دانلود رایگان مقاله هویت اخلاقی سازمانی و اعتماد کارکنان به همکاران ناظر و سازمان

abstract

Organizational ethical climate (OEC) is an important aspect of the organizational context that has generated a consolidated stream of research. However, the literature exploring its impact on organizational trust has three key limitations: scarcity, fragmentation, and under-theorization. In an attempt to address these limitations, we examine the effects of employees' perceptions of three types of OEC — benevolent, principled and egoistic — and organizational trust in different referents – colleagues, the supervisor, and the organization. We develop a set of baseline hypotheses on the effects of three types of OEC on trust in colleagues, in the supervisor, and in the organization. Drawing on Attribution Theory and Social Exchange Theory, we develop specific hypotheses on the relative strengths of those associations. The hypotheses are tested on a large-scale, probabilistic sample of 6000 employees in six EU countries. The paper concludes by discussing the findings, presenting their practical implications, and proposing avenues for future research.

5. Discussion

In the following three paragraphs, we discuss and highlight the implications of our findings on (i) the baseline predictions on the OECs – trust relations (HPs 1–3), (ii) the AT-informed predictions on the effects of OECs on trust in different references (HP4), and (iii) the SET-informed predictions on the effects on each type of OEC on organizational trust (HP5). In regard to the OECs-trust relations, we found support for our baseline hypotheses (i.e., H1 and H2) regarding the positive effects of employees' perception of benevolent and principled OECs. The results did not support HP3 on the negative effects of employees' perception of an egoistic ethical climate. In this regard, past studies have reported two contrasting results: (i) the perceived egoistic climate is not likely to occur concurrently with perceived benevolent and principled OECs in an organization (Bulutlar & Öz, 2009; Parboteeah et al., 2010); (ii) employees' perceptions of egoistic, principled and benevolent OECs can co-exist in the same organization (Victor & Cullen, 1988). Our results support the idea that perceived egoistic OEC does not stand in stark contrast to perceived principled and benevolent OECs. Indeed, the findings of this paper suggest that the perception of egoistic OEC does not imply a decrease of trust in any of the referents considered. When organizational actors pursue their self-interest, employees do not necessarily perceive themselves as provided with fewer resources, which could then result in less interest in reciprocating with trust. On the contrary, the resources perceived by employees seem not to depend on the establishment of an egoistic climate. It is indeed likely that even in a more egoistic climate, employees may perceive the organizational environment as resourceful.