IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i12p4756-d190274.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring Perceived Corporate Hypocrisy: Scale Development in the Context of U.S. Retail Employees

Author

Listed:
  • Saheli Goswami

    (Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design, College of Business, University of Rhode Island, 55 Lower College Road, Kingston, RI 02881, USA)

  • Jung Ha-Brookshire

    (Textile and Apparel Management, College of Human Environmental Sciences, University of Missouri, 137 Stanley Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA)

  • Wes Bonifay

    (Educational, School, & Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri, 5C Hill Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA)

Abstract

Despite an increasing amount of research on perceived corporate hypocrisy (PCH), limited research has investigated PCH among employees. Particularly, the literature lacked a valid instrument for estimating employees’ PCH, even though employees experience severe consequences for PCH. To address this gap, a scale was developed to measure employees’ PCH, using a three-stage Item Response Theory modeling approach. After a series of qualitative studies and six quantitative scale-development iterations, PCH was found to be a unidimensional construct represented by the perceived lack of morality, perceived control breach, double standards, and a value‒behavior gap. Further, the nine-item PCH scale was confirmed to be reliable, valid, and unbiased for different demographic groups. The scale makes theoretical contributions by being one of the few attempts to objectively measure employees’ hypocrisy judgements and incorporating corporations’ double standard and perceived commitment to morality as defining features of employees’ PCH. Assessment of employees’ PCH can help in expanding the hypocrisy literature beyond consumers’ perceptions. Finally, the scale enables corporations to measure employees’ PCH and get an in-depth understanding of the issues of concern as work and organizational phenomena. By implementing proper management strategies, corporations can potentially avoid PCH, create more favorable perceptions among employees, and improve their reputations.

Suggested Citation

  • Saheli Goswami & Jung Ha-Brookshire & Wes Bonifay, 2018. "Measuring Perceived Corporate Hypocrisy: Scale Development in the Context of U.S. Retail Employees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-26, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4756-:d:190274
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4756/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4756/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Spiggle, Susan, 1994. "Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(3), pages 491-503, December.
    2. Tony Simons, 2002. "Behavioral Integrity: The Perceived Alignment Between Managers' Words and Deeds as a Research Focus," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(1), pages 18-35, February.
    3. Enrique Alcañiz & Ruben Cáceres & Rafael Pérez, 2010. "Alliances Between Brands and Social Causes: The Influence of Company Credibility on Social Responsibility Image," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(2), pages 169-186, October.
    4. Claudio Aqueveque & Catherine Encina, 2010. "Corporate Behavior, Social Cynicism, and Their Effect on Individuals’ Perceptions of the Company," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 311-324, February.
    5. Mbaye Fall Diallo & Christine Lambey-Checchin, 2017. "Consumers’ Perceptions of Retail Business Ethics and Loyalty to the Retailer: The Moderating Role of Social Discount Practices," Post-Print hal-03185737, HAL.
    6. Mbaye Fall Diallo & Christine Lambey-Checchin, 2017. "Consumers’ Perceptions of Retail Business Ethics and Loyalty to the Retailer: The Moderating Role of Social Discount Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 435-449, March.
    7. van der Ark, L. Andries, 2007. "Mokken Scale Analysis in R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 20(i11).
    8. Hanna Kim & Won-Moo Hur & Junsang Yeo, 2015. "Corporate Brand Trust as a Mediator in the Relationship between Consumer Perception of CSR, Corporate Hypocrisy, and Corporate Reputation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-12, March.
    9. Wen-Hung Chen & David Thissen, 1997. "Local Dependence Indexes for Item Pairs Using Item Response Theory," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 22(3), pages 265-289, September.
    10. Deborah E. Rupp & Ruodan Shao & Daniel P. Skarlicki & E. Layne Paddock & Tae-Yeol Kim & Thierry Nadisic, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement : The Moderating Role of CSR-Specific Relative Autonomy and Individualism," Post-Print hal-02312131, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hongdan Zhao & Jing Xu & Yuanhua Chen & Wenyuan Sun, 2020. "The Employee Attributions of Corporate Hypocrisy in Corporate Social Responsibility: An Explore Research Based on Grounded Theory," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.
    2. Juhua Xu & Eun-Kyoung Han, 2021. "How Temporal Order of Inconsistent CSR Information Affects Consumer Perceptions?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Ciwei Dong & Qingying Li & Bin Shen & Xun Tong, 2019. "Sustainability in Supply Chains with Behavioral Concerns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-7, July.
    4. Saheli Goswami & Gargi Bhaduri, 2023. "Communicating Moral Responsibility: Stakeholder Capitalism, Types, and Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Seong Ho Lee, 2021. "Effects of Retailers’ Corporate Social Responsibility on Retailer Equity and Consumer Usage Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-9, March.
    2. Irene Sánchez-González & Irene Gil-Saura & María Eugenia Ruiz-Molina, 2020. "Ethically Minded Consumer Behavior, Retailers’ Commitment to Sustainable Development, and Store Equity in Hypermarkets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-17, September.
    3. Zimand-Sheiner, Dorit & Ryan, Tanya & Kip, Sema Misci & Lahav, Tamar, 2020. "Native advertising credibility perceptions and ethical attitudes: An exploratory study among adolescents in the United States, Turkey and Israel," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 608-619.
    4. Millissa F. Y. Cheung & W. M. To, 2021. "The Effect of Consumer Perceptions of the Ethics of Retailers on Purchase Behavior and Word-of-Mouth: The Moderating Role of Ethical Beliefs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 771-788, July.
    5. Henri Kuokkanen & William Sun, 2020. "Companies, Meet Ethical Consumers: Strategic CSR Management to Impact Consumer Choice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 403-423, October.
    6. Oriol Iglesias & Stefan Markovic & Mehdi Bagherzadeh & Jatinder Jit Singh, 2020. "Co-creation: A Key Link Between Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Trust, and Customer Loyalty," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 151-166, April.
    7. Behera, Rajat Kumar & Bala, Pradip Kumar & Rana, Nripendra P. & Kizgin, Hatice, 2022. "Cognitive computing based ethical principles for improving organisational reputation: A B2B digital marketing perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 685-701.
    8. Mbaye Fall Diallo & Norchène Ben Dahmane Mouelhi & Mahesh Gadekar & Marie Schill, 2021. "CSR Actions, Brand Value, and Willingness to Pay a Premium Price for Luxury Brands: Does Long-Term Orientation Matter?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(2), pages 241-260, March.
    9. Alatawi, Ibrahim A. & Ntim, Collins G. & Zras, Anis & Elmagrhi, Mohamed H., 2023. "CSR, financial and non-financial performance in the tourism sector: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    10. Mainardes, Emerson Wagner & Coutinho, Ananda Raquel Silva & Alves, Helena Maria Batista, 2023. "The influence of the ethics of E-retailers on online customer experience and customer satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    11. Giovanni Zampone & Natalia Aversano & Giuseppe Sannino, 2023. "Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure on Brand Value: An analysis of Interbrand Companies," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 16(6), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Wang, Xing-Xin & He, Ai-Zhong, 2022. "The impact of retailers’ sustainable development on consumer advocacy: A chain mediation model investigation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Yu-Shan Huang & Shuqin Wei & Tyson Ang, 2022. "The Role of Customer Perceived Ethicality in Explaining the Impact of Incivility Among Employees on Customer Unethical Behavior and Customer Citizenship Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 519-535, June.
    14. Aboul-Dahab, Sameh & Agag, Gomaa & Hassan Abdelmoety, Ziad, 2021. "Examining the influence of cultural and ethical ideology on consumers’ perceptions about the ethics of online retailers and its effects on their loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    15. Yi-Ping Chang & Hsiu-Hua Hu & Chih-Ming Lin, 2021. "Consistency or Hypocrisy? The Impact of Internal Corporate Social Responsibility on Employee Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, August.
    16. Daly, Bonita A. & Schuler, Drue K., 1998. "Redefining a certified public accounting firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(5-6), pages 549-567.
    17. Nicoletta Buratti & Francesco Derchi & Giorgia Profumo, 2015. "The blurred boundary between empowered and working consumers: insights from the winner taco case," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(4), pages 133-156.
    18. repec:oup:jecgeo:v:50:y:2023:i:2:p:282-302. is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Katja H. Brunk & Cara Boer, 2020. "How do Consumers Reconcile Positive and Negative CSR-Related Information to Form an Ethical Brand Perception? A Mixed Method Inquiry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 443-458, January.
    20. Minbaeva, Dana & Rabbiosi, Larissa & Stahl, Günter K., 2018. "Not walking the talk? How host country cultural orientations may buffer the damage of corporate values’ misalignment in multinational corporations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 880-895.
    21. Tom Joerß & Payam Akbar & Robert Mai & Stefan Hoffmann, 2017. "Conceptualizing sustainability from a consumer perspective [Konzeptionalisierung der Nachhaltigkeit aus der Konsumentensicht]," NachhaltigkeitsManagementForum | Sustainability Management Forum, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 15-23, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4756-:d:190274. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.