Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting ethical work behaviour among Malaysian public sector auditors. Based on Hunt and Vitell model, there are four research objectives for this study: to investigate the influence of ethical climate on public sector auditors ethical work behaviour; to examine the effect of professional commitment on ethical work behaviour of public sector auditors; to investigate the effect of corporate ethical values (CEV) on ethical work behaviour of public sector auditors; and to examine the effect of ethical ideology on ethical work behaviour of public sector auditors. Design/methodology/approach The respondents of the study were public sector auditors of National Audit Department in Malaysia. Using a survey questionnaire comprising instruments about the ethical climate, CEV, professional commitment, ethical ideology and organisational misbehaviour, a total of 382 were received and usable. In achieving the research objectives, multiple regressions were performed. Findings The results reveal that ethical work behaviour among public sector auditors in Malaysia is influenced by law and independence ethical climate, professional commitment, CEV and both idealism and relativism ethical ideology. Originality/value The present study provides new additional empirical evidence on determinants of ethical work behaviour of auditors in public sector from a developing economy (i.e. Malaysia) which is currently limited.

The study aims to examine the ethical work climate types of the National Audit Department (NAD) offices in Malaysia as perceived by the public sector auditors. The respondents of the study were public sector auditors in the NAD offices from both federal and state levels. Using a survey questionnaire comprising instrument about the ethical climate by Victor and Cullen (1988), a total of 382 responses was received and usable. In order to achieve the research objective, descriptive statistics of mean score and standard deviation were used. The results reveal that the highest mean score is ‘rules’ climate, indicating that the public sector auditors perceived this rules ethical climate to be highly present in their organizations. This is followed by ‘instrumental’ and ‘caring’ ethical climate types. In contrast, law ethical climate type was perceived as almost non-exist in the NAD offices. This study provides useful information on the types of ethical climate types that exist in the offices of the National Audit Department (NAD) as perceived by the public sector auditors which may to some extent help to inculcate the right ethical climate in order improve the level of ethics among public sector auditors which will subsequently enhance the credibility of the NAD and public trust in the government.