Investigating the Relationship Between Ethics Program Components, Individual Attributes, and Perceptions of Ethical Climate

Though research has identified common outcomes of ethical work climates, less is known regarding its antecedents. Situational components such as ethics programs and individual, moral-related variables such as moral identity and moral attentiveness may influence the way employees perceive the ethical climate of their organization. I conducted t-tests and calculated bivariate correlations to determine if there were significant relationships between ethics program components, individual moral-related variables and ethical climate dimensions. My results (N = 422 recruited from Mechanical Turk) revealed that ethics program components and individual, moral-related variables are significantly related to multiple dimensions of ethical climate. Most significant relationships were observed when caring, law and code, and rules climate dimensions were the outcomes, suggesting conceptual overlap between these climate dimensions. Also, it is likely that climate dimensions influence the types of employees who are attracted and hired