THE IMPORTANCE OF VALUE HONEST: DETERMINING FACTORS AND SOME HINTS TO ETHICS

Honesty is deemed as crucial ground for ethical behaviour in various respects. The aim of this paper is to explore to what extent and in what ways the individual value honest signifies in the organisations of Baltic States and Russia and to draw some managerial implications on the basis of our findings. The subjects of study had different cultural background (Estonians from Estonia, Russians from Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) and they were asked to rank their own terminal and instrumental values, including the value honest as well as to speculate how their co-workers would rank the same list of values. Consequently, there were two lists of terminal and instrumental values for every respondent and the following analysis focuses on the comparisons of the importance, impact of other values and socio-demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, organisational position, and country of residence). One of the most important findings of our study is that the assessment of peer’s value honest tells the most how important honest is for the focal person. Results reveal also the role of some other personal values as well as the country of residence in respect with the importance of value honest.