RT Article
T1 Advancing Ethics in Public Organizations: The Impact of an Ethics Program on Employees’ Perceptions and Behaviors in a Regional Council
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 112
IS 1
SP 59
OP 78
A1 Beeri, Itai
A1 Dayan, Rachel
A1 Vigoda-Gadot, Eran
A1 Werner, Simcha B.
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2013
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1785646478
AB Ethics in public administration has been a subject of growing interest for both researchers and practitioners interested in the future of governance. This study examined the relationship between ethics and performance in local governance. We tested the effects over time of an ethics program on employees’ perceptions (awareness of the code of ethics, ethical leadership, inclusion of employees in ethical decision making [EDM], ethical climate [EC], organizational commitment, and quality of work life [QWL]) and behavior (organizational citizenship behavior) in one Israeli regional council. We conducted a longitudinal study of 108 employees, using data from a two-phase survey (before implementation of the ethics program and a year after) and objective assessments of employees’ behavior through managers’ evaluations. The main findings show that the ethics program was very effective, resulting in greater awareness of the code of ethics, increased inclusion of employees in EDM, and an improved EC. Furthermore, ethical leadership was positively related to employees’ awareness of the code of ethics, increased inclusion of employees in EDM, an improvement in the EC, greater organizational commitment, and higher QWL. Implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed.
K1 Local Government
K1 Organizational Citizenship Behavior
K1 Quality of work life
K1 Organizational Commitment
K1 Ethical Climate
K1 Ethical decision making
K1 Ethical Leadership
K1 codes of ethics
K1 Ethics program
K1 Public organizations
DO 10.1007/s10551-012-1232-7