The purpose of this quantitative study was to better understand the relationship of perceived ethical climate on the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of full-time faculty members in institutions of higher education. Full-time faculty members are the forefront employees of any educational institution, and they have a direct impact on the successful implementation of the vision, mission, and goals of the institution. It is imperative to understand potential factors influencing organizational commitment and job satisfaction because decreased levels of commitment and satisfaction have been linked to lower productivity, stagnated creativity, higher levels of turnover, and deviant workplace behaviors. The nationally reported controversy that occurred in the Sociology Department of The Ohio State University during the 1960s provided the theoretical framework for this research.
Four different regional universities, producing 594 responses, participated in this study. A modified version of 3 previously establish scales were used to measure each factor: 1) Three Component Model (TCM) of Employee Commitment created by Meyer and Allen (2004), 2) Revised Ethical Climate Questionnaire (RECQ) created by Victor and Cullen (1993), and 3) Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) created by Hackman and Oldham (1980).
The data analysis found significant differences in self-reported levels of organizational commitment and job satisfaction for full-time faculty members with regards to type of perceived ethical climate (i.e. egoism, benevolence, and principled). Results of this study also indicate that gender differences play a significant role in the self-reported level of organizational commitment. Females reported higher levels of organizational commitment than their male counterparts. There was no significant difference in the self-reported levels of job satisfaction based upon gender differences. Finally, the results of the study included a significant and positive correlation between the total organizational commitment scores and the total job satisfaction scores of respondents
