Organizational Behaviour: Exploring Ethical Climate and Hope

Transcription

1 Organizational Behaviour: Exploring Ethical Climate and Hope Sonia Swanepoel (Prof.), Rose-Innes JR (Dr.) Abstract This article explicates to what extent ethical climate and hope are related. Two questionnaires, the Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ) 1987 and the State Hope Scale (SHS) 1996, were combined into one questionnaire and used to measure the responses of the participants. Various sources were compared, using The Grounded Theory. Descriptive, correlational and inferential statistics were applied to determine the relationship between ethical climate and hope. The Bravais-Pearson product moment correlation denotes a significant relationship between ECQ and SHS. The results demonstrate the plausibility of the model that provides a new perspective on organizational behaviour. Keywords Ethical climate, hope, self-efficacy, organizational behavior, leadership T I. INTRODUCTION he third King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (King III) was published in 2009 and addresses amongst others the corporate governance that deals with responsible leadership of organizations and companies. Leadership should be transparent and accountable towards the organization and the company s identified stakeholders [6]. The King III report has focused world attention on corporate governance, emphasizing its critical role in business sustainability and economic growth. Organizations and companies need to tackle the essential elements of corporate governance in the course of their day-to-day existence. The essential elements of good corporate governance consist of the challenges of economic survival, appropriate control measures, business risk, accountability and long-term sustainability [6]. This research has been conducted within the domain of organizational behaviour which is defined as the understanding, prediction and management of human behaviour in organizations and investigates the impact that individuals, groups and structure have on behaviour within an organization and then applies that knowledge to improve an organization s effectiveness [11, 18]. Positive organizational behaviour (POB) follows the lead provided by recently emerging positive psychology, which in turn is driven by theory and research focusing on people s strengths and psychological abilities. Luthans further stresses Sonia Swanepoel (prof) is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Commerce and Administration at the North West University in South Africa ( sonia.swanepoel@nwu.ac.za). Rusty Rose-Innes (dr) is a consultant in South Africa ( rustyri@mweb.co.za). that leading and managing people involves much more than simply building on the strengths of people [12]. A small, but now rapidly growing group of psychologists led by the American Psychological Association s president, Martin Seligman, has begun to realize that an important positive approach, building on the strengths of people, has been neglected for too long [12]. II. ETHICAL CLIMATE Corporate scandals of the last few years have rocked financial markets in a variety of countries such as Enron, Worldcom, TYC (Texas Youth Commission), Rite Aid Corporate, Bernard Madoff s Ponzi scheme, Satyam Computer Services, Krion, Fidentia, Wendy Machanik Property Holdings and the most recent phone hacking of News of the World part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, to name but a few. Naidoo [15] defines ethics as the principles and standards that an organization espouses to guide it in its day-to-day business activities and its relations with internal and external stakeholders in accordance with established corporate values. Ethical climate has not received any or very little attention when studying ethics in general. [20]. Kohlberg [10] has developed a model that provides a theoretical basis for understanding how individuals think about ethical dilemmas. Kohlberg s research over the past 30 years has led to the development of this model. This model comprises of six stages: in the first and second stages the individual is concerned with concrete consequences, for example external reward and punishment; in stages three and four, right is that which conforms to the expectations of good of the larger society; and in stages five and six, right is determined by universal values or principles. Ethical climate is the unspoken understanding among employees of what is and what is not acceptable behaviour. They agree that in most organizations a moral atmosphere does prevail, therefore employees can feel the way ethical winds are blowing [5,17]. Ethical climates may be discontinuities in terms of maximizing one s own selfinterests and joint interests, or adherence to universal principles [3,7,14]. Ethical climate is also defined as the perceptions or psychologically meaningful descriptions which employees hold concerning the ethical procedures and policies present 556

2 in their organization or the perceptual lens that employees utilise in assessing a situation [19,22]. Psychological climate is the property of an individual of which ethical climate is one of the features, thus ethical climate is a shared set of norms, values and practices regarding appropriate behaviour in the workplace [2,21,28,30]. III. HOPE Hope is defined as a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful agency and pathways [9,26]. Hope is both a state and a trait [26]. It is argued that the study of hope may reflect a desire to enhance individual and shared future goals [24]. They advocate that environments are needed in which people can interact in supportive atmospheres to ensure that both individual and collective goals are achieved. Three fundamental mechanisms of hope are identified: Goals this is the basis or anchor of hope theory. Employees in organizations must know what is expected of them and they must value these goals and it must be perceived as attainable Pathways this indicate the different ways of attaining the goals. Employees will be confronted with obstacles and stumbling blocks while executing tasks to achieve goals. Employees high in pathways of thinking would be able to adapt and create different routes to achieving goals Agency thought this refer to the motivational aspect. This is a function of the ability to execute the tasks to achieve goals and is also referred to as mental willpower [1,8,13,24,25]. Literature indicates that high-hope and high-efficacious individuals tend to set out to achieve their goals and find creative ways to turn obstacles into challenges. On the other hand, low-hope and low-efficacious individuals give up and do not overcome challenges they encounter along the way. High-hope and high-efficacious individuals are concerned about moral issues in both the organization and their personal life. Agency (willpower) represents the motivation to develop plans (way power) to achieve successful outcomes. In this way power dimension set hope apart from usual meaning and the other positive constructs such as optimism and selfefficacy [11]. Pathways thinking tap the perceived ability to produce alternative routes to achieve set goals. Obstacles do not hamper people with a strong sense of pathway thinking; because they look for alternative ways to meet the desired goals [26]. High-hope employees that have agency and pathways may contribute to the competitive advantage of organizations and help turn environmental threats into economic challenges [13]. High-hope individuals see their goals as challenges and are inspired by them. They are flexible and think of several avenues by means of which to pursue their goals [4,13,23]. IV. METHOD This research was conducted in the aviation industry. The sample frame comprised 97 individuals (managers: 33, supervisors: 32 and employees: 32). The gender distributions of the participants were 23,72% male and 75.26% females from various levels within the organization, and ranged in age from 29 to 59. A. Measuring Instruments The two questionnaires, the Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ) by Victor and Cullen [29] and the State Hope Scale (SHS) by Snyder, Sympson, Ybasco, Borders, Babyak and Higgens [27] were utilised to measure the responses of the participants. B. Validity and Reliability Different approaches to determine the validity and reliability of the instrument are addressed. The scientific data are presented according to the specific responses of the participants to the ECQ and SHS. The data studied revealed evidence of validity and the reliability of the questionnaires. The Ethical Climate Questionnaire has been used since 1987, the Hope Scale was designed in 1991 and applied with great success. The data used revealed evidence of validity and the reliability of the questionnaires. As psychologists all over the world apply these instruments with great success, they are regarded as making valuable contributions to the field of social and behavioural sciences. V. RESULTS With reference to Table 1, the overall effect proved to be non-significant (F=0.773; p=0.742>p=0.05). The independent variables, level of functioning, age, and gender, all proved insignificant. The interactions were all nonsignificant. Due to the main effects and interactions effects being non-significant, it was considered not necessary to do post hoc comparisons as no significant differences could be expected. TABLE I ANOVA - ECQ BY DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS Source Type III sum of Df Mean square F Sig. squares Corrected a Model Intercept V V V V2*V V2*V V4*V *V Error Total Corrected total *p> 0.5 The information in Table II shows that no significant differences are prevalent among the independent variables in respect of State Hope Scale. The overall F- ratio is insignificant (F=1.178, p=0.295 > p=0.05). This ratio does not pinpoint the particular independent variables concerned. The three independent variables as well as their two-way 557

3 interactions were insignificant (p>0.05). However, the threeway interaction between levels of operation by gender and by age proved significant (F=3.519, p=0.019 < p=0.05). TABLE II ANOVA - SHS BY DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS Source Type III sum of Df Mean square F Sig. squares Corrected b Model Intercept * V V V V2*V V2*V V4*V *V *.019 Error Total Corrected total *p> 0.5 Pearson product moment correlation coefficients were calculated and the results are presented in Table III. TABLE III BRAVAIS-PEARSON PRODUCT MOMENT CORRELATION ECQ SHS ECQ Pearson correlation 1.245* Sig. (2-tailed).016 N SHS Pearson correlation.245* 1 * p.05 Sig. (2-tailed).016 N According to Table III, the two attitude scales correlate significantly and positively with one another (p< 0.05). The Levene test is a homogeneity of variance test that is less dependent on the assumption of normality than most tests and thus is particular useful with the analysis of variance [16]. TABLE IV LEVENE TEST Levene's test for equality of variances F Sig. ECQ assumed not assumed SHS assumed not assumed It is evident from Table IV that with regards to the ECQ and SES, the assumption of equality of variance is not violated. Inferential statistics were calculated by means of the Student s T-test. According to Table V there are no significant differences between the two gender groups on ECQ and SHS * p<.05 TABLE V T-TEST: ECQ AND SHS GENDER Measuring instruments T-test for equality of means T df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference ECQ Assumed not assumed SHS Assumed not assumed Assumed not assumed * p<.05 Owing to the male group being by far in the minority (N=23), a non-parametric inferential test was also done to determine difference between means, viz the Mann-Whitney U-Test for two independent samples (Table VI). TABLE VI MANN-WHITNEY U-TEST GENDER V4 N Mean rank Sum of ranks ECQ Total SHS Total 96 ECQ SHS Mann-WhitneyU Wilcoxon Z Asymp.sig (2-tailed) * p 0.05 It is evident from Table VI, that the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U- Test could also not detect any significant differences between the two gender groups. ECQ Between SHS Between G r o u Groups Within Groups * p 0.05 TABLE VII ONE-WAY ANOVA - LEVEL OF OPERATION Sum of squares df Mean squares F Sig The results of multiple regression calculations regarding the Ethical Climate Questionnaire as the dependent variable are presented in Table VIII. The standard regression coefficient, Beta, is contingent on the dependent variables in the equation but does not in any sense reflect the importance of the 558

4 independent variables. The t-statistics with their two-tailed significance levels are also displayed. TABLE VIII MULTIPLE REGRESSION - ETHICAL CLIMATE QUESTIONNAIRE Unstandardized Standardized coefficients coefficients Model B Std. error Beta T Sig. 1 (Constant) V V V The large significance levels suggest that the dependent variable and the independent variables are not linearly related. TABLE IX MULTIPLE REGRESSION: SUMMARY STATISTICS - ECQ Adjusted R Std. error of a As is evident from Table IX the Multiple R is 0.091, which leads to an R² of This indicates that the independent variables do not fall on the regression line. The value of R² also indicates that there is no linear relationship between the dependent and independent variables. TABLE X MULTIPLE REGRESSION STATE HOPE SCALE Unstandardized coefficients Standardized coefficients Model B Std. Error Beta T Sig. 1 (Constant) V V V Table X indicates that all three predictors appear in the model. However, the t-scores are not significant, thus indicating no linear relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The results of the summary statistics are presented in Table XI. TABLE XI SUMMARY STATISTICS SHS R square Adjusted R Std. error of a According to Table XI there is virtually no linear relationship between the dependent and independent variables. VI. DISCUSSION The individual reacts to an ethical dilemma with cognition determined by his or her cognitive moral development. The individual s cognitive development stage determines how he or she thinks about ethical issues, and decides what is right or wrong in a given situation. Individual and situational variables interact with the cognitive component to determine how an individual is likely to behave with regard to ethical issues. It is evident that hope influences an individual s reactions of what is right or wrong. High-hope individuals believe in themselves. They are challenged to achieve organizational and personal goals and to find alternative ways when confronted with obstacles. Their value systems determine their moral behaviour when confronted with ethical issues in the work environment. Characteristics of the job itself and the moral content of the organizational culture may have an impact on the moral development of the individual. It is proposed that hope influence an individual s acting on cognitions of what is right or wrong. High hope and high self-efficacious individuals believe in themselves. They are challenged to achieve organizational and personal goals and to find alternative ways when confronted with impediments. Their value systems determine their moral behaviour when confronted with ethical issues in the work environment. The relationship between ethical climate and hope as measured by the Bravais Pearson product moment correlation coefficient shows a positive relationship between the variables. The relationship between ethical climate and hope as measured by the Bravais Pearson product moment correlation coefficient shows a positive relationship between the variables, except in the case of V12 and VF13 (ECQ). Variable 12 correlates negatively with V20 of the SHS. No significant relationship could be detected between V13 and the six statements (V16-V22) of the SHS. The time has come for Human Resources Departments to recognize the potential power of fostering hope in the work environment. This study has revealed that high-hope employees can have a considerable positive impact on desirable workplace outcomes. On the basis of the results of the study, organizations are advised to: Make a study other variables such as relative optimism, trust, locus of control, self-esteem, perseverance, and achievement, and determine their correlation with ethical climate in organizations. Utilize positive employee characteristics such as high hope, high self-efficacy, and positive emotions. Develop employees critical moral awareness and understanding through training programmes dealing with cognitive moral development. Plan and provide programmes designed to enhance employees hope. It is evident that there is a need for research to determine the influence of other constructs on the ethical climate of organizations. The results of such research can have a positive impact on the ethical climate of organizations. Furthermore, the positive impact will create a sustainable 559

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