International Journal of Value-Based Management 11: 73–91, 1998. 73 c 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. A Study of the Cultural Effects of Industry and Career Systems on Top Executive Perceptions of Ethical Problems JEFFREY A. SONNENFELD Center for Leadership and Career Studies, Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, U.S.A. BRADLEY R. AGLE Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, U.S.A. Abstract. While practitioner workshops and academic courses on ethics and values have traditionally focused on individual frameworks, discussion of business ethics and values as a field of study within social deviance and management often stresses the important interaction between organizational culture and ethical practices, or context rather than character. However, research on this interaction is limited. This paper reports on a study examining the effect that two antecedents of organizational culture, industry and career systems, have on top executive perceptions of various ethical issues. Two of the top officers in each of fifty-two leading firms covering four service industry sectors were surveyed concerning their firm’s career systems and their perceptions of the severity of several ethical problems. Results of the study provide descriptive information on the severity of ethical problems across industry sectors, and suggest that both industry and career systems affect the severity of ethical problems. Implications of this study can be applied to continued research on corporate deviance and managerial efforts to reinforce ethical conduct. Key words: organizational culture, ethics, industry, career systems Unethical conduct in organizations has been and continues to be a signifi- cant problem in corporate life (Yeager, 1986). The concern over this conduct increased greatly during the 1980’s as the unethical actions of business were constantly in the public eye (Jones, 1991). The public was, and continues to be, bombarded daily with stories of insider trading, fraud in government contracting, false advertising, drug abuse, discrimination, sexual harassment, etc. The response to this unethical conduct has included the introduction of more ethics programs into business schools (Schoenfeldt, McDonald, and Youngblood, 1991) and the introduction of more ethics workshops into cor- porations (e.g. Arthur Andersen, 1988). These offerings have, until recently, primarily focused on the dispositional integrity of the individual and his or Author for correspondence.