Do You Want Your Company to Be Ethical? Look for Motivated Employees with Collectivist Values

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to validate how cultural values related to collectivism and individualism perception influence the skills necessary to be part of a company: competitiveness and motivation. Additionally, it is important to validate how these competencies influence ethical values, since companies’ function are not only economic but also social. A company is ethical when its workers are ethical; therefore, attracting talent with ethical values is one of the greatest challenges for companies. The sample is made up of 740 university graduates from Baja California, Mexico. The PLS methodology has been applied to demonstrate the relationships. Results show that when the perception is collectivist, motivation and ethical values increase. However, when there is an individualistic perception in work development, competitiveness increases, but motivation and ethical values decrease. These results are of great relevance since they show that if we want ethical companies, we must look for employees with collective and motivated perceptions.