Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The dual value of honesty among Russians in selected former Soviet countries

2011; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1108/13527601111104296

1758-6089

Maaja Vadi, Krista Jaakson,

Ethics in Business and Education

Purpose The aim of this paper is to analyse the factors associated with the perception of the value honesty among Russian organisational members from selected former Soviet countries: Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Design/methodology/approach Using the Rokeach Value Survey, the respondents were asked to rank their own values and to speculate on how their co‐workers would rank the same values. The following analysis focused on the importance of honesty, its concurrence with speculations about co‐workers, the impact of other personal values and socio‐demographic characteristics. Findings One of the most important findings of this study is that value honesty is amongst the most important values for Russians, while the importance of this value was not similar for Russians living in Russia and the Baltic States. Value consensus tells us the most about how important honesty is for the focal person. Results also reveal that other personal values, namely, family security, comfortable life, imaginative, capable and broad minded help to predict the assessment of honesty. Research limitations/implications The results of the study imply that societal influence prevails over cultural influence when the importance honesty is assessed among Russians. Also, we show that individually, value honesty is socially construed and can therefore be manipulated via changing his/her perception of social consensus rather than directly. Originality/value The originality of the paper lies in the focusing on the Russians living in different countries of former Soviet Union by analysing the importance of value honesty which plays a role in business and societal culture.