Eettinen kuormittuneisuus ja sen yhteydet eettiseen organisaatiokulttuuriin kaupunkiorganisaatiossa, suunnittelutoimistossa ja pankissa

Abstract

The study investigated inter-organisational differences in employees’ ethical strain and their evaluations of the ethical culture of their organisations. The second aim was to investigate associations between the ethical culture of organisations and employees’ experiences of ethical strain. Altogether 3894 employees responded to a web-based questionnaire in May 2011. Ethical strain was assessed by measuring the prevalence of ethical dilemmas (2 items) and the stress related to them (2 items). Ethical culture was measured using the 58-item Corporate Ethical Virtues scale (Kaptein 2008). Ethical strain was found to be highest among employees working in social and health services. Employees in an engineering company reported the lowest levels of strain. On average the employees surveyed gave quite positive evaluations of their organizations’ ethical culture. Ethical culture was related to ethical strain in all organizations: The lower the evaluations of ethical culture, the more ethical strain was experienced. This study confirms previous results (Huhtala et al. 2011a) demonstrating connections between ethical organizational culture and ethical strain, and calls for more research to increase awareness of the role of ethics in Finnish worklife.