Gender and sales ethics: are women penalized less severely than their male counterparts?

Numerous investigations of unethical selling behavior report gender bias and conclude that women are more likely to receive lighter penalties than men for the same infraction. Based on the self-report responses to scenario-based surveys, these studies lack actual data to validate their findings. This research compared the published ethical code violations and penalties of salesmen and saleswomen to determine whether or not women are penalized less severely than their male counterparts. Results suggest that researchers should reexamine the value of self-report data for determining gender bias in judging unethical selling behavior. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)