Code of ethics and the telemarketing industry's code

• Published in: Journal of direct marketing 1991, Vol.5 (1), p.7-14
• Main Authors: Carusone, Peter S., Brown, Herbert E., Wise, Gordon L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0892-0591; 1522-7138; 1522-7138; 0892-0591
• DOI: 10.1002/dir.4000050104

This article examines the role of the code of ethics in the context of other approaches to institutionalized improvement in business ethics, and reports the results of an empirical study among on-the-phone telemarketing personnel regarding their support of various ethical tenets embodied within the industry's professional code. The results indicate that practicing telecommunicators do not indiscriminately support or reject the various tenets of the 12-tenet code. Clarity and honesty in presenting telemarketing offers received the strongest endorsement. Conversely, however, there was significant disagreement with other tenets that called for no telemarketing deceit. The tenet prohibiting delivery of recorded messages without first obtaining permission with a live operator received the least support, implications of the findings suggest that a concerted industry educational effort is needed on telemarketing's code of ethics. There is also the possibility that the code itself may lack the specificity necessary to make it work up to its greatest potential as an institutionalized tool of telemarketing industry self-regulation.