers consider it to be the basis of ethics research (Chonko et al. 1996, Hunt and Vitell 1986) • Alexander and Becker (1978) define scenarios as “brief descriptions of a person or social situation that contain precise references to the most important factors in taking decisions or making judgments among the respondents”. • Ethical dilemmas

11. Use of vignettes • Vignettes have commonly been used in ethics research to ask respondents about the likely behavior of their peers or the “average executive” and their own likely behavior and what in their opinion constitutes unethical behavior (Robertson and Anderson 1993). • 2 methodologies • Creation of vignettes (Chonko et al, 1996) • Use of existing vignettes (Robertson and Anderson, 1993)

12. 5. Use of ethical dilemmas in sales teaching • We present students different vignettes created from our previous researches (Lavorata 2007) from other authors (Robertson and Anderson 1993) or from their experience • For each scenario, we ask students to think first alone about their personal behavior then we discuss about this situation with all students. • The aim of the discussion is to prove them that it is always difficult to find the ethical behavior and that it is a personal behavior (and not a collective behavior).

13. Example 1 of vignettes (Lavorata, 2007) • You have just signed a contract with a customer. Before showing the dossier to your line manager, you notice you’ve forgotten to offer him some further connections, which are financially more advantageous for him and cost him nothing. In addition, these connections are incorporated into your remuneration plan. • What do you do?

14. Example 2 (Robertson and Anderson, 1993) • 14 scenarios • Scenario 6 • John's boss is a real stickler for reporting procedures and for making lots of sales calls. John has not been able to convince his boss that John is much more effective making fewer, more targeted calls. Should John keep his boss happy by exaggerating the number of calls he is making?

15. Example 3 (bank experience) • A customer is retired (65 years old) and she make a lot of expenses. • Her financial adviser asks if he (she) has to tell it to her family but it is under the professional secret or has to tell to his (her) manager • What do you think?

16. Conclusion • The scenario method is very interesting in research but it can be used in teaching classes • It can help students to think about their personal behavior and to be able • Differences in research between France and USA • How do you teach ethics in USA?