The German Ethical Culture Scale (GECS): Development and First Construct Testing.

Carmen Tanner,Nicole Witt,Katharina Gangl

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01667

Carmen Tanner, Nicole Witt + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01667

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Abstract

Misconduct in organizations (such as fraud, stealing, deception, and harming others) is not only a matter of some “bad apples” but also related to the organizational context (“bad barrels”), which can facilitate either ethical or unethical behaviors. Given the financial crisis and recurring corporate ethics scandals, policymakers, regulators and organizations are interested in how to change their organizational cultures to enhance ethical behavior and to prevent further disasters. For this purpose, organizations need to better understand what strategies and factors of the organizational environment can affect (un)ethical behavior. However, to assess the corporate ethical culture, solid measures are required. Since there is an urgent need to have a German measure to promote research in German-speaking countries, this research developed and tested the German Ethical Culture Scale (GECS). Drawing on a prominent approach that has received much attention from scholars and practitioners alike, the GECS attempts to integrate the notion of compliance- and integrity-based ethics programs (with its focus on how to steer organizations) with the notion of ethical culture (with its focus on what factors inhibit or foster ethical behavior). Three studies with heterogeneous samples of German and Swiss employees and managers were conducted to develop, test and validate the multidimensional scale (total N > 2000). Overall, the studies provide first evidence of the measure’s construct, criteria-related and incremental validity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the GECS and implications for future research.

Highlights

The financial crisis and recurring corporate ethics scandals have strengthened the interest of policymakers, regulators and industry in leveraging corporate culture to enhance ethical behavior
The goal of our research is to develop and provide a first testing of a German measure of features of a corporate ethical culture
The pool of 67 items was again subjected to an exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

Summary

Introduction

The financial crisis and recurring corporate ethics scandals have strengthened the interest of policymakers, regulators and industry in leveraging corporate culture to enhance ethical behavior. There is broad consensus that misconduct in organizations (such as fraud, stealing, deception, and harming others) is a matter of some “bad apples” and related to the organizational context (“bad barrels”), which can facilitate either ethical or unethical behaviors To manage this challenge, organizations need to better understand what strategies and factors that make up the organizational environment influence (un)ethical behavior. There is an urgent need to develop a German measure to make it possible to advance research on ethical culture in countries with German-speaking populations, such as Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, which encompass an overall population of approximately 100 million people It is about the possibility of advancing research in German-speaking countries and offering organizations in those countries instruments to obtain information about the existing organizational environment in the firm, to deduce interventions and to monitor potential progress. Not all firms are international, so it cannot be expected that all people understand and speak English fluently

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