<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Employers that emphasise ethics often encourage a variety of positive work-related outcomes, yet the manner inwhich different ethics policies and corporate social responsibility (CSR) enhance employee attitudes is still subject toinvestigation. Consequently, this study explored how ethics training and an ethics code work with perceived social responsibility to encourage positive feelings about work. Using survey data collected from 781 individuals employed in an education-based health science centre, the results indicated that hours of ethics training and a shared ethics code operated through perceived social responsibility to enhance a positive work attitude, measured as job satisfaction and an intention to stay. Creating an ethical environment and emphasising socially responsible business practices should encourage employees to respond more favourably to the workplace. In particular, companies should use ethics codes and training to emphasise CSR, thus enhancing employees’ work attitudes.</p></abstract>

Employers that emphasise ethics often encourage a variety of positive work-related outcomes, yet the manner inwhich different ethics policies and corporate social responsibility (CSR) enhance employee attitudes is still subject toinvestigation. Consequently, this study explored how ethics training and an ethics code work with perceived social responsibility to encourage positive feelings about work. Using survey data collected from 781 individuals employed in an education-based health science centre, the results indicated that hours of ethics training and a shared ethics code operated through perceived social responsibility to enhance a positive work attitude, measured as job satisfaction and an intention to stay. Creating an ethical environment and emphasising socially responsible business practices should encourage employees to respond more favourably to the workplace. In particular, companies should use ethics codes and training to emphasise CSR, thus enhancing employees’ work attitudes.

Ethics policies, perceived social responsibility, and positive work attitude

The Irish Journal of Management

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Ethics policies, perceived social responsibility, and positive work attitude"}

Employers that emphasise ethics often encourage a variety of positive work-related outcomes, yet the manner inwhich different ethics policies and corporate...

Variable	M	SD	N	1		2		3		4		5	6
1.Hours of ethics training	4.49	10.22	674	--
2.Sharing an ethics code	1.76	.43	744	.12	p < .01	--
3.Perceived social responsibility	4.98	1.23	725	.11	p < .01	.22	p < .001;	--
4.Job satisfaction	5.53	1.30	772	.08	p < .05.	.16	p < .001;	.53	p < .001;	--
5.Intention to stay	4.80	1.78	775	.08	p < .05.	.17	p < .001;	.55	p < .001;	.68	p < .001;	--
6.Social desirability	17.02	1.95	744	.08	p < .05.	.04		.03		.09	p < .05.	.05	--

Ethics policies, perceived social responsibility, and positive work attitude

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Dec 30, 2016

Page range: 114 - 128

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijm-2016-0013

Keywords
corporate social responsibility, ethics policies/programs, job attitudes

© 2016 Sean Valentine, Lynn Godkin, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Variable descriptive statistics and correlations

Ethics policies, perceived social responsibility, and positive work attitude

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Dec 30, 2016

Page range: 114 - 128

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijm-2016-0013

Keywordscorporate social responsibility, ethics policies/programs, job attitudes

© 2016 Sean Valentine, Lynn Godkin, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Variable descriptive statistics and correlations

Keywords
corporate social responsibility, ethics policies/programs, job attitudes