Abstract
The high turnover of nurses has become a global problem. Several studies have proposed that nurses’ perceptions of the ethical climate of their organization are related to higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and thus lead to lower turnover. However, there is limited empirical evidence supporting a relationship between different types of ethical climate within organizations and facets of job satisfaction. Furthermore, no published studies have investigated the impact of different types of ethical climate on the three components of organizational commitment. This study attempts to explore the different types of ethical climate that exist in hospitals, and the degree of job satisfaction and organizational commitment of nurses in Taiwan. It uses path analysis to understand which types of ethical climate influence different facets of job satisfaction. The study also examines the impact of different types of ethical climate and facets of job satisfaction on the three components of organizational commitment. Questionnaires were distributed to 352 nurses. The relationships among variables were assessed by factor analysis, reliability, descriptive statistics, correlations, and regression. The important conclusion is that hospitals can increase job satisfaction and organizational commitment by influencing an organization’s ethical climate. Hospital administrators can foster within organizations the climate types of caring, independent, and rules climate that increase satisfaction, while preventing organizations from developing the type of instrumental climate that decreases it.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams J. S., A. Tashchain T. H. Shore (2001) Codes of Ethics as Signals for Ethical Behavior. Journal of Business Ethics 29(3), 199–211
Allen N. J., J. P. Meyer (1990) The Measurement and Antecedents of Affective, Continuance and Normative Commitment to the Organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology 63, 1–18
Allen N. J., J. P. Meyer (1996) Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment to the Organization: An Examination of Construct Validity. Journal of Vocational Behavior 49, 252–276
Andrews D. R., S. F. Dziegielewski (2005) The Nurse Manager: Job Satisfaction, The Nursing Shortage and Retention. Journal of Nursing Management 13, 286–295
Bagozzi R. P., Y. Yi (1991) Multitrait-multimethod Matrices in Consumer Research. Journal of Consumer Research 17, 426–439
Bart C. K. (1997) Sex, Lies, and Mission Statements. Business Horizons 40(6), 215–236
Blegen M. (1993) Nurses’ Job Satisfaction: A Meta-analysis of Related Variables. Nursing Research 42(1), 36–41
Bluedorn A. C. (1982) The Theories of Turnover: Causes, Effects, and Meaning. In: S. B. Bacharach (ed.), Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 1, Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, pp. 75–128
Brown S., R. Peterson (1993) Antecedents and Consequences of Salesperson Job Satisfaction: Meta-analysis and Assessment of Causal Effects. Journal of Marketing Research 30, 63–77
Buchko A. A., L. G. Weinzimmer, A. V. Sergeyev (1998) Effects of Cultural Context on the Antecedents, Correlates, and Consequences of Organizational Commitment: A Study of Russian Workers. Journal of Business Research 43, 109–116.
Carroll, A. B.: 1978, ‹Linking Business Ethics to Behavior in Organizations’, Society for Advancement of Management, summer, 4–11
Cellucci, A. J. and D. L. DeVries: 1978, Measuring Managerial Satisfaction: A Manual for the MJSQ. Technical Report II, Center for Creative Leadership
Cheng Y., M.S. Stockdale (2003) The Validity of the Three-component Model of Organizational Commitment in a Chinese Context. Journal of Vocational Behavior 62, 465–489
Chen Z. X., A. M. Francesco (2003) The Relationship between the Three Components of Commitment and Employee Performance in China. Journal of Vocational Behavior 62, 490–510
Cullen J. B., K. P. Parboteeah, B. Victor (2003) The Effects of Ethical Climates on Organizational Commitment: A Two-study Analysis. Journal of Business Ethics 46, 127–141
Currivan D. B. (1999) The Causal Order of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in models of Employee Turnover. Human Resource Management Review 9, 495–524
Delaney J. T., D. Sockell (1992), Do Company Ethics Training Programs Make a Difference? An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Business Ethics 11(4), 719–727
Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, R. O. C.: 2005, Health and National Health Insurance Annual Statistics Information Service. Available at: http://www.doh.gov.tw/statistic/indes.htm. Accessed on March 27, 2006
Deshpande S. P (1996) The Impact of Ethical Climate Types on Facets of Job Satisfaction: An Empirical Investigation. Journal of Business Ethics 15, 655–660
Dubinsky A., S. Hartley (1986) Antecedents of Retail Salesperson Performance: A path-analytic Perspective. Journal of Business Research 14, 253–268
Erondu E. A., A. Sharland, J. O. Okpara (2004) Coporate Ethics in Nigeria: A Test of the Concept of an Ethical Climate. Journal of Business Ethics 51(4), 349–357
Hackett R. D., P. Bycio, P. A. Hausdorf (1994) Further Assessments of Meyer and Allen’s (1991) Three-component Model of Organizational Commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology 79, 15–23
Hair J. F. Jr., R. E. Anderson, R. L. Tatham, W. C. Black (1998), Multivariate Data Analysis, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ
Hitt W. D. (1990), Ethics and Leadership: Putting Theory into Practices. Battelle. Memorial Institute, Columbus
Hunt S. D., V. R. Wood, L. B. Chonko (1989). ‹Corporate Ethical Values and Organizational Commitment in Marketing. Journal of Marketing 53, 79–90
Irvine D. M., M. G. Evans (1995) Job Satisfaction and Turnover among Nurses-integrating Research across Studies. Nursing Research 44(4), 246–253
Iverson R. D., P. Roy (1994) A Causal Model of Behavioral Commitment: Evidence from a Study of Australian Blue-collar Employees. Journal of Management 20, 15–41.
Jaros S. J. (1997) An Assessment of Meyer and Allen’s (1991) Three-Component Model of Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intentions. Journal of Vocational Behavior 51, 319–337
Johnson J. J., C. L. McIntye (1998) Organizational Culture and Climate Correlates of Job Satisfaction. Psychological Reports 82, 843–850
Johnston M., A. Parasuraman, C. Futrell, W. Black (1990) A Longitudinal Assessment of the Impact of Selected Organizational Influences on Salespeople’s Organizational Commitment during Early Employment. Journal of Marketing Research 27, 333–344
Joseph J., S. P. Deshpande (1997) The Impact of Ethical Climate on Job Satisfaction of Nurses. Health Care Management Review 22(1), 76–81
Kingma M. (2001) Nursing Migration: Global Treasure Hunt or Disaster-in-the-marking? Nursing Inquiry 8, 205–212
Koh H. C., E. H. Y. Boo (2001) The Link between Organizational Ethics and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Managers in Singapore. Journal of Business Ethics 29, 309–324
Kohlberg L. (1984), The Philosophy of Moral Development. Harper & Row, New York
Leach L. S. (2005) Nurse Executive Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment. Journal of Nursing Administration 35(5), 228–237
Leigh J. H., P. E. Murphy (1999) The Role of Formal Policies and Informal Culture on Ethical Decision Making by Marketing Managers. In: S. J. Vitell, D. P Robin (eds), Theoretical Foundations in Marketing Ethics. JAI Press, Stamford, CT, pp. 69–99
Lincoln J. R., A. L. Kalleberg (1990), Culture, Control and Commitment: A Study of Work Organization and Work Orientations in the United States and Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Martin, K. D. and J. B. Cullen: 2006, ‹Continuities and Extensions of Ethical Climate Theory: A Meta- Analysis Review’, Journal of Business Ethics, DOI 10.1007/s10551–006-9084-7
McDonald G. M., R. A. Zepp (1990) What should be done? A Practice Approach to Business Ethics. Management Decision 28, 9–14.
Meyer J. P., N. J. Allen (1984): ‹Testing the “Side-bet Theory” of Organizational Commitment: Some Methodological Considerations. Journal of Applied Psychology 69, 372–378.
Meyer J. P., N. J. Allen (1991) A Three-component Conceptualization of Organizational Commitment. Human Resource management Review 1, 61–89
Meyer J. P., N. J. Allen (1997) Commitment in the Workplace: Theory, Research, and Application. Sage, Thousand Oaks
Meyer J. P., D. J. Stanley, L. Herscovitch, L. Topolnytsky (2002) Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment to the Organization: A Meta-analysis of Antecedents, Correlates, and Consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior 61, 20–52
Meyer J. P., N. J. Allen, C. A. Smith (1993) Commitment to Organizations and Occupations: Extension and Test of a Three-component Conceptualization. Journal of Applied Psychology 78, 538–551.
Mowday R. T., R. M. Steers, L. W. Porter (1979) The Measure of Organizational Commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior 14, 224–247
Mowday R. T., L. W. Porter, R. M. Steers (1982), Employee-organization Linkages: The Psychology of Commitment, Absenteeism, and Turnover. New York: Academic Press
Mueller C. W., E. M Boyer, J. L. Price, R. D. Iverson (1994) Employee Attachment and Noncoercive Conditions of Work: The Case of Dental Hygienists. Work and Occupations 21, 179–212
Ostroff C. (1993) The Effects of Climate and Personal Influences on Individual Behavior and Attitudes in Organizations. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Process 56, 56–90
Pierce L. L., C. M. Hazel, L. C. Mion (1996) Effect of a Professional Model on Autonomy, Job Satisfaction and Turnover. Nursing Management 27, 48M–48T
Podsakoff P. M., S. B. Mackenzie, J. Lee, N. P. Podsakoff (2003) Common Method Biases in Behavioral Research: A Critical Review of the Literature and Recommended Remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology 88(5), 879–903
Porter L. W., R. M. Steers, R. T. Mowday, P. V. Boulian (1974) Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover among Psychiatric Technicians. Journal of Applied Psychology 59, 603–609
Schneider B. (1983) Work Climates: An Interactionist Perspective. In: N. W. Feimer, E. S. Geller (eds), Environmental Psychology: Directions and Perspectives. Praeger, New York, pp. 106–128
Schultz D. P. (1982), Psychology and Industry Today: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.
Schwepker C. H. (2001) Ethical Climate’s Relationship to Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intention in the Salesforce. Journal of Business Research 54, 39–52
Schwepker C. H., O. C. Ferrell, T. N. Ingram (1997) The Influence of Ethical Climate and Ethical Conflict on Role Stress in the Sales Force. Journal of Academic Marketing Science 25, 99–108.
Sinclair A. (1993) Approaches to Organizational Culture and Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 12, 63–67
Somers M. J. (1995) Organizational Commitment, Turnover and Absenteeism: An Examination of Direct and Interaction Effects. Journal of Organizational Behavior 16, 49–58
Trevino L. K., K. D. Butterfield, K. L. Mcabe (1998) The Ethical Context in Organizations: Influence on Employee Attitudes and Behaviors. Business Ethics Quarterly 8, 447–476
Trevino L. K., K. A. Nelson (1999), Managing Business Ethics, Straight Talk about How to Do It Right. 2nd ed, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York
Trevino L. K., L. P. Hartman, M. Brown (2000), Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for Ethical Leadership. California Management Review 42(4), 128–142
Valentine S., L. Godkin, M. Lucero (2002) Ethical Context, Organizational Commitment, and Person-organization Fit. Journal of Business Ethics 41, 349–360
Victor B., J. B. Cullen (1988) The organizational bases of ethical work climates. Administrative Science Quarterly 33, 101–125
Victor B., J. B. Cullen (1987), A Theory and Measure of Ethical Climate in Organizations, In: W. C. Frederick, L. E. Preston (eds), Business Ethics: Research issues and empirical studies. JAI Press Inc., Greenwich, CT, pp. 77–97
Viswesvaran C., S. P. Deshpande (1996) Ethics, Success, and Job Satisfaction: A Test of Dissonance Theory in India. Journal of Business Ethics 15, 1065–1069
Vitell S. J., D. L. Davis (1990) The Relationship Between Ethics and Job Satisfaction: An Empirical Investigation. Journal of Business Ethics 9, 489–494
Weaver G. R., L. K. Trevino, P. L. Cochran (1999) Corporate Ethics Practices in the Mid1990’s: Am Empirical Study of the Fortune 1000. Journal of Business Ethics, 18(3), 283–294
Wiener Y. (1982) Commitment in Organizations: A Normative Review. Academy of Management Review 7, 418–428
Wimbush J. C., J. M. Shepard (1994) Toward An Understanding of Ethical Climate: Its Relationship to Ethical Behavior and Supervisory Influence. Journal of Business Ethics 13, 637–647
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Ming-Tien Tsai is a professor of Business Administration at National Chen Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in the United States. Dr. Tsai has published articles in the Quality & Quantity, Journal of Information and Optimization Sciences, Journal of Knowledge Management, International Journal of Management, The Journal of American Academy of Business, and elsewhere.
Chun-Chen Huang is a Ph.D. candidate of Business Administration at National Chen Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. She is also a lecturer of Department of International Business Management, Wu-Feng Institute of Technology, Chiayi, Taiwan. She has taught “Business Ethics” for 8 years.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tsai, MT., Huang, CC. The Relationship among Ethical Climate Types, Facets of Job Satisfaction, and the Three Components of Organizational Commitment: A Study of Nurses in Taiwan. J Bus Ethics 80, 565–581 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9455-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9455-8