Adherence to Ethics and Performance of Business Organizations in Nigeria: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between adherence to ethics and performance of business organizations in Nigeria. This study was carried out in Port Harcourt, the capital city of Rivers State. Calus Miller communications; one of the major Global Services for Mobil communication (GSM) product distributors was selected for this study. Data was generated using a combination of secondary and primary sources. Details of the firm’s yearly income from sales for ten years (2004-2013) served as the secondary data whereas, the firm’s customers served as the source for primary data. Thirty (30) customers who have been patronizing the firm for the past ten years were randomly selected to form the sample frame. The independent variable; “adherence to ethics” was measured in percentage by using one of the indicators of ethical compliance; provision of quality goods and services for customer satisfaction. The dependent variable “performance” was measured by revenue generated from sales in Naira, in millions. Unstructured questionnaire was designed to ascertain the ability of the firm under study, to provide quality goods and services for her customers for the period under review. The questionnaire was distributed to the respondents for completion and data collected were further organized in a useable form, and presented in a table. Hypothesis one and two were tested using Spearman Rank Order Correlation and t-Statistic respectively. Result indicates that there is relationship between adherence to ethics and performance of business organizations. The relationship was found to be significant. It is proposed that business leaders and owners should understand that in order to win public trust, they should pay attention to ethics and impose on themselves the responsibility of professional ethics. Conclusion is drawn that businesses which operate ethically reap many rewards in the form of wining public confidence, attracting customers, retaining employees and improve performance.

Key words: Adherence, Ethics, Performance, Ethical dilemma, Values, Moral roles