Ethical Climates and Their Effects on Organizational Outcomes: Implications From the Past and Prophecies for the Future

Abstract

Executive Overview Ethical climate theory was first proposed by Victor and Cullen (1987, 1988). Ever since, it has been useful in increasing our knowledge on a variety of organizational outcomes such as workplace bullying, organizational commitment, ethical behavior, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. In this paper, we scrutinize the extant research on ethical climates to provide an understanding of what has been observed thus far, and what else ethical climate theory could be harnessed to examine. We also provide a critique of the ethical climate theory literature base and suggest a future research agenda for ethical climate theory.