Focus on Research
Penn State Intercom......February 22, 2001

CEOs have rosier image of company
ethics than do the rank-and-file workers

By Paul Blaum
Public Information

Many executives rate their company's ethical standards much higher than do most of their workers, according to two University business management researchers.

"In order to manage ethics effectively, senior managers must be in touch with rank-and-file employees and understand their perceptions of the company's ethical climate, as well as its ethics programs and policies. Unfortunately, this is often not the case because of managers' need to identify with the organization and protect its image, as well as their own," said Linda Klebe Trevino, professor of organizational behavior in the University's Smeal College of Business Administration.

"While previous research has found that executives influence how and to what degree ethics programs are integrated into everyday organizational life, our findings suggest that these same executives may be seriously out of touch with how these programs are perceived by the average employee in shop and office," noted Michael E. Brown, graduate student in business administration.

Trevino, Gary R. Weaver, associate professor of business administration at the University of Delaware-Newark, and Brown recently published their research on the subject.

In their study, the researchers surveyed 875 employees from two oil and gas companies and 420 employees from a financial services firm, including both senior managers and production and clerical workers. The surveys were mailed directly to the employee's home, accompanied by a letter from the company endorsing the research and encouraging employees to take part. Questions focused on perceptions of executives' attention to ethics and va lues, the ethical climate in the firm and the extent of unethical conduct observed.

"Our data showed that executives are likely to have a rosier perception of organizational ethics than rank-and- file employees. This may be because of their identification with the organization and their need both to maintain the organization's image and their own," Trevino said. "Also, they devote much of their time and attention to the external management of the company, while entrusting management of internal ethics issues to professional staff such as ethics officers."

"Furthermore, information tends to be distorted as it moves up the organizational hierarchy, leaving senior managers somewhat naive about and protected from the realities of organizational ethics. In today's organizations, it is also arguable that senior managers are far removed from the average worker because executive compensation has grown to unprecedented levels. In some cases, the salaries of CEOs are several hundred times the pay of the lowest-paid worker," Brown said.

The researchers' study makes clear that senior managers need to understand better the viewpoints of rank-and-file workers in order to give executives a more realistic understanding of company ethics.

Trevino added, "Organizations need to create opportunities for regular employees to interact directly and regularly with senior managers about ethics issues so that management of organizational ethics is based upon accurate information."

Post-Castro Cuba
should look to past

A democratic government and political freedom could be authentic possibilities for post-Castro Cuba, if pre-Castro history is any guide, according to a Penn State researcher.

"Casual observers of Cuban history might see only two choices after Castro: the rule of entrenched wealth and military dictatorship a la Batista, or a continuation of Fidel Castro's socialist revolution," said Charles D. Amer-inger, professor emeritus of Latin American history at University Park. "However, a third option could be real democracy, which had a little-remembered trial run in Cuba between 1944 and 1952."

Ameringer has conducted research on the Autentico government (1944-1952), resulting in the book, The Cuban Democratic Experience: The Autentico Years, 1944-1952, published by the University Press of Florida.

"The Cuban Revolutionary Party-Autentico (PRC-A) administrations of Ramon Grau San Martin and Carlos Prio Socarras, though marred by serious flaws, together represented a unique era in Cuban history," Ameringer noted. "In two free elections (1944 and 1948), Cubans had their first chance to vote for a government committed to protecting civil liberties, promoting Cuban culture and achieving economic independence."

Commentary looks
at bone fragments

Pat Shipman, adjunct professor of anthropology, has authored a commentary titled "What Can You Do With a Bone Fragment?," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The commentary concerns a recent discovery that early pre-humans who lived between 1.8 and 1.1 million years ago at two locations in South Africa apparently used bone tools regularly to collect termites -- presumably to eat them. Lucinda Backwell of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Francesco d'Errico of the National Scientific Research Center in Talence, France, examined wear patterns on a variety of bones after they had used them to dig for bulbs and tubers, pierce and scrape animal hides, and break into termite mounds. They then compared the wear to those on the fossil bones.

Shipman calls the team's research a "remarkable" achievement because it reveals that the wear patterns on the fossil bone tools most strongly matched the patterns resulting from digging into termite mounds.

For more on this story, go to http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/Shipman2-2001.htm

Treatment prevents vein
blockages after angioplasty

More than 300,000 angioplasty procedures are performed in the United States every year, but in almost 40 percent of those cases tissue grows back in the blood vessel and additional blockages develop -- all because of the trauma associated with inserting the angioplasty catheter itself.

However, researchers at The College of Medicine in Hershey have made significant progress that virtually eliminates that new tissue growth, thereby reducing the risk of subsequent blockages and the resulting heart damage.

The team of scientists, led by principal investigator Mark Kester, associate professor of pharmacology, has worked for the past five years to solve this significant medical challenge.

Kester explained, "While angioplasty has literally been a lifesaver for millions of patients, the very act of inserting a catheter causes arterial damage. The damaged artery responds to this trauma with rapid vascular smooth muscle cell growth at the site of the injury (known as restenosis), resulting in a blockage and a significant reduction in blood flow. Our research has revealed that using an analogue of a naturally occurring membrane component called ceramide inhibits the growth of those smooth muscle cells so that blockages don't develop."

Kester and his team found that when the balloon angioplasty catheters are coated with a cell-permeable ceramide, the growth-inhibiting drug can be delivered to the precise area injured by the inflation of the balloon catheter. Through both cell culture system and animal trials, the ceramide was found to be a safe and effective therapy, preventing vascular smooth muscle cell growth and resultant arterial obstruction. Additional testing is planned with clinical trials anticipated in two years.

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