FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICS IN PERSONAL SELLING

There are many factors which affect ethics in personal selling. these could be individual factors and organizational factors.

Individual Factors:

1. Age: since age is associated with length of time in a person’s career, experienced salespersons have been found to be more concentrated toward careful conduct of their responsibilities and are less involved in unethical sales activities.
2. Gender: Reports or studies shows women are more ethical in them in their selling behaviour compared to men.
3. Personal Values: Personal Values of a person largely affects ethics in salespersons behaviour. Many a time, salespersons learned values since childhood determines his behaviors on the field.

Organizational Factors

1. Selecting, Hiring and Training: if the company is careful while recruiting, hiring and training the individuals, there will be fewer issues of unethical behaviours.
2. Companies Code of ethics: code of ethics in an organization largely affects the behaviour of salespersons. If the company has a strong code of ethics, there will be fewer chances of ethical conflicts in the behaviours of salespeople.
3. Supervision and discipline: While managing ethics, supervisors should have a close look at the behaviour of salesperson. The supervisor/sales manager himself follow discipline in his own actions as his actions directly affects and influences the actions of the salesforce.
4. Reward and Punishment Policies: reward and punishment policies also affect the ethical behaviours of the salesperson. If the punishment policy is harsh, the salespeople will not repeat unethical behaviours in future.