The Ethical Climate and Context of Organizations: A Comprehensive Model

Traditional approaches to understanding the ethical context of organizations often focus on ethical work climate, which reflects the collective moral reasoning of organization members. However, such approaches overlook other components of the ethical environment that may influence how ethical judgments translate to ethical behavior. This study extends our understanding of the ethical context of organizations by considering how three distinct aspects of that context collective moral reasoning (ethical climate), collective moral emotion, and collective ethical efficacy interact to influence ethical behavior. Results from 117 work units support our hypotheses. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed

Individual Moral Development and Ethical Climate: The Influence of Person-Organization Fit on Job Attitudes

This research examines how the fit between employees’ moral development and the ethical work climate of their organization affects employee attitudes. Person–organization fit was assessed by matching individuals’ level of cognitive moral development with the ethical climate of their organization. The influence of P–O fit on employee attitudes was assessed using a sample of 304 individuals from 73 organizations. In general, the findings support our predictions that fit between personal and organizational ethics is related to higher levels of commitment and job satisfaction and lower levels of turnover intent. Ethical P–O fit was related to higher levels of affective commitment across all three ethical climate types. Job satisfaction was only associated with ethical P–O fit for one of the three P–O fit variables and turnover intentions were significantly associated with two of the ethical P–O fit variables. The most consistent effect was found for the Conventional –Caring fit variable, which was significantly related to all three attitudes assessed. The weakest effect was found for the Preconventional – Instrumental fit variable, which was only predictive of affective commitment. The pattern of findings and implications for practice and future research are discussed

Guest Editors’ Introduction On Understanding Ethical Behavior and Decision Making

Behavioral ethics is an emerging field that takes an empirical, social scientific approach to the study of business ethics. In this special issue, we include six articles that fall within the domain of behavioral ethics and that focus on three themes—moral awareness, ethical decision making, and reactions to unethical behavior. Each of the articles sheds additional light on the specific issues addressed. However, we hope this special issue will have an impact beyond that of the new insights offered in these articles, by stimulating evenmore research in this burgeoning field

Considering The Business In Business Ethics: An Exploratory Study Of The Influence Of Organizational Size And Structure On Individual Ethical Predispositions

This paper explores the relationship between organizational size, structure and the strength of organization members\u27 ethical predispositions. It is hypothesized that individuals in smaller, more flexible, organic organizations will display stronger ethical predispositions. Survey results from 209 individuals across eleven organizations indicate that contrary to expectations, larger, more rigid, mechanistic structures were associated with higher levels of ethical formalism and utilitarianism. Implications of these findings are discussed

The Employee-Organization Relationship And Ethics: When It Comes To Ethical Behavior, Who Is The Organization And Why Does It Matter?

Indeed, promoting teamwork has become a national obsession in both the public and private sectors. Teams are assigned to tasks ranging from those with life-and-death stakes at play to those with decisions a ecting thousands of people. Teams are composed and (over) applied at ever increasing rates in organizations. In settings as varied as hospitals (e.g., surgical and emergency teams), corporate boardrooms (e.g., top management teams), airlines (e.g., ight teams), oil rigs (e.g., off -shore and on-shore teams), military operations (e.g., reconstruction teams), and nancial entrepreneurs (e.g., research analysts), teams are an overarching mechanism underlying organizational e ectiveness. Teams are the agents that work to minimize errors, save lives, and improve livelihoods, and we will argue that the EOR is at the center of this. at is, teams are embedded in organizations and, therefore, in uenced by what organizations value and promote. At the end of the day, it is the EOR that will make or break teamwork. Note that by the EOR we mean a form of intraorganizational relationship that is perceptual in nature. We are not speci cally envisioning a more formal or contractual relationship. However, we do acknowledge that some organizations do formally implement team-based projects and/or management. As such, there may be a distal connection to a more formal type of EOR

Managerial Ethics: Managing The Psychology Of Morality

This book combines management theory with ethical theory on a chapter by chapter, topic by topic basis. The volume bridges the theoretical, empirical and practical gap between management and ethics. It will be of interest to a cross disciplinary group of students, researchers and managers in business, management, organizational behavior, IO psychology and business ethics

Assembling Fragments Into A Lens: A Review, Critique, And Proposed Research Agenda For The Organizational Work Climate Literature

Work climates exert an important influence on organizations and the people who work in them. For more than half a century, scholars have sought to understand their antecedents and consequences. However, in recent years, this literature has become fragmented and somewhat adrift. This article attempts to remedy this by reviewing existing research related to organizational work climates and providing a review and critique of the current state of knowledge. Furthermore, the authors seek to assemble the individual pieces into a unified lens capable of identifying overarching themes and challenges facing researchers. Finally, the authors turn this lens to the future, so as to provide a clearer view of some promising avenues for research opportunities and potential for reintegrating the field. © 2009 Southern Management Association. All rights reserved

Ethical Development And Human Resources Training: An Integrative Framework

This article draws on the training and business ethics literatures to craft a framework for creating and maintaining effective ethics training programs. We identify four themes in the recent training literature - trainee characteristics, training design, transfer of trained skills, and evaluation issues - and use these as the basis for creating a model of ethics training. As an illustrative example, we explore the research on individuals\u27 cognitive moral development and examine how a framework built on sound training principles might enhance the efficacy of ethics training. Finally, we present a series of research questions that arise from this integration of ethics and training research. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc