Ethics-related selection and reduced ethical conflict as drivers of positive work attitudes

Abstract

Purpose– There is reason to believe that an ethically minded approach to hiring and the development of an ethical context should be associated with incremental decreases in employees’ perceptions of ethical conflict. It is also likely that the selection of ethical employees, and the reduced ethical conflict that follows, are positively related to employees’ positive work attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to test these relationships.Design/methodology/approach– Using a self-report questionnaire, information was collected from 187 employees working for a medium-sized financial services organization with offices located primarily in the Midwestern USA.Findings– Results of structural equation modeling indicated that employees’ perceptions of ethics-related selection were negatively related to perceived ethical conflict, and that reduced ethical conflict and enhanced ethics-related selection were associated with an increased positive work attitude, which was comprised of job satisfaction, an intention to stay, and organizational commitment.Research limitations/implications– The results cannot prove causal association between the constructs, and the use of one focal firm limits generalizability.Practical implications– Organizational leaders and HR professionals should develop ethics-based hiring practices to reduce ethical conflict and strengthen a company's ethical context.Originality/value– This investigation is relevant because strong relationships among ethics-related hiring, ethical conflict, and positive work attitudes would suggest that companies must use ethical selection criteria and maintain an ethical culture/climate that meets or exceeds employees’ expectations about ethics. Furthermore, this study adds to the relatively few published works exploring the relationship between ethical conflict and work attitudes.