Abstract:
It is widely acknowledged that the corporate world is heavily dominated by male executives. This
dominance and continuous decline in ethical standards among business executives have led to the
call for more women participation at the top echelons of corporations. The advocates of this call
contend that more women participating at the top management level in the corporate world would
more likely produce a work environment that is more ethical and moral than the current male
dominated one. More so, management literature is replete with theoretical and empirical evidence
which suggest that women executives demonstrate higher ethical standards than their male
counterpart. Recent corporate scandals that heightened in the collapse of corporations such as Enron
and WorldCom, whose executives were majorly males seems to resonate with these researches.
However, like most issues in management, gender differences in ethical standard are trailed with a
lot of controversies and empirical results have largely remained inconclusive. In essence, the
question of whether business conduct will be more ethical and socially responsible in the wake of
more women taking decisions at the top management level remains one that must continuously be
assessed. The current research work is therefore geared towards assessing gender differences in
ethical perception and usefulness of social responsibility as a strategic tool for business success. Data
were collected through structured questionnaires from managers in the insurance industry and
subjected to multivariate analysis. Results of the study were discussed and managerial implications
were pointed out.
