Exploring the Socio-moral Climate in Organizations: An Empirical Examination of Determinants, Consequences, and Mediating Mechanisms

During the last decade, an increasing amount of research has focused on the ethical context in organizations. Among the recent approaches in this area is the construct of socio-moral climate (SMC), which adopts a developmental perspective and refers to specific elements of organizational climate tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2015-11, Vol.132 (1), p.233-248
Main Authors: Verdorfer, Armin Pircher, Steinheider, Brigitte, Burkus, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Behavior
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Conflict
Cooperation
Corporate culture
Cynicism
Decision making
Education
Employees
Ethics
Factor analysis
Indexes
Justice
Leadership
Management
Morality
Networks
Organization theory
Perceptions
Philosophy
Quality of Life Research
Servant leadership
Socialization
Structural equation modeling
Students
Studies
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Summary:During the last decade, an increasing amount of research has focused on the ethical context in organizations. Among the recent approaches in this area is the construct of socio-moral climate (SMC), which adopts a developmental perspective and refers to specific elements of organizational climate that include communication, cooperation, and how organizations handle conflict. In this article, we present the results of three empirical studies, shedding light on the nomological network of SMC. Whereas the first study introduces a short SMC measure, the other two studies examined antecedents and outcomes of SMC as well as related mediating mechanisms. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed good fit indices of the 21-item measure of SMC with five subscales. Structural equation modeling confirmed a strong relationship with servant leadership as antecedent to SMC. In turn, employees who perceived a positive SMC were less likely to experience feelings of organizational cynicism and to engage in deviant behaviors. Results indicate that SMC accounted for additional variance above and beyond perceived overall justice.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-014-2319-0