Ethical values, trust and problem-solving expectations among potential foodservice employees

Abstract

Business management throughout the world has recently received a large measure of negative publicity, with a plethora of high profile examples of calumny being reported among managers; employees were often among those seen to be most negatively affected. Within the workplace employees are generally reliant upon and expect a high standard of ethical behavior among those who are appointed to manage the organizations; such a reliance upon managerial rectitude is no less evident in industries such as foodservice. Yet relatively little is known about the expectations and ethical ideals that potential staff bring to this industry in regard to management's problem-solving styles in the face of ethical dilemmas such as those involving theft. This study was completed among a sample of university undergraduate business students in a major Australian tourism destination.

Amajority of respondents were found more likely to anticipate a company image protection response, and less likely to anticipate a justice for all perspective among management; results were most notable for those respondents who would report an aspiration to higher levels of personal integrity. In contrast, a smaller group of respondents were revealed to more likely value competence over integrity; these individuals would anticipate higher levels of a justice for all managerial response. Two distinct groups of respondents have been identified in this study: those individuals who would more highly prize the ethic of competence above that of integrity and who would have positive expectations about management problem-solving, and those individuals who would value the integrity ethic over competence and who would express an elevated level of pessimism regarding the expected response of foodservice management to a situation involving workplace theft. The implications of these results for foodservice industry, for industry education and for future research, are explored.