The Influence of Ethical Climate on Job Attitudes : A Study on Nurses in Egypt

Background: Ethical Climate (EC) has emerged as one of the major approaches to the description of the ethical characteristics of workplace environments. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of EC on Job Satisfaction (JS) and Organizational Commitment (OC) of nurses at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt. Research Design/Methodology: Using Victor and Cullen's (1988) typology of EC and JA, the study develops a number of hypotheses and tests them on a sample of 340 nurses from Teaching Hospitals in Egypt. Statistically usable questionnaires amounted to 295 as multiple follow-ups are produced. Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) was used to confirm the research hypotheses. Findings: EC significantly and positively influenced JS and OC. Overall, respondents reported high OC and this contributes to fostering JS and reducing turnover intention. Practical implications: The study suggests that a hospital can improve JS and OC by influencing its EC, specifically, by developing the caring, law and code, rule, instrumentality, and independence climate. Originality/value: The study observes that there is a critical shortage of nurses in Egypt and that a greater understanding of the factors that influence nurses' turnover, including JS, is of great importance. Therefore, this study is to examine the relationship between EC and JA among nurses in Egypt.


Introduction
Organizations are increasingly paying attention to issues related to ethics.A good work climate is evaluated as a critical factor for organizations and business problems involving ethics are increasing (Singhapakdi, 2010).
In recent years, ethical behaviour and actions attempting to ensure good ethical behaviour have been the focus of considerable attention within the public sector (Shacklock, 2006).
In business research, the psychological field has been empirically operationalized as organizational climate (Manning, 2010), and in ethics research, it has been defined more specifically as EC (Tseng & Fan, 2011).
The negative impact of unethical behavior (such as embezzlement, fraudulent billing practices, deception, favoritism, and nepotism) on public organizations is undeniable.Unethical behavior is one of the most dangerous ills of modern governance, with the potential to damage public trust in government.The need to improve the ethical standards has become a major issue on the public agenda throughout the Western world and in modernizing countries (Beeri et al., 2013).
The impacts of unethical practices on business vary.First, consumers may dislike products and services of organizations with unethical reputations (Roman & Ruiz, 2005).Second, the firm's liability, financial risk, and costs may get exacerbated (Neese et al., 2005).Third, employees may face lower levels of JS, low performance, turnover intention, and low organizational citizenship behavior (Leung, 2008).
EC is how people in an organization typically decide whether it is right or wrong to pay kickbacks.It hypothesizes the following: (1) Organizations and subgroups within organizations develop different institutionalized normative systems; (2) although not completely homogeneous, these normative systems are known to organizational members sufficiently well to be perceived as a type of work climate; and (3) perceptions of EC differ from affective evaluations of EC (Victor & Cullen, 1988).
EC refers to the prevailing attitudes about the firm's standards concerning appropriate conduct in the organization (Kelley & Dorsch, 1991).It sets the tone for decision making at all levels and in all circumstances (Sims, 1992).EC is the shared perception of how ethical issues should be addressed and what is considered ethically correct behavior (Deshpande, 1996).
EC refers to the perceptions of the ethical standards that are reflected in the organization's practices, procedures, norms, and values (Babin et. al., 2000).It is an appropriate indicator of the implementation policies of executive managers and whether executive managers have protected the interests of extended stakeholders, or only those of owners and managers (Ruppel & Harrington, 2000).
EC is the unspoken understanding among employees of what is regarded as acceptable behaviour and what is not.In most organizations a moral atmosphere does prevail, therefore employees can feel the way ethical winds are blowing (Post et al., 2002).It is influenced by individual and organizational characteristics, while its impact on various forms of organizational performance has been demonstrated (Malloy & Agarwal, 2003).
EC encompasses (1) the formal and informal actions and decisions of employees and leadership directed at promoting ethical professional behavior-i.e., openness, transparency, and fidelity to the public interest and (2) shared beliefs and perceptions regarding the organization's moral priorities, decision making, norms, and behavior (Feldheim & Wang, 2004).
EC is a group of prescriptive climates reflecting the organizational procedures, policies, and practices with moral consequences (Martin & Cullen, 2006).It is a shared set of norms, values and practices regarding appropriate behaviour in the workplace (Belak, & Mulej, 2009;Shafer, 2009).
EC is the perceptions or psychologically meaningful descriptions which employees hold concerning the ethical procedures and policies present in their organization or the perceptual lens that employees utilize in assessing a situation (Shapira-Lishchinsky & Rosenblatt, 2010).
EC makes an environment that enhances ethical values, clarifies role ambiguities, and provides a clear direction for ethical decision making in ethical situations enabling individuals to enjoy their works (Khan, 2012).
There are five different types of EC.They are caring, instrumental, law and code, rules, and independence.Instrumental climate is at the intersection of individual and local loci of analysis and the egoism ethical criterion.Caring climate is at the intersection of individual and local loci of analysis and the benevolence ethical criterion.The other three climate types (law and code, rules, and independence) are principal ethical criterion varying by individual, local, and cosmopolitan locus of analysis (Martin & Cullen, 2006).Detailed reviews of five EC types are discussed in the following section (Victor & Cullen, 1988):


The Caring climate, where employees are expected to act in a way which is best for all enterprise stakeholders.Caring is corresponding to the degree to which the environment may be characterized by workers who are sincerely interested in the well-being of each other.Caring climate is associated with egoism ethical criteria at the cosmopolitan level and benevolence at all levels.Caring climate has genuine or sincere attitude towards others' welfare within and outside the organization that might be affected by their ethical decision.


The Law and Code Climate, where employees are expected to respect and obey the law as well as codes and professional standards.Law and code correspond to the degree to which employees adhere strictly to the codes and regulations of their profession and government.Law and code climate is associated with the principal criteria at the cosmopolitan level.Law and code are directed by laws, regulations and professional code.


The Rules Climate, where employees must obey rules and procedures determined by the enterprise.It is corresponding to the degree to which employees strictly adhere to the rules and mandates of their organization or subunit.It is associated with the principal ethical criteria and organizations rules and procedures determined by the organization such as code of conduct.Rules climate is associated with the principal ethical criterion.


The Instrumental Climate, where fulfillment of individual interests is in focus; It is corresponding to the degree to which employees look out for their own self-interest.The instrumental climate involves egoism criteria at the individual and local levels.In this climate, personal interest and organizational interest are important.


The Independence Climate, where employees are expected to follow their own moral beliefs in their decision making.It is referring to the degree to which employees would be expected to be guided by their personal moral beliefs.Independence climate is associated with principal criteria at the individual level.It is guided by personal convictions and personal morality.

Job Attitudes
EC was found as one of important variables that will affect JA in which employees will become more satisfied and committed as they perceived their organization's climate as ethical (Schwepker, 2001).Employees will have greater OC and greater JS when they achieved a good EC with their organization.Thus, employees will look for and choose to work in the organization that matches their ethical preferences (Sims, & Kroeck, 1994).

Job Satisfaction
JS has been one of the most widely studied concepts in management literature (Wilson, 1996).It refers to an employee's general attitude toward his or her job.An individual who is satisfied with his or her job holds positive attitude toward the job (Robbins, 2000).JS is a positive (or negative) evaluative judgment one makes about one's job or job situation (Weis, 2002).
As JS is multidimensional, a worker may variably be satisfied with job, supervisor, pay, workplace, and so forth.A number of elements makes up JS, including salary, clarity of job responsibilities, relationship with colleagues inside and outside one's unit and organization, organizational climate, career development, opportunities for advancement, and general perceptions of work environment (Rosser, 2004).
JS is a positive emotional reaction to a particular job (Oshagbemi, 2003).It is not a unitary concept.An employee can be relatively satisfied with one aspect of job and dissatisfied with one or more other aspects (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2004).
JS is explained as the feelings a worker has about his or her job experiences related to previous experiences, current expectations, or available alternatives (Zarea et al., 2009).It is the amount of pleasure an employee has with the job (Dendaas, 2004), and can differ from employee to employee and is a subject widely researched in organizations (Farsi et al., 2010).
There are two dimensions of JS.They are internal satisfaction and external satisfaction (Judge & Bono, 2001;Best & Thurston, 2004):  Internal Satisfaction: the opportunities to demonstrate abilities, sense of achievement obtained from work, ethical values of the work, opportunities to provide services.


External Satisfaction: job content, salary, unobstructed channels for promotion, work environment and equipment.

Organizational Commitment
Commitment is an obliging force which requires that the person honor the commitment, even in the face of fluctuating attitudes and whims (Brown, 1996).
OC is important because committed employees are likely to be more willing to make personal sacrifices for the sake of organization (Vitell & Singhapakdi, 2007).
It is a relative strength of a person's identification and involvement with the organization, as reflected in (1) acceptance of the organization's goals and values; (2) willingness to invest effort in the organization; and (3) a desire to belong to the organization (Porter et al., 1974;Mowday et al., 1979).
It is generally an employee's interest in, and affiliation to, an organization.Commitment entails pursuing goals of the organizations and desire not to leave them.Characteristics of OC include: (1) staunchly believing in and accepting the organization's goals and values; (2) truly serving the organization, and (3) staunch affiliation to the organization (Meyer & Allen, 1991).
OC refers to employees' feeling and levels of attachment to their organizations.OC is a multi-dimensional phenomenon (Barlett, 2001).It can be classified into three categories.They are affective, continuance and normative.Each category is related to the other and they represent employee's relationship with organizations.All of the types of commitment have implications for the decision to continue or discontinue membership of organization (Meyer et al., 2002).
A highly committed individual strongly believes in and accepts the organization's goals and values, willingly exerts considerable effort on behalf of the organization and strongly desires to remain a member of the organization (Dubin at al., 1975;Steer, 1977).High level of OC represents a positive manner that could add meaning to life for employees, increased performance, reduced turnover and absenteeism for organization (Mowday, 1998).High OC may blind some employees to the ethical problems in their organization (Hunt et al., 1989).
Moreover, low levels of commitment are largely dysfunctional for both the individual and the organization.The costs of commitment outweigh the advantages at high levels of commitment.So commitment may be at moderate level where both individual and organizational needs may be balanced (Randall, 1987).
OC looks like a strong magnetic force attracting one metallic object to another and indicates the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and wants to remain within the organization in future (Awad & Alhashemi, 2012).OC can be classified into three dimensions.They are value, effort, and retention commitment (Porter et al., 1974;Trimble, 2006): Strong beliefs in and acceptance of the organizational objectives and values.
 Effort Commitment: Willingness to dedicate more efforts for the organizational benefits.
 Retention Commitment: Willingness to stay in the organization as a member of the organization.

Research Model
The proposed comprehensive conceptual model is presented in Figure ( 1).The diagram below shows that there is one independent variable for the study (EC).
There is one dependent variable (JA).It shows the rational link among the two types of observed variables i.e. independent, and dependent variables.From the above discussion, the research model is as shown in Figure (1) below.
Figure 1.Proposed comprehensive conceptual model The research framework suggests that EC in an organization have an impact on job attitudes (JS and OC).An EC as measured in this research consists of caring, law and code, rules, instrumental, and independence (Victor & Cullen (1988).
JS is measured in terms of the internal satisfaction and external satisfaction (Judge & Bono, 2001;Best & Thurston, 2004).OC is measured in terms of value, effort, and retention commitment (Porter et al., 1974;Trimble, 2006).

Research Questions and Hypotheses
The attempt of this study was to determine: Q1: The nature and the extent of the relationship between ethical climate and job satisfaction of nurses at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt.

Q2: The nature and extent of the relationship between ethical climate and organizational commitment of nurses at
Teaching Hospitals in Egypt.
The following hypotheses were developed to the test if there is a significant correlation between EC, JS and OC.
H1: Nurses' perception of ethical climate at hospital has no significant effect on job satisfaction at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt.
H2: Nurses'perception of ethical climate at hospital has no significant effect on organizational commitment at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt.

Population and Sample
The population of the study included only nurses at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt.The total population is 2.924 nurses.Determination of respondent sample size was calculated using the formula (Daniel, 1999) as follows: So the number of samples obtained by 295 nurses at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt is as presented in

Procedure
The goal of this study was to identify the influence of EC on JS and OC of nurses at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt.
To achieve these goal, it was necessary to explore employees' perceptions of EC (caring, instrumental, law and code, rules, and independence), JS and OC at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt.
A survey research method was used to collect data in this study.The questionnaire included four questions, relating to EC, OC, JS, and biographical information of employees at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt.
Data collection took approximately two months.Survey responses were 86%, 295 completed surveys out of the

Research Variables and Methods of Measuring
This research studied the relationship between EC and JA.The 10-item scale JS section is based on Judge & Bono, 2001;and Best & Thurston (2004).There were five items measuring internal satisfaction and five items measuring external satisfaction.
The 12-item scale OC section is based on Porter et al., 1974;and Trimble (2006).There were four items measuring value commitment, four items measuring effort commitment, and four items measuring retention commitment.

Data Analysis and Testing Hypotheses
The researcher has employed the following methods: (1) Cronbach's alpha or ACC, (2) (MRA), and (3) F-test and T-test.All these tests are found in SPSS.

Hypotheses Testing
Before testing the hypotheses and research questions, descriptive statistics were performed to find out means and standard deviations of EC, JS, and OC.

Evaluating Reliability
Data analysis was conducted in these major phases.All scales were first subjected to reliability analysis.ACC was used to assess the reliability of the scales.Item analysis indicated that dropping any items from the scales would not significantly raise the alphas.To assess the reliability of the data, Cronbach's alpha test was conducted.Table (4) shows the reliability results for EC, JS, and OC.All items had alphas above 0.70 and were therefore excellent, according to Langdridge's ( 2004) criteria.
The 26 items of EC are reliable because the ACC is 0.9248.The care climate, which consists of 7 items, is reliable since the ACC is 0.7899.The 7 items related to instrumental climate are reliable as ACC is 0.7772.
Furthermore, the independence climate, which consists of 4 items, is reliable due to the fact that the ACC is 0.6710.The 4 items related to rule climate are reliable since ACC is 0.6492 while the last four-item variable (law and code) is reliable as the ACC is 0.6430.Thus, the reliability of EC can be acceptable.
The reliabilities of the internal satisfaction and external satisfaction scales are generally higher (ranging from 0.88 to 0.95).The 10 items of JS are reliable since the ACC is 0.9650.Thus, the internal consistency of JS can be acceptable.
The 12 items of OC are reliable due to the fact that the ACC is 0.9575.The value commitment, which consists of 4 items, is reliable since the ACC is 0.9461.Retention commitment, which consists of 4 items, is reliable as the ACC is 0.8866.Furthermore, effort commitment, which consists of 4 items, is reliable due to the fact that the ACC is 0.7744.Thus, the reliability of OC can be acceptable.

Ethical Climate and Job Satisfaction
The relationship between EC and JS is determined.The first hypothesis to be tested is:

H1: Nurses' perception of ethical climate at hospital has no significant effect on job satisfaction at Teaching
Hospitals in Egypt.Correlation between care and JS is 0.551.For instrumental and JS, the value is 0.486 whereas law and code and JS shows correlation value of 0.419.The value of 0.432 represents the correlation between rules and JS.Independence and JS shows correlation value of 0.647.Finally, the correlation between EC and JS is 0.575.
Based on these findings, EC positively influence ethical behaviors and may result in JS by eliminating ambiguities on job related to handling ethical situations in the organizations (Schwepker, 2001).The MRA resulted in the R of 0.708 demonstrating that the five independent variables of care, law and code, rules, instrument and independence construe JS significantly.
Furthermore, the adjusted R square of 0.502 demonstrates the actual percentage of the variable which explains the entire model, that is, 50.2%.This is a proof that the five independent variables explained only 50.2 % of the total factors of JS.Hence, 49.8% are explained by the other factors.Therefore, there is enough empirical evidence to reject the null hypothesis.

Ethical Climate and Organizational Commitment
The relationship between EC and JS is determined.The second hypothesis to be tested is: Correlation between care and OC is 0.562.For instrumental and OC, the value is 0.508 whereas law and code and OC shows correlation value of 0.445.The value of 0.445 represents the correlation between rules and OC.Independence and OC shows correlation value of 0.665.Finally, the correlation between EC and OC is 0.597.
Former scholars suggested that EC may modify the level of OC.Hence, cognizance of an ethics code entails vision of organizations as more ethical.
Consequently, employees may recognize the high level of fit between the organization's values and their own entailing a higher level of identification with the company objectives and principles and a greater degree of OC.It is proven that high commitment to organizations means lower desire to leave the organization and higher desire to engage in positive behaviors from the organization's perspective (Purhanudin et al., 2012).The MRA resulted in the R of 0.712.This means that OC has been significantly explained by the 5 independent variables of care, law and code, rules, instrument and independence.
Furthermore, the R 2 of 0.507 indicates that the percentage of the variable interprets the whole model, that is, 50.7%.It is evident that the five independent variables justified only 50.7 % of the total factors of OC.Hence, 49.3% are explained by the other factors.Therefore, there is enough empirical evidence to reject the null hypothesis.

Research Findings
The present study on analyzing the relationship between EC and JA of nurses at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt has revealed the following results: 1) The results revealed that EC significantly and positively influences nurses' JA.This is consistent with the finding that the nurses who believed their hospital had a caring climate were more satisfied with their job.
2) This study concluded that the EC was positively related with OC.Overall findings from this study suggested that EC does affect employees' commitment.Hence management should ensure that suitable EC be applied in the organization through the encouragement of cooperative teamwork.
Our findings support the view that there is a significant relationship between EC and JS.The results are consistent with research conducted by Okpara, & Wynn, (2008); Jordan et al., (2009); Zehir et al., (2011).
On the other hand, our findings support the view that the correlation between EC and OC was positive and significant.The results are consistent with research conducted by Angle & Perry, (1981); DeCotiis & Summers, (1987); Hunt et al., (1989); Kelley & Dorsch, (1991).The results support the view that employees' perception of positive EC has a significant and positive effect on OC.The results are consistent with research conducted by Sims & Kroeck, (1994); Verbeke et al., (1996); Trevino et al., (1998); Singhapakdi et al., (1999).

Practical Implications
The implication of this is that managers at Teaching hospitals in Egypt might be able to improve JS by reducing or eliminating the opportunities for unethical behavior within their hospitals by encouraging ethical behavior within their Teaching hospitals in Egypt.It is also possible that an ethical environment might help to enhance JS.
The Teaching hospital can influence JS by manipulating the EC.An important implication of this study is that top management can influence JS by ensuring that the hospital has EC that will ensure that all workers comply with the legal and professional standard.
Top management at Teaching hospitals in Egypt can ensure that their hospitals have a caring environment by ensuring that its main consideration is what is best for every nurse at Teaching hospitals in Egypt.
Top management at Teaching hospitals in Egypt can use strategies such as ethics audit and moral character as part of their selection and promotion criteria to control such a climate and promote positive attitude and JS.
Top management at Teaching hospitals in Egypt can enhance JS and OC in workplace by encouraging EC among the nurses.These are important to reduce absenteeism and turnover as well as other hospitals outcomes such as productivity and profitability.Thus, an increase in JS and OC can lead to a reduction in absenteeism and turnover rate at Teaching hospitals in Egypt.

Limitations and Future Research
The limitation of this study should be noted regarding the finding.Firstly, the data was collected from nurses in one country, Egypt.Therefore, the generalization of the results must be made with caution, especially in case of applying to a different country.Secondly, findings may not be generalized to other hospitals in Egypt.Thirdly, the sample size is small.
There are several areas for future research.The relationship between EC and other work variables such as stress, career success, performance, motivation, commitment, cultural factors, and turnover.Future researchers are encouraged to examine mediating variables which link EC to OC.This study has not investigated how personal ethics and organizational ethics are distinct.Therefore, differentiating individual ethics, organizational ethics and ethical intention may be the subject of prospective papers.
Similar studies should be undertaken in other hospitals in Egypt, using a larger sample size which may improve the validation process, and the utilization of different instruments to measure the constructs of unethical/ethical behaviors and the level of JS are some recommendations for further research.Future studies should look at a comparative study of the health sector and another sector such as manufacturing industry, education, and Tourism.Furthermore, a comparative study that included countries which are at different stages of economic and cultural development should be conducted.Meanwhile, future studies should examine the relationship between EC and turnover.Any such extended studies will provide valuable information that will help the creation of an EC that benefits these organizations and results in the improvement of JA.

Conclusion
This study sought to establish if EC is differently perceived by individual and organizational characteristics, and whether EC types are related to JA (JS and OC).It found that EC consists of five types, partly affected by individual and organizational characteristics.Furthermore, the results showed that there are relationships between EC and JA.
The findings of this study provide practical and useful information for managers or policy-makers to get better understanding about basic questions of ethical management such as: what types of EC do exist; how EC influences JS and OC; and how differently EC is perceived by each different individual and organizational characteristic.Furthermore, this study has also suggested some specific possible ways in order to establish a desired EC.
EC has earned a secure tool in organization.If EC is embedded in organization's leadership, culture, socialization, and communication, it can shape ethical behavior and guide employees in ethical decision making.
Managers must mode the desired behavior and employees need to see that penalties occur if codes are violated.Employees must perceive EC.Therefore, employee can participate in discussion about EC and have full understanding about the meaning.The establishment of EC should be encouraged because it can create the positive side of worker attitude.Ethical reinforcement can result in greater JS and OC.

Table 1 .
Table (1).Distribution of the sample size The annual Statistics for the Information Center of the Public Agency for Teaching Hospitals, 2012.The features distribution of sample units at Teaching Hospitals in Egypt is presented in Table (2).

Table 2 .
Characteristics of the sample The study established a basic research model.Figure(1)shows that EC is independent variable; and JA (OC and JS) is the dependent variable.Data is collected through questionnaires with EC, OC, JS, and basic respondent demographic data.The 26-item scale EC section is based on Victor & Cullen, 1998.There were seven items measuring caring climate, seven items measuring instrumental climate, four items measuring law and code climate, four items measuring rules climate, and four items measuring independence climate.

Table 3 .
The mean and standard deviations of EC, JS and OC The different facets of JS (internal satisfactions and external satisfactions) are investigated.Those who responded to the JS were most satisfied with internal (M=3.82,SD=0.877)and external (M=3.45,SD=0.852).The different facets of OC (value, effort, retention) are studied.Respondents to the OC were most committed with value commitment (M=3.73,SD=1.01), retention commitment (M=3.72,SD=0.888) and effort commitment (M=3.66,SD=0.763).

Table ( 4
) shows the results of the reliability test for all variables of EC (care, law and code, rules, instrument, independence), JS and OC.

Table 5 .
Correlation between EC and JS

Table 6 .
MRA results for EC and JS

Table 7 .
Correlation between EC and OC

Table 8 .
MRA results for EC and OC