ETHICS IN ORGANIZATION

Challenges and Strategies to Reduce Unethical Behaviors, in order to Maintain Good work Ethics in Organization Management

Abstract

This paper incorporates a historical perspective illuminating what work ethic was, at the same time staying focused on the goal of understanding what work ethic is today and what work ethic beliefs buttress high functioning organizations.

It is imperative to differentiate work ethic clearly from work attitudes and personality constructs such as conscientiousness and need for achievement. Work ethic is a constellation of work-related in the form of values about what is plentiful and norms about what ought to be concerning the person's orientation toward work. Work ethic thought to stem from one's early childhood and work experiences, cultural influences and critical incidents throughout the life span.

Challenges and Strategies to Reduce Unethical Behaviors, in order to Maintain Good work Ethics in Organization Management

Introduction

Work ethic was originally theorized to drive behaviors responsible for the rise of capitalism (Weber, 1904/1905). Although there is still ambiguity surrounding the causal relationship between espousal of work ethic and work behaviors (Ganster, 1981), work ethic beliefs are purported to account for some portion of an individual's organizational performance (Cherrington, 1980). Based on existing work ethic theory it is hypothesized in this study that employees with high work ethic will exhibit higher levels of work performance than individuals with low work ethic.

a) Problem

This study attempted to answer the preceding questions and contribute to the current work ethic literature by redefining work ethic and creating alternative scales to measure work ethic in order to facilitate empirical research relating work ethic to work behaviors of employees. This research study then assessed whether the new scales had practical and theoretical validity for assessing important work behaviors and attitudes held by a diverse population including “millennials”, “Gen Xers”, hourly workers, professionals, etc.

The research assessed the convergent and discriminate validity of the new scales by including them in a survey instrument along with the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP) of Miller, Woehr, and Hudspeth (2002), the two-dimensional work ethic scale of Blood (1969), and scales assessing conscientiousness and need for achievement. This study then investigated the relationship between work ethic and performance using both in-role and extra-role indexes of performance. Self-report survey data were supplemented with supervisor ratings of performance to assess the criterion validity of the new scales and their incremental validity compared to existing multidimensional measures such as the MWEP created by Miller et al. (2002). Supervisor rated extra-role behaviors were operationalized with altruism and above and beyond job requirements behaviors scales, and self-reported extra-role behaviors were operationalized by four organizational citizenship behavior scales: helping, sportsmanship, initiative, and civic virtue. Figure 1 shows the key types of variables in the general model guiding the current research.

b) Purpose of study

This study is especially pertinent as we seek to understand work ethic theory in organizational settings. There is limited conclusive empirical research exploring the relationship between work ethic and performance. This may be in part due to the confusion ...