The Impacts of Perceived Ethical Climate and Codes of Ethics on Employees’ Deviant Behaviors in Organizations

Abstract

This study investigates how ethical climate and perceived existence of organizational ethical codes impact employee deviance. Due to the importance and extensiveness of the employee deviant behavior problem, it is found denotative to examine the antecedents contributing to the occurrence of employee deviance in organizations. In the light of the previous literature study, several factors that have been associated with employee deviance have been reviewed and it was seen that workplace ethics was examined as a contextual variable influencing such behaviors in the organizations. Thus, in the current study, it was aimed to evaluate the impacts of existence of ethical codes and ethical climate on employees’ deviant behaviors within the organization. A quantitative survey was performed among 230 employees in public and private organizations in various sectors, such as education, health, insurance, banking, telecommunication, and retailing. The data obtained from the research were evaluated with statistical programme and the findings revealed that all five dimensions of ethical climate had significant impacts on organizational deviance. The instrumental and independence dimensions had positive impacts on organizational deviance, whereas caring, law and codes and rules dimensions had negative impacts on such behaviors. Further, it was reported that the perceived existence of organizational code of conduct had significant negative impact on organizational deviance. The findings of the research were evaluated and discussed with the implications of the previous empirical findings and both conceptual and practical suggestions were provided for the future studies.