CENTRALIZATION AND BUSINESS ETHICS IN NIGERIA DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS

Decision on delegation of authority can have long term effect on ethical behavior of organisations. This paper examined the effect of centralization on business ethics among deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. Using survey design, we obtained and analysed data from 376 respondents in the industry comprising of managerial level staff. Our result indicates that centralization moderately influence business ethics among the deposit money banks in Nigeria. The findings suggest that increased level of centralization can indeed improve ethical decision behaviour among the DMBs. As such, even as decentralization can facilitate decision making by granting some level of autonomy to individuals and units, centralization can be helpful in ensuring business ethics in the DMBs in Nigeria.